Press Releases

For Immediate Release

MTC Approves 20-Year Regional Transportation Plan

$88 Billion Spending Plan for Bay Area Transportation

CONTACT:

Joe Curley
510.817.5847

David Tannehill
510/464-7867

Oakland, CA, October 28, 1998...The Metropolitan Transportation Commission today adopted the 1998 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP), a 20-year blueprint for transportation spending in the San Francisco Bay Area. Accounting for over $88 billion in transportation revenues and expenditures during the period from 1999 to 2018, the plan specifies investments and strategies needed to maintain, manage and improve the Bay Area transportation network, including mass transit, highway, railroad, and bicycle and pedestrian facilities.

"Today's action by the Commission is the culmination of over a year and a half of outreach, collaboration and consensus, with participation from cities, counties, public transit operators, local agencies, community groups and members of the public," said MTC Executive Director Lawrence D. Dahms. "The 1998 RTP stimulated a healthy public debate about regional transportation policy, and the result is a plan that is truly by and for the Bay Area."

In adopting the 1998 Regional Transportation Plan, the Commission also approved the environmental impact report and air conformity analysis associated with the plan.

Included in the spending plan are $6.5 billion in discretionary revenues — referred to as Track 1 — that the Commission expects to have available to undertake new funding commitments over the next 20 years. These Track 1 dollars supplement funding already committed to maintain and operate the region's transportation system. A comprehensive list of Track 1 projects — including street and road maintenance projects, transit capital expenditures and a range of investments to improve travel conditions in the 14 major travel corridors identified in the plan — was proposed in the Draft 1998Regional Transportation Plan, released this summer. A few of the many projects slated to receive Track 1 funding are the seismic retrofit of the Golden Gate Bridge, the construction of carpool lanes for the Sunol Grade portion of Interstate 680, the extension of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority's Tasman Corridor light-rail line, and the addition of carpool lanes on U.S. Highway 101 in Marin and Sonoma counties.

The RTP also identifies over $400 million in new funding for bicycle/
pedestrian facilities and other projects that enhance the traveling experience, and $100 million for the Commission's recently launched Transportation for Livable Communities program, designed to foster pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly live/work neighborhoods. Further, the RTP sets aside almost $600 million for programs to smooth the overall operation of the region's diverse transportation system, by launching or further developing innovative programs such as the TransLink® universal transit ticket, the TravInfo™ telephone (817-1717) and online traveler information system, the Freeway Service Patrol roving tow truck service, and a regionwide system for monitoring traffic conditions via subpavement sensors, video cameras and the like.

A direct result of public input into the plan is the decision by the Commission to fully fund the capital needs (expenditures for the rehabilitation and replacement of buses, railcars, etc.) of the region's transit operators over the next 20 years. The draft RTP left a capital funding gap of approximately $375 million for five of the largest regional transit operators (AC Transit, BART, Caltrain, Golden Gate Transit and San Francisco Muni), or approximately 4 percent of the combined capital requirement of these agencies. Responding to extensive public testimony in favor of funding this shortfall, the Commission directed MTC staff to close the $375 million gap "through any of a number of strategies including, but not limited to, reducing funding for projects currently identified in the 1998 RTP, through requirements for increases in transit efficiency and productivity, identifying increased local funding, or through some combination of these .... strategies."

MTC will work with the congestion management agencies in the nine Bay Area counties to prepare a proposal to close the transit capital funding gap, which would be proposed to the Commission in the spring of 1999 as an amendment to the 1998 RTP. Also in the spring, the Commission proposes to amend into the 1998 RTP the $1.4 billion Santa Clara County Measure A/B transportation sales tax program, which was still under legal challenge when the draft 1998 RTP was developed. The Santa Clara County measures have since been validated by the state Supreme Court, and can be included in the RTP after completion of required environmental analysis.

To address remaining funding shortfalls expected over the 20-year period, the 1998 RTP also outlines possible new revenue sources and spending scenarios in a Track 2 segment of the plan. Unlike the core RTP — which to meet federal planning requirements must restrict itself only to those transportation revenues that reasonably can be expected to be available over the 20-year planning period — Track 2 represents the next tier of projects and programs that could be funded if additional revenues were to become available, such as funds from pending county sales tax initiatives and a possible regional gas tax. Like Track 1, Track 2 contains a mix of maintenance and operations projects, along with strategic investments in new and expanded facilities.

Additional information about the 1998 RTP is available via the Internet on MTC's Web site at <www.mtc.ca.gov>.

MTC is the transportation planning, coordinating and financing agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.

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