Post by bennyp81 on Jun 15, 2005 11:08:51 GMT -8
Bart Reed
User ID: 1606604 Apr 20th 12:15 AM
San Jose Mercury News: Friday, April 18, 2003
Vital bridge worth crossing: increased tolls
By L.A. Chung
Mercury News
A $3 bridge toll? It's a no-brainer. Think regionally. Vote locally. Say yes. For many of us in the valley, raising tolls on the bay's bridges can be just that easy.
Nobody ever likes to pay more. That's why state Sen. Don Perata of Oakland, in proposing a dollar increase in tolls Thursday, offered a regional plan to spend it on goodies for practically every type of commuter around the bay.
But in Santa Clara Valley, not all of us have to cross bridges. This gives a good number of valley voters the opportunity to vote for others to pay more in order to get our transportation goodies.
Like BART. At least, a critical piece of BART. The 5.4-mile extension of the BART line from Fremont to Warm Springs, the necessary one that
brings BART to the Santa Clara County line, is jeopardized by the state budget shortfall. The bridge toll increase would make up the difference.
Other benefits for Silicon Valley folks include a light rail line between Union City and Palo Alto, going over the old Dumbarton Bridge.
Across the rest of the Bay Area, the $1.5 billion toll plan has 34 more projects or improvements related to the bridge corridors.
They include seismic work on the BART Transbay Tube, ferry service to the Peninsula, express buses on freeways and night owl buses so that night-shift workers could take BART to work and take buses home after BART shuts down at midnight.
Possible vote by 2004
If the Legislature approves Perata's proposal, SB 916, voters in seven Bay Area counties could be voting by March 2004 on a toll increase that would take effect that July.
The first improvements, such as the BART extension, would begin construction in 2005. More immediate changes would be seen in easy improve-
ments like the addition of night bus service.
Of course, go to the Four Corners in Newark, just a quarter-mile from the Dumbarton Bridge approach, and you won't find many takers.
Patrons paying nearly $2.10 a gallon at the Chev-ron station there thought the toll was a bad idea.
"It always goes to some bureaucracy," said Kashyap Zaveri, a 25-year-old project manager for an IT company. The Milpitas resident drives over the Dumbarton and the Bay bridges a lot, espec-ially when his side business, Vinyl Circus, has a lighting and sound job at a San Francisco club.
"I go clubbing a lot, too, and it would be nice to have some service after BART stops after midnight."
Dan Fox, 50, goes to the Peninsula three or four times a week and his wife works at Stanford. They'd both vote against it if asked, he said.
"Ultimately, it's up to the judgment of the voters: 'What's in it for me?'" said Steve Hemminger, of the Metropolitan Transportation
Commission, which has been pushing "think regional" for years.
A January 2003 survey of voters in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties showed that 66 percent
would support a $1 toll increase to finance improvements for congestion relief. And Bay Area voters have typically been supportive if they judged the use of the funds beneficial.
"If past is prologue, then I would guess it would pass." Think 'broad benefits'
Santa Clara County voters agreed to tax themselves
to bring BART to San Jose, he helpfully pointed out. And folks, face it, the only way BART's going to get to San Jose is through Warm Springs.
Why not have drivers from across the rest of the region help pay for it? "They don't have to think regionally, we just need them to understand
the broad benefits," said Stuart Cohen, executive director of the Transportation and Land Use Coalition.
You can call me cavalier, since I don't regularly cross bridges. When I do, I often plan routes based on traveling the direction that doesn't require paying tolls.
But I know the toll increase will provide more transportation options for others. Think regionally. Vote locally.
Contact L.A. Chung at lchung@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5280.
Þ-®-Þ-®-Þ
Bart Reed
User ID: 1606604 Apr 20th 12:21 AM
San Jose Mercury News: Friday, April 18, 2003
Bridge toll hike could go on ballot
By Marilee Enge and Gary Richards
Mercury News Staff Writers
A proposal to increase tolls on the Dumbarton, Hayward-San Mateo and other state-owned bridges to $3 to fund a public transportation program would eventually mean lighter traffic and new options for Bay Area commuters who cross the bay each day, said officials who announced the legislative package Thursday.
