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TRANSACTIONS NEWSLETTER ONLINE

July/August 2003

Transportation 2030 Summit Taps Strong Feelings



A diverse crowd of more than 450 people gathered in San Francisco on a Saturday to help plan the region’s future. (Photos by Chriss Poulsen and Christopher Springman)

E-voting a Hit with Overflow Crowd
When it comes to decisions about transportation investments and land use, the Bay Area should pursue major changes. That was the message delivered loud and clear by the more than 450 local officials, activists and members of the public — a “sellout” crowd — who attended MTC’s Transportation 2030 Summit in San Francisco. Featuring electronic voting that enabled audience members to immediately register their opinions on a range of subjects, the Saturday workshop in June kicked off an 18-month, communitywide dialogue on a new plan to guide Bay Area transportation investments over the next 25 years.

“We’re committed to making the process open and inclusive,” said MTC Executive Director Steve Heminger.

Much of the discussion in the coming months will center on how to make the best use of limited financial resources in the face of a burgeoning population and ever-increasing travel demand.

Summit audienceThe transportation/land-use connection was a hot topic at breakout sessions.
“We expect about $100 billion in local, state and federal transportation funds to flow into the Bay Area between now and 2030,” said Heminger. “While that’s a lot of money, it’s not nearly enough to solve all our transportation problems. So we’re going to have to make some hard choices.”

As part of the Transportation 2030 process, MTC is revisiting the issue of whether to continue setting aside as much as 90 percent of available funding for committed projects, a category that includes maintenance and rehabilitation, projects nearing construction, and voter-approved projects. “Saying 90 percent of funding is off the table is frustrating. It’s frustrating for the Commission, and it’s frustrating for you,” Heminger told the audience.

Summit E-voterUsing keypads at their chairs, attendees were able to vote on a wide range of topics.
Though conference participants did not necessarily provide a representative sample of the Bay Area population, the electronic voting nonetheless produced some intriguing results.

“It looks like the people of the Bay Area are in the mood for change,” observed Heminger, referring to e-voting results showing 89 percent agreement to a question of whether the region should critically re-examine all its transportation policies, programs and projects (see “Facts & Figures” for more e-voting results).

The transportation/land-use nexus clearly was the hot topic of the summit, with breakout sessions on this issue attracting the largest number of participants. Pointing out that infill development — commonly viewed as the antidote to suburban sprawl — can equate to more local congestion, Heminger also challenged the audience to consider ways to grow smarter in greenfield areas, a prospect he referred to as “smart sprawl.”

While high-profile, mega-projects such as the planned BART extension to San Jose and the Interstate 80/680 interchange widening in Solano County undoubtedly will spark considerable discussion in the months to come, a cooperative and collegial tone was evident among the summit participants. “We should capitalize on the good feelings in this room to commit ourselves to working better together,” declared Martin Wachs, director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, who moderated one of the summit panels.
— John Goodwin


For more information on Transportation 2030, visit www.mtc.ca.gov/T2030.



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