Search title image

transactions online

April/May 2000
Blueprint for the 21st Century:
MTC Sends Plan to Sacramento

Imagine a fleet of 250 top-of-the-line express buses cruising along bridges and a system of interconnected freeway diamond lanes, depositing commuters at transit hubs and job centers. Picture doubling or tripling service on the region's existing long-distance commuter rail services, and adding a new Caltrain express route that could speed rush-hour travelers from San Francisco to San Jose in a mere 45 minutes. And mentally fill in the gap between the BART terminus in Fremont and San Jose with a rail connection. Such visions as these may move sooner than expected from pipe dreams to the funding pipeline, thanks to a confluence of planning, politics and a booming economy. For the past year, MTC has been developing a "Transportation Blueprint for the 21st Century," a comprehensive analysis of how the Bay Area's overloaded transportation system can catch up and keep pace with the region's dynamic growth.

This intense research and consensus-building effort has proven extraordinarily timely. In January, Gov. Gray Davis announced he was drafting a statewide, multibillion-dollar transportation plan. A month later, East Bay Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher, who sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, called upon MTC to update the region's rail investment plan for the new millennium. Drawing on the Blueprint exercise, MTC quickly compiled a list of several dozen traffic-busting projects that could be deployed in a relatively short time frame. On March 29, with the support of many local agencies and community organizations, the Commission voted unanimously to adopt a nearly $4 billion Blueprint Phased Implementation Plan, with roughly half that amount to come from the state.

A week later, the Bay Area welcomed the news that the governor proposed pumping $1.5 billion in state funds into the region, nearly matching MTC's dollar request and targeting many of the same projects.

While acclaiming the governor's proposal as a "solid down payment" on the Bay Area's transportation deficit, MTC Executive Director Lawrence D. Dahms pointed out that the "hot list" of projects in the agency's Phased Implementation Plan is only one-tenth of the $33 billion in regional transportation needs identified during the Blueprint exercise.

"We've reached a milestone, not an endpoint," he said. "The Blueprint is a living document that will be shaped by new study findings, additional funding sources and changing circumstances."

Closing the Gaps
Basing its choices for this round of investments on an evaluation of project cost-effectiveness and a strong public preference for public transit over highways (see box below), MTC has devoted a full two-thirds of the $3.8 billion implementation plan to the expansion of train and bus services.

In the realm of rail, the accent is on commuter trains, which use existing tracks and can be deployed in a relatively short time frame and at a fraction of the cost of building a new system. The plan calls for substantially beefing up service along the ACE (Altamont Commuter Express) and Capitols rail lines, which bring commuters from as far away as Sacramento and Stockton to jobs in the East Bay and Silicon Valley. MTC's plan also would introduce faster express service for the Peninsula's Caltrain commuter rail line -- shaving 30 minutes off the trip between San Francisco and San Jose -- and a new commuter train line between Union City and San Jose. This latter project would provide an important link in the ring of rails around the southern end of San Francisco Bay while also paving the way for extending BART south from Fremont in the future.

A rapid bus network gets equal billing with rail improvements in the plan. Emulating more highly developed systems in Seattle, Vancouver (Canada) and Curitiba, Brazil, the Bay Area rapid bus fleet would feature well-appointed vehicles traveling on an integrated system of high-occupancy vehicle lanes. The concept gets an additional boost from several Blueprint projects to close gaps and extend the region's web of diamond lanes.

MTC's Phased Implementation Plan also calls for providing "lifeline" public transit and paratransit (for elderly and disabled riders) by boosting nighttime and weekend services. "We're trying to address the needs of people who depend on transit to reach their jobs, schools, medical appointments and other essential destinations," MTC's Dahms said.

What's Next?
According to MTC Deputy Executive Director Steve Heminger, "We have a lot of work to do in the next few months to convince our legislative and congressional delegations -- as well as voters -- to support this program." Initially, Gov. Davis intended to finance his $5.3 billion plan with the state's budget surplus and general obligation bonds; more recently, he has proposed tapping the sales tax on gasoline in lieu of issuing bonds. Any of these options will require approval by the Legislature by a two-thirds margin. A statewide bond measure would need approval of a simple majority of state voters.

The governor envisions using the state investment to leverage an additional $10 billion in federal and local transportation funds. This is a tall order considering the several steps involved in securing federal funds and the shaky nature of local funds, which are generated mostly by temporary half-cent sales tax measures that require approval or renewal by a daunting two-thirds of a county's voters.

"For this reason," said Heminger, "our top legislative priority continues to be passage of a state constitutional amendment, such as SCA 3 proposed by Sen. John Burton in 1999, or some other measure that would allow a simple majority vote to pass or renew local tax measures for transportation."
-- Marjorie Blackwell and Brenda Kahn

Contents