Paid for entirely by a $1 toll increase, the wide-ranging $3 billion plan includes ferry service to the Peninsula, trains from Union City to Palo Alto, express buses on crowded freeways and a critical BART extension to the Santa Clara County border. If approved by the Legislature and a majority of voters in seven Bay Area counties, the new toll would take effect in July 2004, and the first improvements would be seen in 2006.
Surveys show voters are inclined to support the new tolls. But that might be complicated: This proposal is set to join several other transit ballot initiatives next year.
"It's getting awfully crowded," said Rich Napier, head of the San Mateo City-County Association of Governments. "I think that's going to be the big question. Some of these measures could be pushed back" to 2005.
The plan to be introduced in the state Senate next week by Majority Leader Don Perata, D-Oakland, is designed to make public transit
simpler and more efficient to use. There are bus connections to trains, better access to freeway commuter lanes and universal fare cards.
"It means everything will fit together," Perata said. "We need a working regional transit system in the Bay Area."
The plan was devised to make sense to commuters and provide options to those who will pay for it.
"What you won't find is overly expensive ribbon-cutting projects," said Stuart Cohen, executive director of the Transportation and Land Use Coalition. "This process weeded out projects that were not going to deliver relief. The benefits are targeted directly at people who are going to pay the fee."
Those who cross the region's seven state-owned bridges daily can best afford an increase, he said. A poll of likely voters in Santa Clara,
San Mateo, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, Marin and Solano counties in February found that 66 percent would support the new toll.
Nevertheless, Bay Area voters will face a host of ballot measures next year aimed at easing traffic problems. A $10 billion, statewide bond measure will be on the November 2004 ballot to build a 700-mile high-speed rail line from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
Santa Clara, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Santa Cruz and Marin counties are considering new sales-tax measures in another year specifically aimed at solving traffic problems.
And the Legislature could add a measure that would lower the required margin of victory for transportation taxes from two-thirds to 55 percent. The bridge toll would go on the March 2004 ballot and would need approval from a
majority of voters to pass.
Carl Guardino, president of the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group, believes traffic initiatives have a good chance of succeeding at the polls no matter how many are presented to voters, even if the economy is still limping along.
"Voters are smart," Guardino said. "They are able to separate the wheat from the chaff. And even in this economy, traffic congestion is still a big Bay Area concern."
Tolls increased from $3 to $5 on the Golden Gate Bridge last year, Perata noted, without disastrous
results. And commuters in certain eastern cities, such as New York, pay bridge tolls of up to $8.
The Golden Gate Bridge is not state-owned and would not see another increase from this proposal.
Perata's proposal would earmark half of the money for transit operations, a category often ignored in funding plans.
"This is a refreshing change," Napier said.
"People get all excited about the capital side, but we often forget about operational costs."
Commuters who would have to pay a higher toll were mixed on the proposal. Many like the idea of more transit to ease traffic across bay bridges, but aren't keen on digging into their pocketbook.
For Kent Lue, who commutes from Union City to his job as an account manager at Canal Technologies in the South Bay, the extra dollar seems a stiff hike.
"It just went up to $2 a couple of years ago," said Lue, 40. "I don't mind the projects this would help and it wouldn't kill me to pay more, but it still seems like a big increase. I ouldn't mind paying maybe 50 cents more, but I don't know about one more dollar."
John Hamblin, co-owner of California Movers Express in Hayward, says higher tolls "are a rip-off."
"I think they are all sitting up in Sacramento thinking of every way they can to raise things that aren't taxes," said Hamblin, 49.
"There's nothing I can do about it except scream,"
he added. "If they have this election in March, all the loony-tunes who think more taxes are a great idea will probably turn out and vote for it."
But there's another reason a toll increase has a good chance of passing. Most voters don't travel across the bay and would not be affected by the increase, and are more likely to support the projects it would fund.
