Press Releases

For Immediate Release

MTC To Produce 21st Century Blueprint

Major New Effort to Improve Bay Area Transportation

CONTACT:

Steve Heminger
510.817.5810

Marjorie Blackwell
510/464-7884

OAKLAND, Calif., Dec. 15, 1998...Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) Chair James P. Spering said today that on Wednesday, Dec. 16, he will propose a concentrated, year-long planning effort aimed at improving the Bay Area's transportation network.

"The goal," Spering said, "is to integrate a host of disparate plans, strategies and ideas into a single coordinated effort that will set priorities and identify potential funding sources for repairing and upgrading the Bay Area's roads and transit systems. If approved by the Commission at its meeting tomorrow, we will begin immediately to develop a 'Bay Area Transportation Blueprint for the 21st Century' that will be completed by December 1999.

"Transportation has been ranked by record numbers as the #1 problem in the region by the Bay Area Council Poll," Spering noted. "With the population continuing to expand and the economy burgeoning, the pressures on our already stressed transportation system will continue to grow."

A number of ideas and concepts have been put forth - both by MTC and other interested groups - to improve and expand the Bay Area's highway and transit networks, all of them beyond the reach of current resources to pay for them, MTC Executive Director Lawrence D. Dahms said.

The proposals include a $20-billion-plus high-speed rail system to link Los Angeles, the Central Valley and the Bay Area, a major expansion of ferry service on San Francisco Bay, and passenger rail service on the Bay Bridge. Last November, voters in Marin and Sonoma counties supported adding carpool lanes on U.S. Highway 101 and building commuter rail service but failed to pass tax measures to pay for them. Solano County also approved a package of unfunded transportation improvements. In addition, MTC is conducting three major studies that focus on the Transbay Terminal in San Francisco, the Interstate 680 Sunol Grade and State Route 24, including a possible fourth bore in the Caldecott Tunnel.

"We need to examine whether these potential improvements are compatible with each other, how they can be coordinated with land use planning for the Bay Area's future growth and how projects will be funded," Dahms said.

MTC's recently adopted 1998 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) outlines how $88 billion in federal, state and regional revenue anticipated over the next 20 years can be spent to operate and maintain the existing transportation system. During this same timeframe, MTC projects the Bay Area will be short $6 billion to repair local streets and roads and that public transit systems will lack funds to do necessary seismic safety work and replace worn-out vehicles. The proposed Blueprint will take the next step, setting priorities for regional transportation projects and recommending how they can be funded with additional resources beyond those committed in the RTP.

Dahms noted that the year 2000 would be the next opportunity for voters to consider how to pay for transportation projects through possible measures such as a statewide sales or gas tax, a statewide bond measure, a regional gas tax, county sales taxes or a rollover of the BART property tax.

MTC is the transportation planning, coordinating and financing agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. Further details on the Bay Area Transportation Blueprint for the 21st Century are in the attached fact sheet.