TRANSACTIONS NEWSLETTER ONLINE

On most weekday mornings for the past two decades, Larry Dahms arose at 5:20 a.m., walked 10 minutes along a well-worn path from his Berkeley house to the landmark Claremont Hotel, and proceeded to swim a mile in the outdoor lap pool before heading for his office.

In many ways, this rigorous, daily exercise regimen was a warm-up for the real passion of Dahms' life, running the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. The same energy, self-discipline and steady determination that propelled him through the water for a solid 40 minutes -- winter, spring, summer and fall, rain or shine -- also came into play in his capacity as MTC's executive director, and in his parallel role as a transportation policy change-meister on the national stage.

Last September, Dahms revealed that he would be retiring in December 2000 after 23 years at the helm of the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. Although he had recently reached the traditional retirement age of 65, Dahms' announcement was greeted with a measure of disbelief by the MTC staff and commissioners as well as the larger transportation community in the Bay Area and beyond. The question that seemed to run through the minds of everyone who heard the news went something like this: Could the man who had worked so hard to promote the concepts of balance and partnership in the transportation arena, who had built MTC from the ground up, and who had given so much of himself to the Bay Area really be calling it quits?

Roots Go Deep
Dahms' Bay Area and transportation roots go deep, stretching back to the mid-1960s when he was a youthful policy wonk at the influential Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) in Sacramento. Born in rural Ohio, and migrating with his family to San Diego as a teenager, Dahms caught the public transit bug when an engineering job with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lured him to San Francisco fresh out of college. He took Muni buses, streetcars and cable cars everywhere, even meeting his wife of 40-plus years, Lois, at a bus stop. While at the LAO, Dahms began collaborating with Assemblyman John Foran (D-San Francisco), then chair of the Assembly Transportation Committee.

It was a pivotal time for the Bay Area: At the same time as the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system was beginning to take shape, plans were afoot to criss-cross the landscape with highways. Together Foran and Dahms conceptualized a governmental entity to promote a regional, balanced approach to transportation development, and to help the budding BART reach its full potential by fostering feeder transit service to the new rail stations. Their efforts eventually crystallized into the bill creating MTC.

But it would be a few more years before Dahms' career path would lead him to the top of the agency that he helped form. In between, he worked at BART, quickly rising from director of planning and research to assistant general manager and ultimately to the top slot as interim general manager. While there, he presided over the technically challenging launch of BART's transbay service through the tube, an experience that he describes as "trial by fire." He also directed a study that planted the seeds for the BART extension to San Francisco International Airport (SFO), a high-profile and politically controversial project that he would nurse along for the rest of his career.

After his stint at BART, Dahms took a position as deputy director at Caltrans' headquarters in Sacramento, where he soon found his way onto MTC's governing commission as the representative of the State Business, Transportation and Housing Agency. Whether by luck or by design, Dahms easily slipped into MTC's executive director slot when it became vacant in 1977. The move proved to be fortuitous for the agency and the Bay Area.

Rising Profile, New Offices
Dahms steered MTC's growth from a relatively unknown entity to a prominent regional body that often makes the headlines and the nightly news, and which is in charge of directly disbursing, or approving the spending of, more than $1 billion a year in local, regional, state and federal transportation moneys. And via his affiliations with a number of transportation research and advocacy organizations, he put MTC on the national map.

"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."

When Dahms arrived at MTC, the agency was housed in a warren of offices tucked away in the rear of the Claremont Hotel. In contrast to its upscale reputation today and its rebirth as the Claremont Resort and Spa, the historic building was somewhat quaint and in need of renovation. It was a measure of the organization's physical growth and rising profile when MTC joined with BART and the Association of Bay Area Governments to construct a sleek, new regional governmental office building in downtown Oakland, moving there in 1984.

One of Dahms' most visible accomplishments is MTC's 1988 Regional Rail Agreement, which involved arduous negotiations among local elected officials, various transit districts, and state and federal lawmakers. Embodied in MTC Resolution No. 1876, the pact laid the groundwork for a trio of BART extensions that added 30 miles of new track to the 71-mile rail system. The agreement hinged on a buy-in to the three-county BART district by a fourth jurisdiction, San Mateo County. This in turn made possible the extension to SFO in San Mateo County, while also providing much-needed funding for two now-completed East Bay extensions to Pittsburg/Bay Point and Dublin/Pleasanton. Moreover, the regional harmony helped convince the feds to bestow on the airport project a much-coveted full-funding grant agreement -- to the tune of $750 million.

The agreement also provided for three other rail links: the 7.6-mile Tasman West extension to Santa Clara County's light-rail system (in service), the 4.8-mile Tasman East extension (under construction), and a much-needed turnback to facilitate train reversals for San Francisco's Muni Metro light-rail system (in service).

But for Robert McCleary, executive director of the Contra Costa Transportation Authority, Dahms' greatest contribution might be making preservation of the region's aging and stressed public transit and highway network sound as compelling as glitzy new rail lines.