"Yeah, I'd vote for it," said H.C. Ho a San Jose-to-Santa Clara commuter. "While $3 seems really high, it would not affect me. And if it encourages mass transit, I'm for it."
WHERE TOLL HIKES WOULD GO
Some of the projects that would be funded by a proposed toll increase on state-owned bridges to $3:
PROJECT: COST
Transbay Terminal/Caltrain downtown extension: $150 million
BART transbay tube seismic retrofit: $143 million
Dumbarton Bridge commuter rail service: $135 million
Improvements near Interstate 80/680/Highway 12 interchange: $100 million
BART commuter rail connection (eastern Contra Costa County): $96 million
Water Transit Authority commuter ferry service Alameda/Oakland/Harbor Bay, Berkeley/Albany, South San Francisco: $79 million
Benicia-Martinez Bridge, new span: $50 million
BART Warm Springs extension: $45 million
Muni historic streetcar expansion: $10 million
Direct carpool lane connector from Interstate 680 to Pleasant Hill BART station: $15 million
Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit rail extension from San Rafael to Larkspur ferry terminal or San Quentin: $35 million
Development of zone-based monthly transit passes: $1.5 million
Source: Metropolitan Transportation Commission
Contact Marilee Enge at menge@mercurynews.com or (415) 394-6895, Gary Richards at grichards@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5037.
Þ-®-Þ-®-Þ
Robert
User ID: 9934403 Apr 20th 12:25 AM
Sounds like Roberto, and others for extended rail hours. I would think after all these years of BART service, BART would run 24 hours.
Bob
Bart Reed
User ID: 1606604 Apr 20th 12:25 AM
Fairfield Daily Republic: Friday, April 18, 2003
Toll hike could go to interchange funding
Proposed measure gives commuter fares to transit projects
By Barry Eberling
FAIRFIELD -- Solano County commuters could help pay for a renovated Interstates 80 and 680 interchange, one dollar at a time.
State Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland, is creating a ballot measure to increase tolls on Bay Area bridges by $1. He envisions raising $2.4 billion over 30 years to pay for dozens of transit projects to ease bridge congestion.
Solano County transportation planners fought to get $100 million to help fix the Interstates 80 and 680 interchange included in the proposed measure. On Thursday, they learned they succeeded.
They can't start counting the money yet. First, the state Legislature must order the regional measure placed on the March 2004 ballots of
seven Bay Area counties, including Solano. Then voters must pass it.
Solano County residents who commute to Bay Area jobs will have to weigh the potential benefits against the extra daily costs they'd bear. Some cross two toll bridges to reach work.
Still, getting the interchange into Perata's proposed legislation was a victory for the Solano Transportation Authority. Perata clearly
wanted to emphasize transit.
"For the first time since the creation of BART, we're proposing dramatic new choices for Bay Area commuters," Perata said in a press release.
"Voters will tell us if we've got it right."
The Interstates 80 and 680 interchange looks out of place amid the various bus, ferry and other transit projects on the proposed measure's spending list. It's traditional freeway construction, not one of those "dramatic new choices" that Perata favors.
But the congested interchange is a bottleneck for buses as well as autos, STA Executive Director Daryl Halls said. Commuter buses from Solano County travel to BART.
Such arguments carried the day.
Fixing Solano County's biggest traffic chokepoint could cost $740 million to more than $1 billion dollars. The county is trying to piece together the funding.
A Bay Area bridge toll hike could provide one more of those pieces.
There's no need to raise all of the money to get started fixing the interchange, Halls said. The fixes can be done in phases, he said.
Getting the $100 million would just about double the amount of money available now, he added.
Solano County would also get money for transit from the measure. The proposed spending list includes:
* $28 million for parking, bus stops and other features at the Vallejo ferry station.
* $20 million for express bus park-and-ride lots.
Among the projects eligible are the Fairfield transportation center expansion, proposed
Benicia train and bus station and Vacaville intermodal station.
* $25 million for Capitol Corridor track and station improvements, including the proposed Fairfield-Vacaville station.
