The Case against MTC: Brief Filed

The case against Valley Link was divided into three parts: The first part, a challenge to the Valley Link project itself, was heard in 2025. After an unfavorable ruling, an appeal was filed to protect the right to later appeal. It was denied as premature. The second part of the case is against MTC for funding Valley Link. The Opening Brief was filed last night, along with a Request for Judicial Notice. It is extremely thorough. The case relies on an Administrative Record, which in turn relies on the 6 volumes of Administrative Record against Valley Link itself. There will…

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Valley Link Case Fully Briefed–Hearing on Tuesday, Feb. 11

TRANSDEF and its co-plaintiffs will be before Judge Markman on Tuesday, February 11 at 10:30 AM. Here’s the link to the live audio of the hearing: https://www.alameda.courts.ca.gov/general-information/live-stream/oakland-administration-building-livestreams Scroll down on that page until you come to Department 23. There should be a green button “Online.” Click on that. When the image of the player shows, click on the Play Arrow.  If you can’t get live audio there, send an email to info@transdef.org All the documents in the case are posted here: TRANSDEF’s Challenge to the Valley Link Project Approval.  

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Colorado’s Bold New Approach to Highways: Not Building Them

California has a battle going on in transportation planning. The Air Resources Board has determined that a major reduction in VMT is required to reduce the state’s emissions. Caltrans, on the other hand, is continuing to push highway expansions. See: Newsom vs Newsom. Air Board, Caltrans clash on 80/50 widening plan. Who is in charge? The environmental wing of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration is telling its transportation wing that it has failed to properly analyze the proposed widening of Highways 50 and 80 between Sacramento and Solano counties, a potential death blow to this version of the project. In a…

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San Francisco’s Transit First policy is working, albeit slowly

Here’s a stunning article about what it looks like to stop giving preference to travel by auto: Why S.F. drivers say owning a car in the city is ‘miserable’ Then, in January 2020, the city banned cars on Market Street. Later that year, spurred by pandemic stay-at-home orders, officials closed the Great Highway and Golden Gate Park’s JFK Drive to cars and created a network of about two dozen Slow Streets where motorists are expected to drive slowly and share the road with cyclists and pedestrians. The fight over Slow Streets prompted bitter hearings, and the battle over car-free JFK Drive led…

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Republicans call on DOT to explain its largesse to CA HSR

The best thing to have come out of Washington D.C. in decades: A letter from Committee Chairs (or Ranking Members) in the Senate and House asking Secretary of Transportation Buttigieg to explain why his Department gave CA HSR a $3.2 billion grant, despite its inability to show how that project will ever be useful to anyone: Congressional Letter to Sec. Buttigieg on HSR This letter bears a striking resemblance to TRANSDEF’s analysis from a decade ago as to why CA’s HSR project can never work. We also remind everyone that HSR would be running now if the CHSRA had not…

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State fails to adequately address transit fiscal cliff

Terrifying tales of transit agency layoffs and service cuts, known as the fiscal cliff, loom as the consequences of the pandemic and the drop in ridership from the shift to working at home. The Legislature and Governor have responded to the frantic lobbying by kicking the can down the road. The East Bay Times responded with a powerful editorial, Why Newsom’s Bay Area transit bailout will likely fail.  Excerpts: Rather than directly address these problems, the new bailout plan from Sacramento doubles down on an oversight commission [MTC] that has failed since its establishment in 1970 to fulfill its state-mandated…

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MTC’s new Executive Director

Local figures in the Bay Area transportation scene expressed their pleasure at the promotion of Andrew Fremier to MTC’s Executive Director, following the retirement of Therese McMillan. TRANSDEF got its comments into the story: David Schonbrunn, president of the Transportation Solutions Defense and Education Fund in San Anselmo, has been critical of the commission’s planning efforts through the years, which he said have resulted in the existing congestion and transit issues. He said he does not expect much to change under Fremier’s leadership.   “After spending many billions of dollars on transportation projects over the past four decades, all MTC…

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