Press Releases

For Immediate Release

Meetings Set for March 28 in San Carlos and March 29 in San Francisco

Public Input Sought on San Francisco Bay Crossings Study

Contact:

David Tannehill
510.464.7867

Catalina Alvarado
510.817.5783

OAKLAND, Calif., March 27, 2001...The public is invited to help define options for improving transbay travel in the Bay Area. Two meetings to inform Bay Area residents about the scope and purpose of the new San Francisco Bay Crossings Study will be held this week on Wednesday, March 28, in San Carlos and on Thursday, March 29, in San Francisco. Both meetings start at 6:30 p.m. The San Carlos meeting will be held at the offices of the San Mateo County Transit District, 1250 San Carlos Ave., in the Bacciocco Auditorium. The San Francisco meeting will be held in the offices of the San Francisco Transportation Authority, at 100 Van Ness Ave., on the 25th floor.

MTC is launching the study to update the 1991 Bay Crossings Study and address the dramatic increases in Bay Area population and traffic, and other changes that have occurred in the past decade affecting transbay travel. Recent traffic projections, for example, show traffic volumes by 2010 are expected to be 50 percent higher on the San Mateo Bridge and 36 percent higher on the Dumbarton Bridge than estimated in 1991. Population and job growth also have exceeded expectations, particularly in Santa Clara Valley, which is expected to add 27 percent of all new jobs in the region from 1995 to 2020.

"The meetings are intended to seek the public's help in developing options for study and identifying issues as the study begins," noted MTC Project manager David Tannehill.

The new study results from a request from U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. In a November 1999 letter to Governor Davis, Senator Feinstein stated that, "A regional traffic and transportation study for the Bay Area with respect to alternative Bay crossing and other options to increase the capacity and mobility for transbay travel between San Francisco, the East Bay and the Peninsula must be undertaken promptly." Senator Feinstein specifically cited the need to review and update the 1991 study.

Questions concerning the need for new capacity in the bridge corridor have again come to the fore in conjunction with MTC's recent analysis of the best option for replacing the east span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. While the replacement bridge will provide shoulders for better incident management, it will not increase lane capacity.

The new Bay Crossings Study will consider how the latest traffic operations systems could improve transbay mobility, and will examine options for improving transbay travel that may include new transbay bus/rail and ferry services, tunnels, bridges, or expansion of the Dumbarton and San Mateo/Hayward bridges. The study is anticipated to look at cost, impacts on travel demand, environmental impacts and financial feasibility of various transbay options.

The study will be overseen by a 13-member policy committee of MTC commissioners from Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, representatives from the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) and Caltrans, plus transportation agency representatives. A technical advisory committee of staff from these agencies will provide technical oversight. The study is being funded with state moneys.

For more information on the study, go to MTC's Web site at www.mtc.ca.gov.

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

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