* $20 million to pay for capital costs for express bus routes on local freeways, such as new buses.
* $3.4 million annually to operate more express buses on local freeways.
* $2.7 million annually to help operate the Vallejo ferry.
Barry Eberling can be contacted at beberling@dailyrepublic.net
Þ-®-Þ-®-Þ
Bart Reed
User ID: 1606604 Apr 20th 12:30 AM
Contra Costa Times: Friday, April 18, 2003
Perata calls for buck toll hike for transit reforms
By Lisa Vorderbrueggen
Contra Costa Times Staff Writer
OAKLAND -- An East Bay state senator unveiled a $1.6 billion transportation project list Thursday he hopes will persuade voters to shell out an extra buck at Bay Area toll bridges next year.
Sen. Don Perata, D-Alameda, outlined a transit-heavy program to link BART to Livermore and East Contra Costa County, expand the ferry and express bus network and retrofit the seismically vulnerable Transbay Tube.
The plan would dedicate $50 million to defray cost overruns for the new Benicia bridge construction.
Perata has tied the spending plan to SB916, draft legislation that places a $1 toll hike question on the March 2004 ballot in the seven Bay Area counties with state-owned bridges. A fee increase,
the measure requires two-thirds voter approval.
"We've seen in the Bay Area that voters will support fees if we lay out a specific plan for how the money will be spent," Perata said. "We're not saying, 'Trust us.' We're saying, 'This is what your money will buy.'"
The bill appears to have hefty Bay Area political support.
Leading labor, environmental and regional transportation officials flanked the senator at a packed press conference Thursday.
Many of them participated in and emerged successful from a yearlong series of hearings during which Perata's staff received and evaluated billions of dollars in requests.
Metropolitan Transportation Commission Executive Director Steve Heminger heartily endorsed the toll hike as a critical cash infusion for the region's underfunded transportation budget.
"How do you spell congestion relief?" asked Transportation and Land Use Coalition executive director Stuart Cohen. "SB916."
Cohen's group, a coalition of environmental, labor and social justice groups, would receive $20 million to improve bicycle and pedestrian
access to transit centers.
Perata and his consultant, Ezra Rapport, selected projects they say quickly benefit people who travel the bridge corridors.
It includes $22 million to expand the universal fare card called TransLink; $1.5 million to develop a common zoned monthly transit pass; and $20 million to create a regional rail master plan.
The program also dedicates money for express bus operating costs.
Before voters have their say, the spending plan must survive the Legislature and win the governor's signature.
Perata vowed to try to protect the list from Sacramento raiders seeking to lard it with pork.
But he is optimistic that the Legislature, even his anti-tax Republican colleagues, will endorse the bill.
"The Republicans will vote for it because it places the toll on the ballot where the voters can decide for themselves," Perata said.
"The Legislature generally supports local communities that want to help themselves. We know Sacramento doesn't have the money to help us."
BRIDGE TOLL PROJECTS
If the Legislature and the governor place a proposed $1 bridge toll hike on the March 2004 ballot and if voters in the seven counties
with state-owned bridges agree, here are a few projects that would receive cash:
Project Funding; (millions $) Year of Construction
-------------------------------------------------
BART Transbay Tube seismic retrofit; $143; 2005
Ferry service in Berkeley/Albany; $12; 2009
E-BART* in East Contra Costa County; $96; 2011
Rail or express bus connectors to BART from Livermore; $65; 2010
Interstate 80/680 improvements in Solano County; $100; 2010
Car pool lane link from I-680 to Pleasant Hill BART; $15; 2007
* E-BART refers to the use of lighter-weight diesel locomotives on an existing railroad line with direct platform connection to BART's
Pittsburg-Bay Point station.
Lisa Vorderbrueggen covers transportation and growth. Reach her at 925-945-4773 or lvorderb@cctimes.com
Þ-®-Þ-®-Þ
User ID: 1606604 Apr 20th 12:15 AM
San Jose Mercury News: Friday, April 18, 2003
Vital bridge worth crossing: increased tolls
By L.A. Chung
Mercury News
A $3 bridge toll? It's a no-brainer. Think regionally. Vote locally. Say yes. For many of us in the valley, raising tolls on the bay's bridges can be just that easy.
