RTP
Plan Bay Area Analyzed In Depth
06/01/17 Filed in: Transportation
Planning
TRANSDEF submitted
its comments today on Plan Bay Area, the
regional transportation plan for the Bay Area.
A condensed version
for policymakers was
submitted earlier. Here’s a summary of the top
points about the Draft EIR: Read
More...
CA is not Serious about VMT Reduction
02/05/17 Filed in: Climate
Change |
Transportation
Planning
TRANSDEF’s
organizational focus is the reduction of GHG
emissions from transportation. Much of our work has
involved the state’s policy-setting agency for
climate change, the California Air Resources Board,
or ARB. ARB has produced generally excellent climate
change plans, called Scoping Plans. However, it has
consistently been weak in the area of reducing GHG
emissions from transportation, despite determining
that nearly half of the state’s GHG emissions are
generated by the transportation sector.
Read
More...
TRANSDEF Seeks RTP Alternatives
06/15/16 Filed in: Transportation
Planning | Climate
Change
TRANSDEF today filed its
scoping comments
for the
2017 Regional
Transportation Plan.
The letter asks MTC to study a regional plan
alternative in which there is no money for highway
widenings or BART extensions. Instead, available
funding would be spent on cost-effective transit
projects and service. The intent is to maximize
the reduction of GHGs by shifting travel away from
solo driving. Read
More...
Marin Clings to Status Quo
10/12/15 Filed in: Transportation
Planning | Climate
Change
As the Transportation
Authority of Marin was determining what projects to
submit to the 2017 Regional Transportation Plan,
TRANSDEF’s President testified, “Highway performance
is at near-crisis levels. Mobility is severely
impaired. Yet you are being offered more of the
same.” See that testimony and the rest of the
Marin
page. TAM
didn’t discuss whether there was a problem, and
adopted staff’s status quo proposal.
Read
More...
Bay Area transit ridership down despite subsidies, enticements
02/09/15 Filed in: Transportation
Planning | MTC
In today’s Chronicle,
Matier & Ross write about how regional transit
ridership in the Bay Area has down for decades
despite the many billions of dollars MTC has put into
construction projects. This begs the question “Why?”
For us, the answer is simple: MTC’s unique
combination of indifference, incompetence and
unwillingess to do the hard work of policy
development has created a politicized unaccountable
system that works great for contractors, but does
little for Bay Area residents and commuters. See
related several posts on this site:
Bay Area
Basics; a
case study we did on MTC called Politics Trumps
Outcomes;
and a comment letter on how to set up a new
transportation pot of money so that it is not
wasted, as MTC’s resources have been.
Read More...
New Papers from MTC Lawsuits
09/30/14 Filed in: MTC
TRANSDEF received the
fruits of a Public Records Act request from MTC
today. Legal papers from Bay Area Citizens v. MTC,
including the Index to the nearly 57,000 page
Administrative Record, and the settlement agreements
in two other cases are posted at the bottom of
this
page.
MTC Opposes Regionalism, Yet Again
In 2013, MTC adopted a
regional plan called Plan Bay
Area, in
response to state requirements under SB 375 to reduce
greenhouse gases (GHGs). Continuing its long history
of putting politics before its mandate of improving
the Bay Area, the Metropolitan Transportation
Commission voted today to adopt an
eviscerated set of
Guidelines for Bay Area counties. Draft
Guidelines had been developed that called for
counties, when developing their Countywide
Transportation Plans, to look to the goals
of Plan
Bay Area. Click on Read More for
TRANSDEF’s comments.
Read More...
Read More...
Plan Bay Area Court Decision Released
Alameda County Superior
Court Judge Grillo issued a ruling today in
the Bay Area
Citizens v. ABAG challenge to Plan Bay Area. He
denied their petition that sought a ruling that the
EIR was inadequate. See the decision and the briefing
at the bottom of this
page.
This page also contains the settlement between the
MTC and Sierra Club and Communities for a Better
Environment.
An Excellent Overview of Regional Planning
Environmental advocate
Peter Lydon wrote these comments on MTC’s Plan Bay
Area, which capture the essence of regional
planning:
Framework
Independently of anything the regional agencies do, the nine-county Bay Area is growing in population and getting wealthier, so, inevitably, it is changing. That means that the region is in transition. The aspect that concerns us is a needed transition from the present land use/mobility system to a new one.
The old, existing system is based on the single-family house, the personal automobile and the freeway. It handles growth mainly through outward spatial diffusion, or sprawl. It has grown up over decades, and has become our thoroughly familiar environment. We have all deeply adapted to it. It is individualistic, and not egalitarian. Growing up in times of economic success and prosperity, it offers what people believe is freedom. Therefore, on the basis of inertia alone, the traditional layout has support from the very large share of the population (and public and private administrative structures) that are comfortable in it and who want to preserve what is known and good. Read More...
Framework
Independently of anything the regional agencies do, the nine-county Bay Area is growing in population and getting wealthier, so, inevitably, it is changing. That means that the region is in transition. The aspect that concerns us is a needed transition from the present land use/mobility system to a new one.
The old, existing system is based on the single-family house, the personal automobile and the freeway. It handles growth mainly through outward spatial diffusion, or sprawl. It has grown up over decades, and has become our thoroughly familiar environment. We have all deeply adapted to it. It is individualistic, and not egalitarian. Growing up in times of economic success and prosperity, it offers what people believe is freedom. Therefore, on the basis of inertia alone, the traditional layout has support from the very large share of the population (and public and private administrative structures) that are comfortable in it and who want to preserve what is known and good. Read More...
TRANSDEF Comments on Plan Bay Area
TRANSDEF filed comments
on the Bay Area’s Draft Sustainable Communities
Strategy today. By a fascinating coincidence, U.S.
PIRG released its study today, called
A New
Direction,
which is directly relevant to how to approach a
regional transportation plan. This study points out
the transportation planning consequences of the
emerging pattern of millennials driving less. These
documents are available here.
RTP Guidelines Revision Process
11/18/09 Filed in: Climate
Change |
Transportation
Planning
The California
Transportation Commission is conducting a thorough
process to revise the statewide Regional
Transportation Plan Guidelines, in response to all
the changes resulting from SB 375. That law requires
RTPs to contain a sustainable communities strategy,
which attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to
meet a target set by the State Air Resources Board.
Check out the CTC webpage.
MTC adopts irresponsible regional plan
05/02/09 Filed in: MTC | Transportation
Planning
Summary only available
when permalinks are enabled. Read
More...
The Regional Transportation Plan is nearing adoption
On March 13th, MTC will have a meeting of its
Planning Committee to go over final details of its
draft Regional Transportation Plan, for approval on
March 25th. Read
More...