Published Thursday, July 18, 2002, in the San Jose Mercury News

Bay group rejects plan for bridge
Transportation committee pushes road improvements

By Sandra Gonzales
Mercury News

With trans-bay traffic expected to increase 40 percent by 2025, a Bay
Area transportation committee Wednesday recommended several highway
and transit improvements on three bridges to help ease congestion,
but not a new bay bridge.

Some of the recommendations by the Bay Crossings Study Policy
Committee include expanding carpool lanes, adding rail service on the
Dumbarton Bridge and express bus service on the Dumbarton, San Mateo-
Hayward and San Francisco-Oakland Bay bridges.

But the committee left off more-ambitious projects, including a
bridge from near San Francisco International Airport to the East Bay,
a heavy rail tunnel from San Francisco to Oakland, and a Bay Area
Rapid Transit crossing with new San Francisco and Oakland stations.

Although the staff of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission had
recommended further study on a new bay bridge and suggested that it
be included in the agency's long-range plans, the committee opposed
the idea 5-2. Members Thomas Blalock of the BART board and Barbara
Kaufman, an MTC commissioner, dissented.

"We're trying to accommodate more and more commuters . . .," said
Palo Alto Vice Mayor Dena Mossar, a committee member who made the
motion to drop the bridge from consideration. "If we're not careful,
we'll find ourselves in a treadmill and we'll never succeed in making
our cities and our communities work better for those of us who live
around the bay."

San Mateo Mayor Sue Lempert, who heads the committee, also expressed
reservations about a new bridge.

"The idea of adding more automobile traffic to an area that's already
congested, near the San Francisco Airport . . . just does send chills
up and downs people's spines," Lempert said.

The committee recommendations follow a two-year study of several
proposals to improve trans-bay transportation. The recommendations
will be forwarded to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission --
the transportation planning and financing agency for the nine Bay
Area counties -- for consideration next week.

If adopted, the projects would be included in the commission's
priority list as it disburses existing funds and lobbies for a share
of any potential $1 toll increases on state-owned toll bridges.

Although a new bay bridge -- which could cost as much as $8.2
billion -- would be most effective in reducing traffic delays on the
Bay and San Mateo-Hayward bridges, there is no public consensus for
such a project and no identifiable funding, said Larry Magid, project
manager in charge of the study.

At Wednesday's hearing, there was vigorous opposition to a new bridge.

"We should be focusing on moving people, not single-occupancy
vehicles," said Margaret Okuzumi of the BayRail Alliance. Others
echoed her sentiment and suggested abandoning car-oriented solutions
for an emphasis on more rail service.

The study focused on the San Francisco-Oakland, San Mateo-Hayward and
Dumbarton bridge corridors and was sought by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-
Calif., nearly 10 years after a similar 1991 study.

Although some of the recommended projects are expected to be financed
with existing funds, most would be funded from a possible $1 increase
in bridge tolls. State Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland, has been a leading
advocate for higher tolls and has said he intends to introduce
legislation for a $1 raise.

The proposed improvements would cost $746 million, not counting $613
million in operating costs over 20 years -- nearly all financed from
toll increases.

Meanwhile, the Bay Area Council, a business group, has incorporated
some of these recommendations in a larger plan to improve traffic
flow and is exploring a ballot measure to pay for its menu of traffic
relief measures. The Bay Area Council's plan, however, goes further
than the Bay Crossings committee's recommendations and does not
preclude a new bridge.

John McLemore, a Metropolitan Transportation Commission and Santa
Clara City Council member, had suggested including the new bridge in
a long-range plan once the Bay Area Council's proposal was put to
voters.

Existing funds could pay for express bus service on the San Mateo
Bridge; carpool lane extensions and improvements on Bay Bridge
approaches in Oakland; carpool improvements and added signs on San
Francisco streets; and extending FasTrak approach lanes on the San
Mateo and Dumbarton bridges.

Other projects that would require funding from potential toll
increases:

• In the Bay Bridge corridor, expanded express bus service and
additional high-capacity BART trains.

• In the San Mateo Bridge corridor, carpool lane improvements,
expanded express bus service, and reversible lanes on high-rise
portion of the bridge.

• In the Dumbarton Bridge corridor, carpool lane improvements,
expanded express bus service, and rail service.


Contact Sandra Gonzales at sgonzales@... or (510) 839-5321.