Nobody ever likes to pay more. That's why state Sen. Don Perata of Oakland, in proposing a dollar increase in tolls Thursday, offered a regional plan to spend it on goodies for practically every type of commuter around the bay.
But in Santa Clara Valley, not all of us have to cross bridges. This gives a good number of valley voters the opportunity to vote for others to pay more in order to get our transportation goodies.
Like BART. At least, a critical piece of BART. The 5.4-mile extension of the BART line from Fremont to Warm Springs, the necessary one that
brings BART to the Santa Clara County line, is jeopardized by the state budget shortfall. The bridge toll increase would make up the difference.
Other benefits for Silicon Valley folks include a light rail line between Union City and Palo Alto, going over the old Dumbarton Bridge.
Across the rest of the Bay Area, the $1.5 billion toll plan has 34 more projects or improvements related to the bridge corridors.
They include seismic work on the BART Transbay Tube, ferry service to the Peninsula, express buses on freeways and night owl buses so that night-shift workers could take BART to work and take buses home after BART shuts down at midnight.
Possible vote by 2004
If the Legislature approves Perata's proposal, SB 916, voters in seven Bay Area counties could be voting by March 2004 on a toll increase that would take effect that July.
The first improvements, such as the BART extension, would begin construction in 2005. More immediate changes would be seen in easy improve-
ments like the addition of night bus service.
Of course, go to the Four Corners in Newark, just a quarter-mile from the Dumbarton Bridge approach, and you won't find many takers.
Patrons paying nearly $2.10 a gallon at the Chev-ron station there thought the toll was a bad idea.
"It always goes to some bureaucracy," said Kashyap Zaveri, a 25-year-old project manager for an IT company. The Milpitas resident drives over the Dumbarton and the Bay bridges a lot, espec-ially when his side business, Vinyl Circus, has a lighting and sound job at a San Francisco club.
"I go clubbing a lot, too, and it would be nice to have some service after BART stops after midnight."
Dan Fox, 50, goes to the Peninsula three or four times a week and his wife works at Stanford. They'd both vote against it if asked, he said.
"Ultimately, it's up to the judgment of the voters: 'What's in it for me?'" said Steve Hemminger, of the Metropolitan Transportation
Commission, which has been pushing "think regional" for years.
A January 2003 survey of voters in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties showed that 66 percent
would support a $1 toll increase to finance improvements for congestion relief. And Bay Area voters have typically been supportive if they judged the use of the funds beneficial.
"If past is prologue, then I would guess it would pass." Think 'broad benefits'
Santa Clara County voters agreed to tax themselves
to bring BART to San Jose, he helpfully pointed out. And folks, face it, the only way BART's going to get to San Jose is through Warm Springs.
Why not have drivers from across the rest of the region help pay for it? "They don't have to think regionally, we just need them to understand
the broad benefits," said Stuart Cohen, executive director of the Transportation and Land Use Coalition.
You can call me cavalier, since I don't regularly cross bridges. When I do, I often plan routes based on traveling the direction that doesn't require paying tolls.
But I know the toll increase will provide more transportation options for others. Think regionally. Vote locally.
Contact L.A. Chung at lchung@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5280.
Þ-®-Þ-®-Þ
Bart Reed
User ID: 1606604 Apr 20th 12:21 AM
San Jose Mercury News: Friday, April 18, 2003
Bridge toll hike could go on ballot
By Marilee Enge and Gary Richards
Mercury News Staff Writers
A proposal to increase tolls on the Dumbarton, Hayward-San Mateo and other state-owned bridges to $3 to fund a public transportation program would eventually mean lighter traffic and new options for Bay Area commuters who cross the bay each day, said officials who announced the legislative package Thursday.
