Help Shape the Future of Bay Area Transportation

With a title of Change in Motion, the plan, which looks 25 years into the future, signals MTC’s commitment to promoting sustainability and mobility in the face of continued growth and global warming impacts. Attend one of the public workshops held in May around the region, and help the agency determine priorities for the plan.

The workshops launch the next phase of this two-year effort. Throughout 2007, MTC and its partner agencies worked with the public via a regional summit, more localized town hall meetings, a telephone survey and Web poll, and interviews and focus groups to craft the plan’s overall vision for the future along with a methodology for evaluating potential investments.

The Vision Statement endorsed by MTC in March 2008 outlines a Bay Area future that includes a safe, reliable and well-maintained transportation network that will take people where they want to go, when they want to get there. According to the Vision, residents should have access to a robust, seamless network of pedestrian and bicycle paths and transit routes that make car-free travel a viable option. The Vision also calls for reshaping future growth patterns to put people closer to jobs, shopping and essential services, diminishing traffic, pollution and carbon emissions.

When we conduct polls in the Bay Area, we always ask people what is the biggest problem they face. And almost all the time they say traffic congestion. But when you think about it, traffic congestion is really not a cause, it’s a result, explains MTC’s Executive Director Steve Heminger. It’s a symptom of a problem we have where people are living too far away from their jobs and are commuting long distances.

Meanwhile, a regionwide call for transportation projects yielded over 900 entries ranging from transit and freeway expansion and maintenance to alternative modes (e.g., bicycle and pedestrian projects) and transit-oriented developments. MTC is now undertaking the tough job of whittling down the submitted projects in order to realize the vision while meeting the plan’s discretionary funding cap of $30 billion over 20 years. The public’s input during the workshops will help do just that.

The nine May workshops— one in each Bay Area county— will allow the public and partner agencies to review the results of the project evaluations, and weigh the trade-offs among various options for investing the region’s limited transportation resources. The workshops will include a brief video explaining the plan’s concepts and desired outcomes and an interactive session aimed at seeking input from the workshop’s attendees.