April 2005

The Members and Affiliates of the Transportation and Land Use Coalition (TALC) believe that current development patterns and projections for the future do not have to be our destiny. The Bay Area can retain its environment and quality of life, while ensuring that all residents have access to economic opportunities, by:

• developing a world-class transportation system
• creating great communities
• promoting transportation justice

This platform lays out actions to implement these principles. TALC Member and Affiliate groups promote the platform through a broad range of activities: policy analysis and recommendations, public education, research, and grassroots action. We are campaigning together for smart growth, affordable housing, a better regional transportation plan, transportation justice, and bicycle and pedestrian access.

TALC is a partnership of over 90 organizations working together to create a more socially just and sustainable Bay Area. To sign on to this platform, contact us at (510) 740-3150 or sign up on this website. We hope you will join us.

Develop a World-Class Transportation System

Bay Area residents are frustrated by a lack of convenient and reliable alternatives to being stuck in traffic. In January 2000, TALC published World Class Transit for the Bay Area, which showed how the region could make public transit in the Bay Area safer, faster, more frequent, and more reliable. World Class Transit promotes cost-effective transit projects that make better use of existing infrastructure before adding new capacity. Safer streets are also needed to provide access by bicycle, walking, and wheelchair and promote healthier lifestyles.

Campaign for county and regional plans that support
World-Class Transit for the Bay Area

• Prioritize reinvestment in local bus systems and secure community support and funding for bus rapid transit and low-emission buses in urban corridors.
• Expand the regional rail network and make service more frequent, with a high priority on extending CalTrain to a new Transbay Terminal in downtown San Francisco.
• Support funding for BART to maintain its existing system, make it earthquake safe, and improve access to stations. Ensure BART pursues only cost-effective extensions.
• Secure funding for a regional web of express buses that use carpool lanes to speed suburban commuters to key job centers.
• Support funding for transit hubs that provide connections between different transit modes, have good bicycle and pedestrian access, and provide safe bicycle parking.
• Promote funding for new technologies that improve transit convenience, such as real-time information at transit stops, and a universal fare card, as well as marketing efforts to promote transit ridership.
• Support the funding and expansion of car-sharing and ridesharing programs.

Promote active living with a walkable and bicycle-friendly Bay Area

• Secure full funding for the Regional Bicycle Plan, access to Bay Area bridges, and increase funding for Safe Routes to School and Safe Routes to Transit programs.
• Promote routine accommodation of bicyclists, pedestrians, and people with disabilities on all roads to create “complete streets” and improve safety.
• Support investments for street improvements that increase personal safety and deter crime.

Support transportation pricing that promotes sustainability and equity

Innovative pricing of transportation can raise revenues to create a system that is more fair and efficient for all residents. TALC will analyze the costs and benefits of all pricing proposals and support those that offer net benefits for transit riders, including low-income communities.

• Support higher bridge tolls, including higher prices during peak periods, if funds are used to support non-automobile transportation options and bridge safety and maintenance.
• Work to develop and pass a regional gas tax that allocates funding to public transportation and other alternatives to driving.
• Support the conversion of existing lanes to high occupancy toll lanes, if the toll revenues support transit alternatives. For projects where a portion of the tolls would go to highway construction, TALC will evaluate the environmental and equity impact on a case-by-case basis.
• Promote free transit passes provided by employers, universities, and others.

Create Great Communities that Protect the Environment, Advance Social Equity, and Improve Our Quality of Life

Designing communities the old-fashioned way – with sidewalks; narrow, tree-lined streets; and homes, jobs, shops, and parks within close proximity – creates dynamic communities with good transportation choices. Compact, transit-oriented growth will help us save the Bay Area’s open space and agricultural land while improving air quality and access to daily activities. To achieve these benefits however, the Bay Area cannot grow smarter in just a few places, but must do so throughout the region.

Increase incentives and funding for transit-oriented development
and affordable housing

• Lead efforts to require communities to practice smart growth in order to receive transportation and other infrastructure funds. A top priority is to have MTC condition funds for transit expansion on the construction of significant amounts of housing, including affordable units, in transit station areas.
• Lead efforts to have county and regional spending plans fund transit-oriented development and affordable housing.
• Engage the public and elected leaders in community planning, to create great communities near transit.
• Help generate funding for community-based planning processes that support in-fill development, neighborhood improvement, and create great places.
• Support Coalition members in efforts to promote affordable housing production, including efforts to get cities and counties to adopt jobs-housing linkage fees, inclusionary zoning ordinances, and similar policies.
• Support regional and state efforts to promote infill housing, such as ensuring that the Association of Bay Area Governments’ (ABAG) Fair Share Housing allocation is consistent with the Smart Growth Vision.

Promote efficient and coordinated planning for land use,
transportation and air quality management

• Promote more integrated governance structures and programs that tie together the activities of MTC, the Air District, and ABAG.
• Ensure that regional agencies incorporate social, environmental, public health, and quality-of-life performance measures and goals. Ensure that these include measures to assess disproportionate impacts on low-income communities.
• Evaluate and publicize the environmental, social, and fiscal costs of sprawl and inefficient transportation investments.

Preserve open space and limit suburban expansion

• Support the efforts of Coalition partners to encourage cities and counties to implement urban growth boundaries coupled with effective policies to ensure infill development, as well as adequate funding for special districts to preserve open space and farmland.

Promote Transportation Justice

More than 2 million Bay Area residents – many of them low-income, seniors, children, or disabled – do not drive or own a vehicle. Helping to reduce widening class and racial disparities in the Bay Area by providing access to jobs, education, social services and health facilities for these residents, and fair wages and benefits for transit workers, must be fundamental principles in all transportation investments and policies.

Make significant new investments in communities that rely on public transit

• Lead efforts to secure funding for the Lifeline Transportation Network, which would fill gaps and improve service between low-income communities and key destinations.
• Lead efforts to keep transit fares affordable for all users, and expand free and discount transit pass programs, especially for those who depend on transit.
• Lead efforts to fund Community-Based Transportation Plans, and ensure their recommendations are funded and implemented.
• Improve access to carpooling, car sharing, and – where these programs and public transit are insufficient – programs that reduce the costs of car ownership for low-income residents.

Allocate transportation investments to reduce income and racial disparities

• Ensure that detailed equity analyses for the Regional Transportation Plan and County Transportation Plans are prepared, and that ongoing investments meet social equity needs.

Help low-income communities increase their power to influence
transportation and land use decisions

• Produce materials, provide trainings and technical assistance to help communities build capacity and win the transportation facilities and services they need.
• Insist that agencies solicit and respond to meaningful community participation in all stages of transportation and land use decisions.
• Ensure that transit advisory groups are empowered to influence transportation policy and investment decisions.