MTC unveils transportation priorities for the next 25 years

Saturday, August 11, 2001

By John Simerman
Contra Costa Times

OAKLAND -- A fourth bore for the Caldecott Tunnel and BART to Warm Springs head the list of East Bay projects that have floated to the top of a key plan for spending billions in Bay Area transportation funds over the next 25 years.

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission on Friday released a draft of its 2001 Regional Transportation Plan. When approved by the commission in November, the final plan is expected to budget $82 billion in expected Bay Area funds. Most of that money will go to maintain existing systems, with about $7.7 billion of state, federal and local funds slated for new projects.

The report offers a grisly look at the Bay Area's increasingly savage highway jungle.

The MTC projects a 30 percent increase in Bay Area travel, or 6 million daily trips, over the next 25 years, while commuters also will travel 16 percent farther to work on average. More than 80 percent will continue to travel by car.

Over the brutal Sunol Grade, for instance, the number of daily trips figures to rise 90 percent, the report states. The Caldecott Tunnel will have a 43 percent increase.

The long-range plan, which must be submitted to federal officials every three years, goes beyond a wish list, budgeting viable projects that have found funding.

A fourth Caldecott bore got a big lift last month when Gov. Gray Davis pledged state funds for the $185 million project. In the draft plan, it is now slated for "Track 1," meaning it could go forward and apply for the money.

Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty, who sits on the MTC, noted that the draft also pencils in a "tBART" system that would shuttle Livermore commuters to the Dublin-Pleasanton BART station via diesel- powered mini-trains.

"The only way we're going to get people out of their vehicles is to make transit convenient, to have connectivity that helps the commuter have a seamless ride to and from work," said Haggerty.

The numbers add up to a 250 percent rise in traffic congestion, according to the Bay Area Transportation and Land Use Coalition, an advocacy group. The plan makes some improvements, but reveals a failure to focus on sprawl, said Stuart Cohen, the coalition's director.

"They've tried to do more within a plan that assumes dumb growth," said Cohen. "We're going to get into a gigantic mess. This is going to be like a BART strike every day."

The trends do look ugly, and regional agencies need to work to head off unwieldy growth, said Steve Heminger, the MTC's executive director.

"We're not a growth planning agency," said Heminger. "What this plan attempts to do is deal with the effects of our growth patterns."

The public will have a chance to weigh in on the draft plan in several hearings in September. In the East Bay, hearings will be Sept. 10 in Richmond, Sept. 19 in Vallejo and Sept. 26 in Oakland.

On Friday, MTC officials agreed to schedule another hearing in the Tri-Valley, to be announced later.

BART to Warm Springs has long been on the planning books, but the draft plan is an acknowledgment that it will finally happen, said Haggerty. An extension to San Jose also appears in the plan, though Santa Clara County has yet to come to terms to buy into the BART system.

The plan also includes new car pool lanes on Interstate 580 between Livermore and Pleasanton. Several new Alameda County projects made the grade after voters agreed last year to extend a half-cent sales tax to pay for road improvements and public transit, MTC officials said.

In the meantime, the MTC is working on its first regional transit expansion policy since 1988. Transportation officials hope the blueprint will help sell a statewide ballot measure that would permanently dedicate gasoline sales taxes to transportation. That measure, which comes before voters next year, would funnel about $6 billion to the Bay Area over 25 years.

DRAFT PLAN

Some East Bay projects included in the Metropolitan Transportation Commission's draft regional plan released Friday:

Alameda County:
* BART to Warm Springs
* BART/Oakland airport connector
* Bus rapid transit (Berkeley, Oakland, San Leandro)

Contra Costa County:
* Caldecott Tunnel, fourth bore
* Highway 4 improvements
* Richmond intermodal transfer station

The plan can be viewed on the MTC's Web site, www.mtc.ca.gov.