Paid for entirely by a $1 toll increase, the wide-ranging $3 billion plan includes ferry service to the Peninsula, trains from Union City to Palo Alto, express buses on crowded freeways and a critical BART extension to the Santa Clara County border. If approved by the Legislature and a majority of voters in seven Bay Area counties, the new toll would take effect in July 2004, and the first improvements would be seen in 2006.
Surveys show voters are inclined to support the new tolls. But that might be complicated: This proposal is set to join several other transit ballot initiatives next year.
"It's getting awfully crowded," said Rich Napier, head of the San Mateo City-County Association of Governments. "I think that's going to be the big question. Some of these measures could be pushed back" to 2005.
The plan to be introduced in the state Senate next week by Majority Leader Don Perata, D-Oakland, is designed to make public transit
simpler and more efficient to use. There are bus connections to trains, better access to freeway commuter lanes and universal fare cards.
"It means everything will fit together," Perata said. "We need a working regional transit system in the Bay Area."
The plan was devised to make sense to commuters and provide options to those who will pay for it.
"What you won't find is overly expensive ribbon-cutting projects," said Stuart Cohen, executive director of the Transportation and Land Use Coalition. "This process weeded out projects that were not going to deliver relief. The benefits are targeted directly at people who are going to pay the fee."
Those who cross the region's seven state-owned bridges daily can best afford an increase, he said. A poll of likely voters in Santa Clara,
San Mateo, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, Marin and Solano counties in February found that 66 percent would support the new toll.
Nevertheless, Bay Area voters will face a host of ballot measures next year aimed at easing traffic problems. A $10 billion, statewide bond measure will be on the November 2004 ballot to build a 700-mile high-speed rail line from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
Santa Clara, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Santa Cruz and Marin counties are considering new sales-tax measures in another year specifically aimed at solving traffic problems.
And the Legislature could add a measure that would lower the required margin of victory for transportation taxes from two-thirds to 55 percent. The bridge toll would go on the March 2004 ballot and would need approval from a
majority of voters to pass.
Carl Guardino, president of the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group, believes traffic initiatives have a good chance of succeeding at the polls no matter how many are presented to voters, even if the economy is still limping along.
"Voters are smart," Guardino said. "They are able to separate the wheat from the chaff. And even in this economy, traffic congestion is still a big Bay Area concern."
Tolls increased from $3 to $5 on the Golden Gate Bridge last year, Perata noted, without disastrous
results. And commuters in certain eastern cities, such as New York, pay bridge tolls of up to $8.
The Golden Gate Bridge is not state-owned and would not see another increase from this proposal.
Perata's proposal would earmark half of the money for transit operations, a category often ignored in funding plans.
"This is a refreshing change," Napier said.
"People get all excited about the capital side, but we often forget about operational costs."
Commuters who would have to pay a higher toll were mixed on the proposal. Many like the idea of more transit to ease traffic across bay bridges, but aren't keen on digging into their pocketbook.
For Kent Lue, who commutes from Union City to his job as an account manager at Canal Technologies in the South Bay, the extra dollar seems a stiff hike.
"It just went up to $2 a couple of years ago," said Lue, 40. "I don't mind the projects this would help and it wouldn't kill me to pay more, but it still seems like a big increase. I ouldn't mind paying maybe 50 cents more, but I don't know about one more dollar."
John Hamblin, co-owner of California Movers Express in Hayward, says higher tolls "are a rip-off."
"I think they are all sitting up in Sacramento thinking of every way they can to raise things that aren't taxes," said Hamblin, 49.
"There's nothing I can do about it except scream,"
he added. "If they have this election in March, all the loony-tunes who think more taxes are a great idea will probably turn out and vote for it."
But there's another reason a toll increase has a good chance of passing. Most voters don't travel across the bay and would not be affected by the increase, and are more likely to support the projects it would fund.
"Yeah, I'd vote for it," said H.C. Ho a San Jose-to-Santa Clara commuter. "While $3 seems really high, it would not affect me. And if it encourages mass transit, I'm for it."
