TRANSACTIONS NEWSLETTER ONLINENovember 2002Merit Awards:
Children’s transportation can be a significant barrier for parents seeking to obtain and maintain employment and move off welfare. Not all schools have affordable on-site programs after school, or perhaps the child has no ride home after those programs close in the evening. That’s where Award of Merit winner Mario Urtecho steps in as program coordinator of Give Kids a LIFT! Launched in October 2001, the program is sponsored by Santa Clara County’s paratransit provider, Outreach, Inc., and uses the existing scheduling technology and vehicles of the paratransit network to get kids to and from after-school programs. Urtecho has spearheaded the program that is proving to be a model for the region. “Mario has done an excellent job,” said Anne Winthrop of Outreach, Inc. “His contact with the families really means a lot to all of the parties involved.” Since the program’s inception, over 140 children have used the program to access their after-school destinations and more than 13,000 trips have been provided. “Thanks to Give Kids a LIFT!, I was able to finish my training program,” said one participant. “I have been able to keep my job because I don’t need to leave early to pick up my child,” said another.
He’s not a household name like KTVU Channel 2 News’ longtime anchors, but veteran newsman Roland De Wolk plays a major role in shaping the Bay Area television station’s popular newscasts — and in making sure that in-depth transportation stories get top billing in the daily line-up. “I think there is not enough attention paid to transportation issues by the mass news media in the Bay Area,” said De Wolk. “Channel 2 has done a reasonably good job of stepping into that breach.” De Wolk got his start in the local journalism market as a print reporter, first at the Contra Costa Times, where he created the paper’s first transportation beat, then The Oakland Tribune. In the early 1990s he made the leap to the broadcast media, joining KTVU as a writer/reporter/producer. He currently produces special projects — including investigative reports — for the Oakland-based station. He also is a senior lecturer for San Francisco State University’s Journalism Department. In honoring De Wolk and KTVU, the jury cited a series of stories examining construction delays and cost escalations associated with the new east span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. “He doesn’t shy away from some of the more arcane, but important, issues affecting how we get around in the Bay Area,” said Randy Renstchler, MTC’s manager of Legislation and Public Affairs.
Planning Agency From creating and funding an integrated, countywide public transit network to sponsoring a team of ambassadors to help the public navigate that network, the Napa County Transportation Planning Agency (NCTPA) has worked to make public transit a viable option in the Napa Valley. Although the smallest county in the region as far as population is concerned, Napa County is home to five cities, each with its own bus system for local residents — not to mention the county’s own transit services. As a way of streamlining the confusing array of services, transfer policies and schedules, the cities and county in 1998 created the NCTPA to be the sole operator of any transit or paratransit service in the county. In another bold move in 2001, the cities and county agreed to a “transit first” policy for state Transportation Development Act funds, and gave NCTPA allocation power over those funds. “Regional governance for the allocation of transit dollars will ensure the most coordinated and efficient system for bus and paratransit riders in the Napa Valley,” said Jill Techel, former NCTPA chair. NCTPA also supports the work of a dedicated group of volunteers known as the Napa Transit Ambassadors. The seven-member team teaches seniors, persons with disabilities and other new riders how to find their way around using public transit.
And San Francisco Have you ever crossed an intersection diagonally? Ever been at an intersection when pedestrians got the entire area to themselves? At a few select locations in the dense Chinatown communities of San Francisco and Oakland, pedestrians can cross in multiple directions while cars wait behind a red light — prohibited from turning — thus reducing the risk of accidents. For lobbying for the installation of these new “pedestrian scramblers,” and educating the public on how to safely navigate them, four community organizations will share an award of merit. In San Francisco, Chinatown TRIP (Chinatown Transportation Research and Improvement Project) has worked successfully over the past 25 years for a variety of transportation improvements. Last year, it collaborated with the Chinatown Community Development Center (CCDC) to educate the public about a pedestrian scramble system at four intersections in the Stockton Street corridor (at Clay, Washington, Jackson and Pacific streets). Holding signs and passing out brochures, volunteers educated the public on the meaning of the new signals. “In the first weeks, there were a lot of volunteers at the intersections, not just handing out literature, but modeling the behavior that needed to happen to implement the system,” said CCDC Executive Director Gordon Chin. On 8th and Webster streets, in the heart of Oakland’s Chinatown, pedestrians and cars have their own separate times to cross or turn, reducing the risk of accidents. Asian Health Services of Oakland and the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce worked together to distribute some 60,000 brochures in Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean and English at the intersection to help community members understand how to respond to the scrambler. Volunteers from Asian Health Services also conducted community pedestrian safety workshops.