"He helped guide MTC to a policy of maintenance and operating efficiency as a top priority. That's clearly the best thing we can be doing from a management standpoint," McCleary said. "The benefits of that make new additions pale by comparison."

From Planner to Operator
While planning efforts such as the Regional Rail Agreement were the agency's bread and butter, Dahms interpreted his mandate broadly, launching a number of pioneering initiatives, from the aptly named "TLC" (Transportation for Livable Communities) Program that fosters transit-oriented development and pedestrian-friendly streets, to the forthcoming TransLink¨ universal smart-card ticket that will be a passport to all bus, rail and ferry systems in the Bay Area.

Under Dahms' leadership, MTC in 1988 took on the added role of the Service Authority for Freeways and Expressways, or SAFE, in the process becoming an operating agency with responsibility for installing and maintaining a network of 3,500 motorist safety call boxes along the region's freeways and expressways. As the SAFE, the agency also manages the Freeway Service Patrol, a fleet of 60 congestion-busting tow trucks that help keep Bay Area freeways clear of obstacles and provide free assistance to stranded motorists.

In 1998, the California Legislature gave MTC another vote of confidence by expanding the agency's portfolio of duties 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 what last fiscal year amounted to $155 million in toll revenues and spearheading a major capital improvement program for the bridges.

Our Man in Washington
Although not a household name in his home territory, in transportation circles Dahms is widely viewed as an influential figure who played a pivotal role in molding state and national transportation policy over the last two decades. Working through such organizations as the American Public Transit Association and the National Association of Regional Councils, and traveling frequently to the nation's capital, Dahms put his stamp on the landmark Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991, and its 1998 successor, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, or TEA 21. He was an early advocate for giving metropolitan planning organizations like MTC greater flexibility in spending federal transportation monies -- a concept that was at the heart of ISTEA.

"It's not an exaggeration to say that he was one of the architects of the ISTEA legislation," said Tom Larson, who served as federal highway administrator (running the FHWA, the Federal Highway Administration) and was on the scene when ISTEA was being drafted.

A Good Partner
In the months following the passage of ISTEA, Dahms' championed the notion of partnership among local transportation agencies, which he saw as crucial to making good use of the hundreds of millions of new federal dollars now flowing directly to metro areas. Thus was born the Bay Area Partnership, which brought to the table three-dozen public transit operators, congestion management agencies and other transportation stakeholders. An institution without walls, the Partnership has proven to be an enduring and vibrant forum for hammering out regional spending priorities and for expediting interagency projects.

"Larry is a visionary who understands partnering," said John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. "The Bay Area Partnership is one of the very best examples I've seen anywhere in the country of getting dozens of organizations together, putting together a great agenda, and then moving ahead to implement it."

Former FHWA Chief Tom Larson echoed that sentiment. "I don't know of any metropolitan area in America today that is facing transportation more effectively than the Bay Area. And I think that Larry has created -- through the Partnership -- the structure that has allowed this to happen," he said.

On the road from young enthusiast to elder statesman, Dahms' vision became increasingly pragmatic and inclusive. "He's a true transportation person, and when it's appropriate to be an advocate for transit, he's an advocate for transit, when it's appropriate to be an advocate for highways, he's an advocate for highways," said Robert Skinner Jr., executive director of the Transportation Research Board (TRB), a think tank that is affiliated with the National Research Council and the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering. "Whatever is the right solution is where he tends to come down."

An Institutional Legacy
For all Dahms' professional achievements, his personal qualities are what might be missed the most. Tall, lanky and distinguished, with a thick mane of hair that turned a silvery gray early in his career, Dahms from the start cut an imposing figure that inspired confidence and commanded respect. Yet, his striking physical appearance belies a gentle, gracious nature.

"Larry is truly a very special person," said Larson, who after stepping down from his FHWA post essentially returned to his roots as a college professor by becoming an advisor to MTC and other organizations. "One of his attributes is that he is soft-spoken and gentlemanly. Some people turn out to be real nasty figures when they get into a position of seniority and authority, while Larry, if anything, has become more gentlemanly as he's gained stature in the profession. ...He's been in the Bay Area now for the bulk of his professional career, and instead of alienating people, he's built a rapport. So when Larry speaks, people listen."

With his appealing leadership style and record of success, Dahms didn't lack for attractive offers from distant cities over the years. Yet, a powerful sense of mission and rootedness kept him tethered to MTC and to his Berkeley home of 30 years, nestled in the shadow of the Claremont Hotel that housed his first MTC office, and hard by the pool that was both the fountainhead of his energy and a refuge from the demands of the job.

Given how involved he was in MTC's formation, and how devoted he was to the agency these past two-plus decades, it stands to reason that Dahms would take pains to build a strong staff and solid leadership team that could pick up where he left off. According to Larson, this may be Dahms' greatest legacy.

"Larry's going is a great loss, but it isn't fatal to the organization because he's put together a team of people that is extraordinarily competent, motivated and effective," Larson said.
-- Brenda Kahn

• Saying farewell to MTC's Executive Director
• Interview: Larry Dahms