Press Releases

For Immediate Release

New Bay Area Plan Puts Change in Motion

Focus on Economy, Environment, Equity

Contact:
Doug Kimsey — 510.817.5790
Ellen Griffin — 510.817.5854

OAKLAND, Calif., April 22, 2009 . . . The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) today adopted the Transportation 2035 Plan for the San Francisco Bay Area, which specifies how some $218 billion in anticipated federal, state and local transportation funds will be spent in the nine-county Bay Area during the next 25 years.

“Transportation 2035 has been a collaborative effort,” explained MTC Chair and Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty. “MTC worked very closely over many months with thousands of Bay Area residents as well as with business, community and environmental groups, and our partners at Caltrans, the county congestion management agencies, the Association of Bay Area Governments, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and the Bay Conservation and Development Commission. We’ve set some very ambitious goals that won’t be met overnight. But the Transportation 2035 Plan sets the Bay Area solidly on course to meet them.”

The vision for Transportation 2035 is to support a prosperous and globally competitive Bay Area economy, provide for a healthy and safe environment, and promote equitable mobility opportunities for all residents. Among the cornerstones of the new plan are a joint regional planning initiative known as FOCUS, which provides incentives for cities and counties to promote future growth near transit in already urbanized portions of the Bay Area. The plan also launches a Transportation Climate Action Campaign to reduce transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, a new market-based pricing system would — with legislative authorization — convert and expand current carpool lanes into a Regional Express Lane Network that continues to grant carpoolers and buses free access to the lanes but permits solo drivers to pay to use available space in the carpool lanes for a price. Revenue generated by the tolls would pay for the completion of the planned express lane network sooner and fund other mobility improvements like more express bus and rail services in the region’s most heavily traveled corridors.

Another Transportation 2035 effort is a $1.6 billion Freeway Performance Initiative to improve the efficiency, reliability and safety of major Bay Area freeway corridors through high-tech, low-cost technologies such as traffic meters at freeway on-ramps to improve traffic flow and cameras and traffic monitoring stations to detect and clear traffic incidents, reduce traffic back-ups and avoid secondary incidents.

Major transit projects included in the Transportation 2035 Plan include a BART extension from Fremont to San Jose/Santa Clara; electrification of the Caltrain system; implementation of the SMART rail system in Marin and Sonoma counties; expanded ferry service around the region; enhanced service along the Amtrak Capitol Corridor; a rail extension from the Pittsburg/Bay Point BART station to eastern Contra Costa County; and improvement to local and express bus services (including Bus Rapid Transit services on Oakland’s Grand-MacArthur Corridor, San Francisco’s Van Ness Avenue, and San Jose’s Santa Clara Street/Alum Rock Corridor).

Of the total $218 billion in transportation revenues that MTC anticipates coming to the Bay Area during the next quarter century, some 80 percent (or $177 billion) will be used to maintain and operate the transportation network we already have. Another way of looking at the distribution of the revenues — which include fuel taxes, transit fares, bridge tolls, property taxes and dedicated sales taxes — is by mode of transportation. Divvied up this way, public transit operations, maintenance and expansion will receive almost two-thirds ($142 billion) of the revenues. The remainder includes 30 percent ($66 billion) for street, road and highway maintenance, and 5 percent ($11 billion) for roadway expansion.

The final Transportation 2035 Plan can be viewed on MTC’s Web site at www.mtc.ca.gov/t2035. For hard copies, contact the MTC-ABAG Library via email <library@mtc.ca.gov> or telephone 510.817.5836. MTC is the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area’s transportation planning, coordinating and financing agency.

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