Report to the Commission: August 26, 2020

Plan Bay Area Draft Blueprint

We held 26 total virtual events to collect public input on the Plan Bay Area Draft Blueprint, including 17 in 3 weeks, reaching 7,600 Bay area residents. We held 7 Focus Group meetings, 5 telephone town halls, 9 county-specific digital public workshops, and 3 digital stakeholder workshops. Plus, we conducted an online survey and took input from an online comment form, a listening line, emailed comments, office hours, and a statistically valid poll. In all, we received over 3,400 comments, as well as 3 million impressions on our digital campaign including social media.

BATA Recovery Ad Hoc Working Group Kick-Off

On August 21, I attended the kick-off meeting of the BATA Recovery Ad Hoc Working Group. The group, composed of Commissioners Worth, Tavares, Connolly, Dutra Vernaci and Josefowitz, will take a deep dive into the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on the BATA toll bridge program. The first meeting included a primer on traffic and toll revenue trends, and impacted areas of toll collection, traffic operations and asset management. The group will guide BATA and Caltrans in responding to the opportunities and challenges of the moment and will report back to BATA in six months.

Richmond-San Rafael Forward Kick-Off

MTC is officially kicking off Richmond-San Rafael Forward with our partner agencies, which include Caltrans, TAM, CCTA, City of Richmond and Golden Gate Transit. We aim to reinstate the HOV lane on I-580 between the toll plaza and Bayview and to modernize the toll facilities from booths to open road tolling. These operational improvements help us to support the RSR Access Pilot by focusing on moving more people in fewer cars and managing congestion.

Clipper Website Redesign

The Clipper program’s official customer service and information website, clippercard.com, has been redesigned to create a new online experience. The website sports a fresh look, streamlined content and improved navigation that make it easier for cardholders to manage their account and all website users to find the Clipper information they need.

Things of Note

• Social Media Collaboration: MTC and Transit Operators Talk COVID Safety
  
  On August 20, we participated in a coordinated, cross-agency Twitter thread to educate the public about the Bay Area Healthy Transit Plan. Since the posting, we have received lots of positive comments from the public.
• I would like to acknowledge Nick Roethel the Section Director of our Technology Systems and Solutions (TSS) team, in partnership with NTT who is responsible for broadcasting our Committee, Commission, and Board meetings.  The team designed a way to simultaneously transmit Closed Captioning with our broadcasts so the public will no longer have to request this service in advance of the meetings. As we pivot our normal agency operations to fully adapt to a remote environment, we are pleased to provide this improved service to our hearing impaired community members. You can follow the link provided on the Broadcast page to utilize this service.
• On July 28, I moderated another MTC/ABAG sponsored MetroTalks: Equity Series titled “Advancing Community Health and Equitable Engagement in the age of COVID-19.” The event included Melissa Jones, Executive Director of the Bay Area Health Inequities Initiative, Mariana Moore, the Director of the Ensuring Opportunity Campaign to End Poverty in Contra Costa, and Julio Garcia, the Senior Program Director at Nuestra Casa in East Palo Alto. As we navigate through the impacts of COVID, it is critical that we reimagine and restructure our community engagement practices to be responsive to this new environment. Engaging with our community partners is a way to advance our understanding of the challenges and successes to creating meaningful connections among all who reside in our region. Links to a recording of this talk can be found on the MTC-ABAG’s YouTube and Facebook pages