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TRANSACTIONS NEWSLETTER ONLINE

January 2002

Regional Transportation Plan Total Expenditures (25 Years)

Pie chart illustrating the ratios listed in the accompanying table
  Billions of Dollars Percent of total
1) Transit Operations 35.4 40%
2) Transit Expansion 16.4 19%
3) Transit Rehabilitation 15.9 18%
4) Roadway Maintenance and Operations 13.7 16%
5) Roadway Expansion 3.3 4%
6) Other* 2.7 3%
TOTAL $87.4 100%
*Other includes bike and pedestrian improvements, Transportation for Livable Communities/Housing Incentive Program, system management, etc.

As demonstrated by this pie chart, the 2001 Regional Transportation Plan takes a "transit-first" approach to solving traffic congestion and improving mobility. Of the $87.4 billion in transportation revenues anticipated to flow to the Bay Area over the next quarter century, 77 percent ($67.7 billion) is earmarked for public transit needs -- including operating costs such as drivers' salaries and fuel; replacement of worn-out transit vehicles, tracks and other facilities; and system expansion.

Slice the pie another way -- by expansion vs. preservation of the existing system -- and a "fix-it-first" policy becomes evident. The plan devotes nearly 80 percent of the 25-year revenues to maintenance and ongoing activities.

Look beyond the numbers, and a "think outside the box" mentality comes through. MTC proposes to test or study a number of experimental concepts, such as converting free parking to paid parking as a way of encouraging ridesharing and transit use, instituting reversible lanes on freeways to provide additional peak-period capacity, filling excess capacity in carpool lanes with express buses, and allowing express buses to use freeway shoulders where no carpool lanes exist.
-- Brenda Kahn

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