Joint Statement by AC
Transit and BART

08/26/13 Filed in: Transportation
Planning

Former AC Transit and
BART director Roy Nakadegawa passed away last Friday
morning, August 23, 2013, at his home in Berkeley.
Mr. Nakadegawa had been suffering from congestive
heart failure for some time.

Mr. Nakadegawa served on the AC Transit Board for 20
years, from 1972 to 1992. He then served on the BART
Board for 12 years from 1992 to 2004.
After
he left the BART Board, he joined the
Board of TRANSDEF (Transportation Solutions Defense
and Education Fund), a non-profit environmental
organization created by transit activists to advocate
for better solutions to transportation, land use and
air quality problems in the San Francisco Bay
Area. In all
those positions he argued for cost-effective,
mobility improving transit.

Mr. Nakadegawa was an active attendee and participant
in TRB (Transportation Research Board) meetings and
was well known and respected around the world for his
depth of knowledge about transit and its relation to
land use. He was written up in the local press for
the frugality of his travel arrangements. When Mr.
Nakadegawa served as an AC Transit directors, its
members got an annuity when they left the Board. For
many years, Mr. Nakadegawa generously donated his
annuity payments to buy prizes for AC Transit’s local
bus rodeo winners.

As a BART Director he consistently advocated for cost
effective transit administration, which spilled over
into his own campaigns. In his re-election materials
for BART Director he was proud to point out that in
November 2000, he garnered the highest vote (over
91,000 voters) of five previous BART races and spent
less than a penny per vote. Mr. Nakadegawa tirelessly
urged his fellow board members to consider innovative
uses of BART facilities as a non-traditional source
of revenue and improved customer access, resulting in
the adoption of both permanent and experimental
parking program initiatives. He will also be
remembered for his role in advocating BART’s
Earthquake Safety Program. He helped to raise public
awareness of this critical program, resulting in the
successful 2004 passage of a bond measure to fund it.

Professionally, Mr. Nakadegawa had been a
transportation engineer for the City of Richmond and
served for many years served on the Board that
administers the civil engineering exam in California.
His career as a public sector engineer reached a
pinnacle in 1989 when he was elected National
President of Institute for Transportation of American
Public Works Association and later served as its
liaison to the American Public Transportation
Association (APTA), the national transportation
advocacy group. While with BART Mr. Nakadegawa became
an active member of APTA, serving on several
committees including its Policy and Planning;
Advanced Technology, Governing Board; and Transit
Management and Performance committees.

Mr. Nakadegawa and his wife Judy were the
quintessential Berkeley couple, dedicated to peace,
family, public

service and folk dancing.

Cards and letters should be sent to: Judy Nakadegawa
and family, 751 The Alameda, Berkeley, California
94707-1930.