Transactions Newsletter

Metropolitan Transportation Commission

Events in Washington D.C., and Sacramento set the pace for MTC in 1998. For the first time in six years, the California Transportation Commission opened the transportation funding floodgates, while Congress passed the $218 billion Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century. Amounting to a windfall of more than $1 billion in new flexible dollars for the Bay Area, the influx of money presented both challenges and opportunities for MTC. The year also saw substantial progress with regard to several regional customer service efforts including phone- and Web-based traveler information systems and the introduction of a program to nurture pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly development.

Governing federal transportation spending for the next six years, the act is notable for extending the innovative features of its groundbreaking predecessor, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, and for boosting transportation spending across the board by 40 percent.

In light of the developments in Washington and Sacramento, MTC's Finance Section shifted into high gear in 1998.

For the first time since 1992, the California Transportation Commission issued a call for new public transit and highway projects for consideration for inclusion in the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). This was the first funding cycle to fall under the scope of Senate Bill 45 (Kopp), a state transportation reform bill that transferred considerable decision-making authority to regional transportation planning agencies like MTC. In fact, under the new law, MTC was responsible for developing a spending plan for $627 million of the $779 million in State Highway Account funds slated for the nine-county Bay Area over the ensuing six years.

Task one for MTC was to develop criteria for screening projects in accordance with the new state guidelines. By early 1998, the agency was ready to actually rank candidate projects for funding -- a process known as programming. At every step, MTC staff consulted with their counterparts at partner agencies -- particularly the region's transit operators and congestion management agencies -- to ensure that the spending plan would be balanced and equitable.

The process culminated in February of 1998 with MTC's adoption of the Regional Transportation Improvement Program (RTIP) for the Bay Area; the document was eventually incorporated into the STIP by the California Transportation Commission in June of 1998. The final spending plan sets aside funding for new carpool lanes on Interstate 680 in Alameda County in the vicinity of the Sunol Grade and along U.S. 101 in Marin and Sonoma counties, extension of the light-rail systems in San Francisco and Santa Clara County, and a range of other highway and transit improvements.

MTC's financial analysts next turned their attention to TEA 21, signed by the president in June of 1998. Again working closely with partner agencies, they used the summer and early fall of 1998 to develop a process for divvying up the funding scheduled to flow to the Bay Area from the Surface Transportation Program and Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program. The $566 million in flexible funding coming to the region from these two programs represents a substantial increase over the prior six-year period.

By the end of 1998, MTC was well on the road to programming the first three years of flexible federal funding. Since the state funding programmed in 1998 was by its nature largely earmarked for new construction, MTC is taking care to earmark these federal dollars for less glamorous but equally important needs: 75 percent of the funding is designated for rehabilitation/ replacement of aging facilities and vehicles, while 25 percent is going toward system management and safety projects.

This latter category provides MTC with the opportunity to direct funding to a number of regionwide customer service projects, including the TravInfo traveler information system, the Freeway Service Patrol's fleet of roving tow trucks and an automated transit trip-planning system.

-- Brenda Kahn