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For Immediate Release
APTA Names Dahms to Transit Hall of Fame
Bay Area Visionary Blazed Trail for BART, MTC
CONTACT:
Amy Coggin (APTA)
202.496.4816
Tanya Williams (APTA)
202.496.4877
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Lawrence D. Dahms |
During his 23-year tenure at the helm of MTC, the nine-county Bay Area's transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency, Dahms forged consensus among various transit districts and local, state and federal officials to reach MTC's 1988 Regional Rail Agreement, which resulted in new rail links in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, and guided through notoriously rough Bay Area political waters the $1.5 billion Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) extension to San Francisco International Airport, an effort that paid off in June when the 8.7-mile, four-station extension opened for revenue passenger service. He also played a leading role in designing the landmark 1991 federal Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, better known as ISTEA.
Born in rural Ohio, Dahms migrated with his family to San Diego as a teenager, and began his career as a champion of public transportation while working in the California Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) in Sacramento during a time when plans were afoot to criss-cross the Bay Area landscape with freeways. In response, Dahms and Assembly Transportation Committee chair John Foran conceived a governmental entity to promote a balanced approach to regional transportation development and to help the then-fledgling BART system realize its full potential by fostering feeder transit service to the transit service to the new rail stations. The duo's efforts eventually led to the bill creating MTC.
Before long, the public transit bug lured Dahms to join the BART staff, where he quickly rose from director of planning and research to assistant general manager and ultimately to the top spot as interim general manager. While at BART, Dahms presided over the technically challenging launch of the system's transbay service and directed a study that planted the seeds for the BART extension to San Francisco International Airport.
Dahms' route to MTC began when he left BART to take a position as deputy director with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), where he soon found his way onto MTC's governing board as the representative of the state Business, Transportation and Housing Agency. Dahms was appointed to MTC's executive director position when it became vacant in 1977.
While planning efforts such as the Regional Rail Agreement were the agency's bread and butter, Dahms interpreted his mandate broadly, launching numerous pioneering initiatives, from the aptly named "TLC" (Transportation for Livable Communities) program that fosters transit-oriented development and pedestrian-friendly streets to the TransLink® system that allows passengers to use a single high-tech "smart card" to board buses, trains, ferries and light-rail vehicles operated by many different Bay Area transit agencies. Under Dahms' leadership, MTC in 1988 took on the added role of the Service Authority for Freeways and Expressways (SAFE) and became an operating agency with responsibility for installing and maintaining a network of 3,500 roadside call boxes, and managing a fleet of 74 congestion-busting tow trucks that clear obstacles from the region's freeways and provide free assistance to stranded motorists. The California Legislature showed its confidence in Dahms' leadership in 1998, when it expanded MTC's portfolio to include the new role of the Bay Area Toll Authority. As BATA, the agency oversees the region's seven state-owned toll bridges, disbursing hundreds of millions of dollars in toll revenues and spearheading a major capital improvement program for the bridges.
"Larry as a person, and MTC in general, are held in very, very high regard," said Rusty Selix, executive director of the California Association of Councils of Governments. "Many people feel that MTC is the finest regional transportation planning agency in the nation."
Throughout his career at MTC, Dahms played a key role in shaping state and national transportation policy, working through organizations such as APTA and the National Association of Regional Councils to put his stamp on ISTEA and its 1998 successor, the Transportation Act for the 21st Century, or TEA 21. He was an early advocate for giving metropolitan planning organizations like MTC increased flexibility in spending federal transportation monies, a concept that was at the heart of ISTEA.
Following passage of ISTEA, Dahms championed the idea of partnership among local transportation agencies, which he saw as crucial to making good use of the new federal dollars now flowing directly to metro areas. Under Dahms' leadership was born the Bay Area Partnership, which brought to the table some three dozen public transit operators, congestion management agencies and other transportation organizations. The Partnership has proven to be an enduring and vibrant forum for hammering out regional spending priorities and for expediting inter-agency projects.
Commenting in a 2001 interview on his long career at MTC, Dahms observed, "My tenure might be attributed to several things, beginning with the fact that I seemed to have the right fit of experience for this job. Also, the Commission set a tone from the beginning of being a positive partner and I identified with that tone. So my approach fit its approach."
In addition to being named to the APTA Transit Hall of Fame, Dahms in 1996 received the Transportation Research Board's W.N. Carey, Jr., Distinguished Service Award for "outstanding leadership and service to transportation research. He was awarded the National Association of Regional Councils' Award of Recognition for outstanding leadership in regional transportation planning in 1995, and in 1992 he was named Manager of the Year by the California Transportation Foundation. Dahms has served on or chaired the boards of several national and state organizations, including the Transportation Research Board, the Intelligent Transportation Society of America, the Eno Transportation Foundation, the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations, and the Norman Y. Mineta International Institute for Surface Transportation Policy Studies.
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