On Tuesday, June 4, the Mercury News and the East Bay Times published our Op-Ed. The Marin Independent Journal will follow soon. We believe an appropriate response by MTC would be a retrospective look at two decades of its decisions: How did we do?
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…
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…
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…
After its role in drafting the ballot arguments opposed to Contra Costa Transportation Authority’s (CCTA’s) Measure J on the March 2020 ballot, TRANSDEF became concerned about the misleading language of the question on the ballot. Working with our attorney, we sent multiple letters to the County Registrar of Voters, the Board of Supervisors, and Contra Costa County Counsel. The second set of letters was sent after we discovered that County Counsel had modified her Impartial Analysis of the measure, taking out the first paragraph reference to the proposed sales tax being an additional tax. We decided that this was an…
By a convenient coincidence, The Chronicle published a chart entitled The Bay Area’s 11 biggest transportation projects that provides graphic proof of policy failure. A quick look at the list of projects is enough to show the absence of a coordinated strategy. What stands out instead is the prominence of extremely expensive yet low-public-benefit projects that are being pushed by powerful economic and political interests: Central Subway BART extension to San Jose Caltrain electrification An even bigger push from the Bay Area Council and others is promoting a project many times more expensive than anything that has ever been attempted…
Streetsblog covered the release of an important study by Brookings titled Local Transportation Policy and Economic Opportunity, which is far more exciting than its title would suggest. The study provided the basis for Streetsblog’s provocative title, We Don’t Need More Infrastructure — We Need Congestion Pricing: The U.S. does not need to build more highways — it needs to spend more on aging urban rail systems and use congestion pricing to ease gridlock in urban areas, a new report shows. … “Claims about the dilapidation of U.S. transportation infrastructure should be regarded with a critical eye,” says Turner.
The Voice of San Diego reported on a refreshing statement of the obvious as to the level of changes needed in the county’s transportation planning to meet State climate goals: The region simply can’t meet state requirements for thwarting climate change the way things are and the way they’re headed, Hasan Ikrhata, director of the San Diego Association of Governments, said at a Friday board meeting. Even if the region built the trolley lines and bus services leaders have been discussing, it would not change enough. Either state law would have to change, or regional leaders need to reimagine plans…
The Strong Towns website has posted a series of important articles on congestion. Taken together, they frame how public agencies in California and the U.S. have been doggedly heading in the wrong direction in transportation and land use planning. Here’s a sampling: The Causes of Traffic and Congestion, addresses the question of whether new development causes more traffic. Here is its excellent summary: Development can add traffic. However, development that brings amenities and people closer together and reduces the need to travel so far can actually reduce traffic. With a mixture of uses, you can achieve a high population density…
Today’s Chronicle carried a story on how Google’s Waze is rolling out carpooling on a national scale. TRANSDEF has been writing about the significance of ridematching apps for years, before Waze got interested in this market. The announcement today marks what we believe will become known as the official start of the age of carpooling. What makes the announcement so unusual is its express interest in both the public and private benefits of the venture: “We want to reduce traffic and take cars off the road,” said Josh Fried, Waze’s head of carpool. Waze has another goal, too: prepare…