Mary Ann and Joe Eddy McDonald On October 3, 1994, Kimaree McDonald, 25, and her cousin Tiffane Spencer, 17, were on their way home from buying an anniversary present for Kimaree’s parents when their car crashed head-on into a big rig. They were killed instantly. The accident occurred along a winding two-lane stretch of Highway 4 in West Contra Costa County commonly known as “Blood Alley.” Mary Ann and Joe Eddy McDonald, Kimaree’s parents, reacted by vowing to never let another family suffer the same tragedy. The McDonalds spearheaded a campaign to widen and divide the highway, collecting 10,000 signatures on a petition that was delivered to state lawmakers, and making numerous presentations to local government agencies. At one point they organized a community walk to the Hercules City Council, carrying wooden crosses wrapped in yellow ribbons that represented accident victims killed on the roadway since the 1970s. In large part due to their efforts, the $86 million Highway 4 West divided highway project, which added two lanes, was substantially completed by the end of 2001. According to Arielle Bourgart of the Contra Costa Transportation Authority, “The McDonalds’ efforts demonstrated that citizen activism can influence transportation decisions.”
It was a long and winding road that led to the start of construction of the new east span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, 12 years after the Loma Prieta earthquake signaled the need for a replacement. Two Contra Costa Times reporters chronicled this complicated piece of Bay Area transportation history in a three-part series. Transportation reporter Lisa Vorderbrueggen and investigative reporter Thomas Peele delved in detail into the political and procedural causes for the delays and cost overruns that have plagued the seismic replacement project. Their series, titled “Where the Fault Lies” and published in February 2002, was exhaustively researched and shed light on a critical public safety project. “For both reporters, it became an obsession to connect the dots and put the story together,” noted Chris Lopez, executive metro editor at the Times.
Go to the San Francisco Airport to fly back in time. The spirit of air travel from a bygone era, and the Bay Area’s role in shaping aviation history, is captured in an attractive 11,500-square foot facility patterned on San Francisco’s own 1930s air terminal. Since the December 2000 opening of the San Francisco Airport Commission’s Aviation Library and Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum, some 80,000 people have visited the museum, library and exhibition galleries, which are housed in SFO’s new International Terminal. Visitors can learn about the formation of the first airlines, transoceanic passenger service in the days of flying boats and technical advances in aeronautics. According to airport materials, the facility is the first cultural institution of its kind to be housed within a major international airport. “By providing such a stunning facility in a location that is widely used by millions of people, the San Francisco Airport Commission has preserved for future generations a sense of how the past is a part of the present and future with respect to air travel,” said MTC Public Information Officer Ellen Griffin. With a staff of just five, the facility flourishes thanks to a dedicated corps of some 50 enthusiastic volunteers who donate their time and talent to preserving aviation history. Volunteers from the nonprofit San Francisco Aeronautical Society oversee acquisitions for the collections, raise funds and produce educational publications and lectures.
Take a BART ride to Daly City, cross through a pedestrian tunnel and emerge next to the one-acre, multilevel Pacific Plaza. Graced with an inviting fountain, the plaza offers a variety of dining, retail and entertainment choices conveniently located just one block away from the BART station. With a 20-screen movie theater and a planned 200-room hotel, the plaza is a prime example of transit-oriented development that encourages public transit usage and reduces the number and length of single-driver automobile trips. In 1998, the Daly City Redevelopment Agency partnered with Summit Commercial/Mack-Cali Realty to create Pacific Plaza, which includes 600,000 square feet of office space and 40,000 square feet of retail space. The development incorporates wide and attractive sidewalks, storefronts and streetscape enhancements to promote foot traffic. It is estimated that about 30 percent of the project’s office workers and cinema and res-taurant patrons travel there via a one-block walk from the BART station, a transit hub that also is served by SamTrans and San Francisco Muni. Contents
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