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TRANSACTIONS NEWSLETTER ONLINE

January 2002

Plan Highlights Needs of Low-Income Residents

Photo of Muni bus and passenger by Carmen MaganaMany low-income households in the Bay Area can't afford to own and operate one car, let alone the two vehicles that middle-class families often consider essential. It was with this population in mind that MTC developed the Lifeline Transportation Network Report.

The analysis is aimed at the transportation needs of low-income residents trying to get to jobs, school, medical appointments, child care and the like, as well as make the transition from welfare to work. The findings were distilled into a series of recommendations that were incorporated into the just-adopted 2001 Regional Transportation Plan.

MTC identified strikingly few "spatial gaps," meaning that the existing public transit system already reaches most low-income communities. Instead, bus and rail service frequencies -- particularly during the evening and on weekends -- appear to be a much larger problem for low-income individuals.

MTC and the region's transit operators will have to take a flexible, creative approach to filling service gaps, said Ann Flemer, MTC deputy director for operations. "In some locations and at certain times of the day or night, it might make more sense to run a dial-a-ride van or taxi service than to operate fixed-route buses," she said.

The lifeline transportation analysis was developed with extensive input from low-income communities and MTC's Environmental Justice Advisory Group (EJAG). "The Lifeline Transportation Network has the potential to help our neediest neighbors get to work and other essential destinations, but it needs a major infusion of transit operating funds before it can succeed," said Jeff Hobson, who represented the Bay Area Transportation and Land Use Coalition on EJAG.

One possible funding source is Proposition 42, the March ballot measure that would permanently dedicate revenues from the state sales tax on gasoline to transportation purposes. The measure could pump $11 million per year into the region's lifeline services.

MTC's existing Low-Income Flexible Transportation (LIFT) Program also will benefit this market. The Regional Transportation Plan commits $1 million a year in discretionary state revenues to the LIFT grant program, which MTC intends to supplement with funding from the federal Job Access and Reverse Commute Program.
-- David Weinreich

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