Category: MTC

An article by Erin Baldassari, “Bridge toll hike is ‘first step’ in solving Bay Area’s traffic woes, experts say” points out just how expensive proposed future transportation fixes will be. However, a strikingly insightful column by Daniel Borenstein, Toll hike vote indicates Bay Area struggles ahead, suggests that the Bay Area’s policy leaders will not be able to enact these programs because voters will not fund them. This is an acknowledgement of the public’s lack of confidence in MTC, an agency that has intentionally remained unknown by the larger public. That begs the question of whether we will all drown in…

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Today’s Press Democrat carries an opinion piece by TRANSDEF that characterizes Sonoma County’s push for highway widening as no longer appropriate: What the supporters of Regional Measure 3 on the June 5 ballot are missing is that the world has changed in two critical ways. Highway widening, the go-to solution of the past, is now recognized as only a short-term fix. … More than 60 percent of Sonoma County’s greenhouse gases come from motor vehicles. Instead, it suggests that the Sonoma County Transportation Authority needs to make shared travel its top priority, replacing solo driving as the default commute mode.

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TRANSDEF’s President David Schonbrunn was paired with the Bay Area Council’s President Jim Wonderman on the Tuesday, May 8 broadcast of KQED Forum, 88.5 FM. Forum is the Bay Area’s premiere public affairs show. (Press the red Listen button) In his 4-minute opening statement, Schonbrunn asserts that because the MTC, Bay Area Council, Silicon Valley Leadership Group and SPUR, the sponsors of RM3, have been heading in the wrong direction, the toll increase won’t reduce traffic:    In this short segment, Schonbrunn discusses the solution to congestion as eliminating so-called Express Lanes (High-Occupancy Toll lanes) and heavily promoting ridesharing:

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TRANSDEF’s opinion piece “Toll Increase Would Condemn Bay Area To Gridlock” was published in the Sunday print version of the Mercury News. The subheading is “If the Metropolitan Transportation Commission knew how to cut traffic, it would have done so by now.” The piece was specifically targeted for Silicon Valley, and identifies Silicon Valley business as major funders of the Yes on RM3 Campaign, and asks “Are Silicon Valley businesses trying to stick the public with the cost of transporting their workers?” The opinion piece explains that Regional Measure 3 is going to trap the Bay Area in its current trend,…

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The general public has plenty of reason to distrust MTC and RM3. That said, environmentalists and especially climate activists have compelling reasons to actively campaign against RM3. Half of California’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are produced by motor vehicles. We must fight back against MTC’s Business as Usual priorities, which result in continued emissions growth. MTC stubbornly refuses to change its priorities, even though the climate emergency clearly demands an entirely new focus: reducing GHG emissions. That requires shifting where the region’s transportation money is spent, something resisted by local governments. For the Bay Area and California to reach its…

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