Executive Director's Report

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR STEVE HEMINGER’S REPORT TO THE
COMMISSION MEETING OF SEPTEMBER 26, 2007

SUMMARY OF EVENTS:

Federal Certification Review
Oakland, July 24-25

Federal Highway and Transit Administration officials were in town for MTC’s quadrennial certification review to determine whether our planning process complies with the requirements of federal law and regulations. The meetings appeared to go well, and we expect that their final report will be available by November 2007.

SAFETEA Commission Meetings
Washington DC, July 25-26, August 8-9, August 22-23

The National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission has met three times over the past few months in an attempt to reach consensus on the findings and recommendations for our report to Congress due by the end of the year. At our next meeting in early October, we expect to review a draft report prepared by staff at the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).

Interstate Bridge Collapse
Minneapolis, August 1

The tragic collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in downtown Minneapolis has galvanized attention on the poor condition of the nation’s infrastructure. On the specific issue of highway bridge safety, I enclose two charts from recent congressional testimony by the U.S. DOT Inspector General that rank the states according to the percentage of “structurally deficient” bridges as well as the volume of daily traffic on those bridges. Unfortunately, California ranks 3rd and 1st and those lists, respectively. While it is important to emphasize that the phrase “structurally deficient” does not mean that the bridge is in imminent danger of collapse, it is a clear indicator of the need for major rehabilitation or replacement of many of these aging facilities – such as the Doyle Drive viaduct in San Francisco.

I also enclose a lengthy and thoughtful review of the broader issue of neglecting the nation’s infrastructure written by the architecture critic of The New Republic.

Urban Partnership Grants Announced,
Washington DC, August 14

U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters announced the selection of five metropolitan areas across the country to receive urban partnership grants to battle traffic congestion, especially through the use of market-based approaches such as congestion pricing. The five cities — and the amounts of their grant awards — are:

• New York: $355 million
• San Francisco: $159 million
• Seattle: $139 million
• Minneapolis: $133 million
• Miami: $63 million

The award to the Bay Area is focused on the Doyle Drive replacement project and is contingent on securing state legislative authority by March 2008 to implement congestion pricing on that facility. We will be working with our partners at the San Francisco County Transportation Authority and the Golden Gate Bridge District to secure that authority so that we can retain this significant new sum of federal discretionary funds.

Bay Area COMTO Awards
San Francisco, August 16

I had the pleasure of introducing Commissioner Glover at the recent awards ceremony of the Bay Area chapter of the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials, where he received a well-deserved award of merit for his work in transportation policy.

Governor Signs FY 2007-08 State Budget
Sacramento, August 24

The news kept getting worse for public transit funding as budget negotiations dragged on over the summer. By the time Governor Schwarzenegger signed the FY 2007-08 state budget nearly two months past the constitutional deadline, the General Fund diversion from the Public Transportation Account (PTA) had reached $1.3 billion, including $626 million in “spillover” revenue due to continuing high gasoline prices. The governor’s action, however, may not be the last word on this latest PTA diversion. On September 6th, the California Transit Association sued the State in Superior Court to invalidate both the $1.3 billion FY 2007-08 PTA diversion as well as the proposed diversion of 50% of spillover funds in future budget years as specified in a trailer bill to the state budget.

In the “silver lining” department, sufficient spillover funds were retained in the PTA to enable the first annual payment to be made under the Proposition 1B/SamTrans payback policy that the commission adopted in June. In particular, the programmatic categories in the commission’s Proposition 1B transit policy will receive $1.9 million in population-based spillover funds, and SamTrans will receive $4.4 million to begin repaying its advance of funds to purchase the Caltrain right-of-way in the early 1990s.

Congressman George Miller Bridge Opening
August 25

Ceremonies in both Benicia and Martinez, as well as an inaugural drive across the new bridge, marked the dedication of the new Benicia-Martinez Bridge. Thanks to timely action by the California Legislature only days before the event, we were able to announce that the new structure has been named for Congressman George Miller III, just as the existing span is named after his father, former state legislator George Miller, Jr. We believe this is the only example of a father-son bridge pair in the United States. Thanks to the numerous commissioners who attended and participated in the ceremonies, as well as the hard-working staff of the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) and Caltrans who pulled together all the logistical arrangements.

MTC Publications Win Multiple Awards, August 28

MTC won multiple honors at the 2007 Magnum Opus awards sponsored by Publications Management in conjunction with the Missouri School of Journalism. Our publication “New Places, New Choices” on the region’s TOD strategy was the grand winner, and our newsletter Transactions and 2006 annual report received special recognition awards. Congratulations to our public information staff for their continued excellent work.

Bay Bridge Labor Day Closure
August 31 – September 3

Kudos all around to Caltrans, BATA staff, our transit partners, and the contracting team led by C.C. Myers for the successful closure, demolition, and early re-opening of an upper deck section of the Yerba Buena Island viaduct over Labor Day weekend. As you know, BATA staff also took the opportunity of the bridge closure to complete our work implementing the FasTrak strategic plan by reconfiguring the Bay Bridge toll plaza to provide additional dedicated lanes for electronic toll collection. Brenda Kahn and her staff have compiled a wonderful pictorial record of the Labor Day closure, which can be found here. One final note: we will need to close the bridge at least twice more before completion of the new east span in 2013. The next closure is expected to take place in Summer 2009.

National Congestion Rankings Released
College Station TX, September 18

The Texas Transportation Institute released its 2007 Urban Mobility Report finding that the average peak period traveler in 437 U.S. urban areas spent an extra 38 hours of travel time and consumed an additional 26 gallons of fuel per year stuck in traffic in 2005. In the widely-reported congestion rankings, the San Francisco-Oakland urban area retained its place as the 2nd most congested region in the country; the San Jose urban area ranked 8th.

Western COG Conference
Oakland, September 20

I addressed the annual meeting of the councils of government (COG) from the states of Washington, Oregon and California on the subject of my service on the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission.

Joint Policy Committee
San Francisco, September 21

The bi-monthly JPC meeting featured a lively discussion about congestion pricing as well as the proposed priority development and conservation areas being developed under the auspices of the FOCUS project.

Map of the Month

The September map illustrates the change in the amount of developed land from 1984 to 2004 within the San Francisco Bay Area. The map also contains a chart with similar information for other metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) in California. The Southern California Association of Governments has the largest land area of any MPO in the state, and has also seen the largest amount of growth. However, the percentage growth in the Los Angeles region was lower than either the Bay Area or the San Diego region over the two-decade time period.

• Urban Growth From 1984 to 2004 (PDF)

MTC Operational Statistics

The monthly report on the performance of MTC’s operating programs:

• MTC Operational Statistics (PDF)

Upcoming Events

September 26 — Bay Area Partnership, Oakland
October 2-5 — AMPO Conference, Little Rock
October 8-11 — IBTTA Annual Meeting, Vienna, Austria
October 8-9 — SAFETEA Commission, Washington DC
October 26 — Transportation Summit/ABAG General Assembly, Oakland