Bridge Toll Hike Proposed for Earthquake Safety
The Bay Area Toll Authority
(BATA) is seeking public comment on a toll increase on the seven state-owned
Bay Area toll bridges: the Antioch, Benicia-Martinez, Carquinez, Dumbarton,
Richmond-San Rafael, San Francisco-Oakland Bay and San Mateo-Hayward
bridges. The toll proposal does not affect the Golden Gate Bridge, which
is owned and operated by an independent authority.
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Bay Trail Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary
I was pleased to join over 100
enthusiastic guests who celebrated the 20th anniversary of the San Francisco
Bay Trail project at the Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center on Saturday,
June 6. The event honored State Treasurer Bill Lockyer for authoring
Senate Bill 100, the 1987 legislation that helped authorize the Association
of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) to develop and adopt a plan for a continuous
recreational corridor edging San Francisco and San Pablo bays. Since
that plan’s adoption in 1989, over half of the Bay Trail — or 293 of
500 miles — has been completed.
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BART Breaks Ground on Subway Section of Warm Springs Extension
On September
30, top regional transit and local officials broke ground on the subway
portion of the Warm Springs Extension, a 5.4 mile project that will
bring BART closer to San Jose. The subway section of the extension is
a $136 million project to extend BART south through Fremont Central
Park, including under a portion of Lake Elizabeth, and beneath the Union
Pacific Railroad freight track to just north of Paseo Padre Parkway.
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BART and Caltrain Begin Accepting TransLink®
East Bay and Peninsula
commuters have two new reasons to celebrate now that both BART and Caltrain
are accepting TransLink®, the Bay Area’s transit fare card. On August
3, BART riders started enjoying a more convenient way to pay for transit
rides when the TransLink® fare payment system became operational on
the four-county rail system. Caltrain followed suit, allowing customers
to use TransLink® cards to pay their fares beginning August 17.
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Legislative Update
Express Lane Bill on 2010 Docket
Assembly Bill 744, a bill to authorize
the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) to develop an express lane network
(also known as a high-occupancy toll or HOT lane network) remains
MTC’s top state legislative priority for 2010. The bill moved quickly
through the California State Assembly last spring, winning bipartisan
support and a floor vote of 58-18. After a number of amendments, it
was also approved 6-1 by the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee.
The bill currently resides in the Senate Appropriations Committee,
where it can be taken up anytime beginning in 2010.
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MTC Co-Sponsors Saving the Bay Documentary
From
the Gold Rush to the Golden Gate Bridge, and through World’s Fairs and
World Wars, San Francisco Bay has been central to the identity of one
of the world’s leading economic, academic, recreational and cultural
regions. This fall, KQED took a look at the history of the San Francisco
Bay with Saving the Bay, a documentary presented in four one-hour episodes
narrated by actor and environmentalist Robert Redford. MTC and its Bay
Area Toll Authority were series sponsors of the documentary.
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