By Brenda Kahn, MTC Senior Public Information Officer

It doesn’t have the pizzazz of TV’s "Star Search," but the Project Search sponsored by the Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) nonetheless is worth tuning in to. As part of the public participation process for its Transportation 2030 Plan, MTC is inviting residents to submit creative ideas for taming traffic, upgrading public transit, enhancing travelers’ safety, and raising the region’s overall livability quotient.

The Transportation 2030 Plan will be a blueprint to guide transportation development in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area over the next 25 years. MTC expects approximately $100 billion to be available for transportation investments in the region during that timeframe. While the vast bulk of that funding will be devoted to keeping current infrastructure in good health and smooth functioning, the region will need to make strategic transportation investments to keep pace with anticipated growth in population and jobs. Falling into this category are projects to improve the connectivity of the regional public transit network, new technologies that can squeeze more capacity out of existing facilities, and projects to close gaps in the region’s web of carpool lanes. In the realm of smart growth and livability, planners are looking to make the built environment more hospitable to pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit riders.

"This is the first time in our 30-plus-year history that MTC is going directly to the public and transportation activists to solicit actual project ideas," said MTC Chair Steve Kinsey. "People tend to feel passionate about ways of improving their personal commute, and their ideas for making the Bay Area a better place to live. We want to harness that energy and those creative ideas for the common good."

To be eligible for consideration, projects must meet certain thresholds. In fact, the project must have significant community and/or regional impacts and a total cost of $5 million or higher. "We’re looking for something larger than a single stoplight at a specific corner," Kinsey said. "On the other hand, we might consider installing a string of traffic control devices and new technologies along a prime arterial to turn it into a smart corridor."

Projects selected for evaluation must meet a series of additional screening criteria, including the following:

·Submittals must consist of a specific project or transportation program rather than a broad policy.

·The project must be defined in enough detail to generate data about its impact.

·The project should not replace a project already in the current regional transportation plan.

·The project may not have been rejected in a recent major transportation study.

·The project must have total costs that are in reasonable proportion to anticipated funding.

·The project should have a reasonable guarantee of operating funds.

·The project should not cause undue harm to the environment.

·The project can be funded or implemented without a change in law or regulations.

Simultaneous with tapping the public’s ideas, MTC is soliciting project nominations from the nine-county congestion management agencies. Following a technical analysis, MTC intends to issue the draft Transportation 2030 Plan for public review by the fall of 2004.

The deadline for project submittals is September 17, 2003. An interactive form on the Transportation 2030 Web site (www.mtc.ca.gov/T2030) makes it easy to submit projects. For questions, e-mail