Press Releases

For Immediate Release

PRESS ADVISORY

Special Meeting to Approve Project List for the Bay Area Transportation Blueprint for the 21st Century

CONTACT:

Steve Heminger
510.817.5810

Bay Area Faces $5.6 Billion Shortfall For Local Streets and Roads

MTC Publication Documents Huge Gap in Funding

CONTACT:

Steve Heminger
510.817.5810

Reka Goode
510.464.7706

OAKLAND, Calif., April 4, 2000 . . . If you think your ride to work is bumpy today, just wait: Over the next 20 years, the San Francisco Bay Area is projected to run short of funding for its local streets and roads to the tune of $5.6 billion, with $2.3 billion of this amount specifically shortchanging pavement upkeep and repair (the rest affecting traffic signals, road signs, storm drains, rehab of local bridges and overpasses, and the like).

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) -- the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county Bay Area -- today released a 15-page booklet titled The Pothole Report that lays out the magnitude of the pavement problem, its causes and possible remedies. The publication is timed to coincide with a press conference scheduled in Sacramento by the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties to highlight the plight of California's streets and roads.

The report notes that deferred maintenance -- a major cause of the crumbling of the region's streets and roads -- is largely due to insufficient funding available to cities and counties, which are responsible for 91 percent of all road mileage in the Bay Area. (Caltrans maintains 7 percent of the region's roads, and the rest is the responsibility of parks and other public agencies.)

County sales tax initiatives dedicated to transportation projects are one possible funding source that could cut the shortfall down to size, The Pothole Report points out. Because such measures are hard to pass due to a 2/3 vote requirement, MTC supports a constitutional amendment (SCA 3), sponsored by state Sen. John Burton, that would allow a simple majority approval of local transportation taxes. "MTC also endorses legislation by Assemblymember Tom Torlakson (AB 1612) to create the Transportation Congestion Relief and Local Road Improvement Account, which would provide sorely needed long-term, predictable funding for local streets and roads," said James T. Beall Jr., chair of MTC and a Santa Clara County supervisor.

MTC's pavement management system (PMS) -- a computer-assisted program that helps local governments care for their streets in the most cost-effective way possible -- is another weapon in the fight against deteriorating roads. According to The Pothole Report, 94 cities and counties in the Bay Area and nearly 200 nationwide currently subscribe to MTC's PMS. MTC also provides grants to help set up and run such pavement systems for smaller Bay Area jurisdictions with limited resources.

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