Press Releases

For Immediate Release

Public to Weigh in on New Recommendations for Improving Transbay Travel

San Francisco, Oakland meetings to discuss study findings

CONTACT:

Larry Magid
510.464.7819

John Goodwin, MTC
510.817.5862

OAKLAND, Calif., July 4, 2002...After launching the San Francisco Bay Crossings Study in response to a request by U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) is preparing final recommendations on a strategy to help ease the congestion plaguing drivers and transit riders alike in the San Francisco-Oakland, San Mateo-Hayward and Dumbarton Bridge corridors, and to help deal with an expected 40 percent surge in travel across San Francisco Bay by 2025.

The public is invited to discuss the Bay Crossings Study’s draft recommendations at two meetings: one to be held Wednesday, July 10, in San Francisco, and the other Wednesday, July 17, in Oakland. The San Francisco meeting will be held from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. in the California Public Utilities Commission Auditorium at 505 Van Ness Avenue (at McAllister). The Oakland meeting will take place from 1 p.m. until approximately 4 p.m. in the City Council Chambers on the third floor of the Oakland City Hall at One City Hall Plaza.

MTC is hosting the meetings to explain the recommendations in detail, and to gather input that will help members of the Bay Crossings Study Policy Committee finalize the recommendations. The same information will be presented at both meetings. Following public comment at the July 17 meeting in Oakland, the Policy Committee will convene and vote on the recommendations.

In April of this year, MTC’s Bay Crossings Study team presented its initial findings regarding costs, travel impacts and environmental issues associated with six proposed alternatives for improving travel in the three primary transbay corridors:

1. express bus/carpool lane/operational improvements (all corridors)
2. Bay Bridge corridor rail: a new heavy rail tunnel from San Francisco to Oakland and/or a new BART crossing with new San Francisco and Oakland stations
3. expansion of San Mateo-Hayward Bridge capacity with reversible lanes and eventual widening of the bridge to eight lanes
4. new mid-Bay bridge linking Interstate 238 in the East Bay with Interstate 380 north of San Francisco International Airport
5. commuter rail service on a rehabilitated Dumbarton rail bridge
6. improvements to Dumbarton Bridge approach roadways.

"Public input played a big role in shaping the current recommendations," noted San Mateo Mayor and MTC Commissioner Sue Lempert, who serves as co-chair of the Bay Crossings Study Policy Committee. "We hope people have as much to say about the recommendations as they did about the original six alternatives."

The draft of the Policy Committee’s final report recommends near-term implementation of several elements of alternatives 1, 3 and 5. "These are relatively low-cost improvements that will make transit and carpooling more attractive, some of which could start going into place within months," explained Alameda Mayor and MTC Commissioner Ralph Appezzato, who is the Policy Committee’s other co-chair. "But they won’t solve all our problems. So the draft report recommends further study of some high-cost, long-term improvements."

For more information on the San Francisco Bay Crossings 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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