WHERE TOLL HIKES WOULD GO
Some of the projects that would be funded by a proposed toll increase on state-owned bridges to $3:
PROJECT: COST
Transbay Terminal/Caltrain downtown extension: $150 million
BART transbay tube seismic retrofit: $143 million
Dumbarton Bridge commuter rail service: $135 million
Improvements near Interstate 80/680/Highway 12 interchange: $100 million
BART commuter rail connection (eastern Contra Costa County): $96 million
Water Transit Authority commuter ferry service Alameda/Oakland/Harbor Bay, Berkeley/Albany, South San Francisco: $79 million
Benicia-Martinez Bridge, new span: $50 million
BART Warm Springs extension: $45 million
Muni historic streetcar expansion: $10 million
Direct carpool lane connector from Interstate 680 to Pleasant Hill BART station: $15 million
Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit rail extension from San Rafael to Larkspur ferry terminal or San Quentin: $35 million
Development of zone-based monthly transit passes: $1.5 million
Source: Metropolitan Transportation Commission
Contact Marilee Enge at menge@mercurynews.com or (415) 394-6895, Gary Richards at grichards@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5037.
Þ-®-Þ-®-Þ
Robert
User ID: 9934403 Apr 20th 12:25 AM
"I go clubbing a lot, too, and it would be nice to have some service after BART stops after midnight."
Sounds like Roberto, and others for extended rail hours. I would think after all these years of BART service, BART would run 24 hours.
Bob
Bart Reed
User ID: 1606604 Apr 20th 12:25 AM
Fairfield Daily Republic: Friday, April 18, 2003
Toll hike could go to interchange funding
Proposed measure gives commuter fares to transit projects
By Barry Eberling
FAIRFIELD -- Solano County commuters could help pay for a renovated Interstates 80 and 680 interchange, one dollar at a time.
State Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland, is creating a ballot measure to increase tolls on Bay Area bridges by $1. He envisions raising $2.4 billion over 30 years to pay for dozens of transit projects to ease bridge congestion.
Solano County transportation planners fought to get $100 million to help fix the Interstates 80 and 680 interchange included in the proposed measure. On Thursday, they learned they succeeded.
They can't start counting the money yet. First, the state Legislature must order the regional measure placed on the March 2004 ballots of
seven Bay Area counties, including Solano. Then voters must pass it.
Solano County residents who commute to Bay Area jobs will have to weigh the potential benefits against the extra daily costs they'd bear. Some cross two toll bridges to reach work.
Still, getting the interchange into Perata's proposed legislation was a victory for the Solano Transportation Authority. Perata clearly
wanted to emphasize transit.
"For the first time since the creation of BART, we're proposing dramatic new choices for Bay Area commuters," Perata said in a press release.
"Voters will tell us if we've got it right."
The Interstates 80 and 680 interchange looks out of place amid the various bus, ferry and other transit projects on the proposed measure's spending list. It's traditional freeway construction, not one of those "dramatic new choices" that Perata favors.
But the congested interchange is a bottleneck for buses as well as autos, STA Executive Director Daryl Halls said. Commuter buses from Solano County travel to BART.
Such arguments carried the day.
Fixing Solano County's biggest traffic chokepoint could cost $740 million to more than $1 billion dollars. The county is trying to piece together the funding.
A Bay Area bridge toll hike could provide one more of those pieces.
There's no need to raise all of the money to get started fixing the interchange, Halls said. The fixes can be done in phases, he said.
Getting the $100 million would just about double the amount of money available now, he added.
Solano County would also get money for transit from the measure. The proposed spending list includes:
* $28 million for parking, bus stops and other features at the Vallejo ferry station.
* $20 million for express bus park-and-ride lots.
Among the projects eligible are the Fairfield transportation center expansion, proposed
Benicia train and bus station and Vacaville intermodal station.
* $25 million for Capitol Corridor track and station improvements, including the proposed Fairfield-Vacaville station.
* $20 million to pay for capital costs for express bus routes on local freeways, such as new buses.
* $3.4 million annually to operate more express buses on local freeways.
* $2.7 million annually to help operate the Vallejo ferry.
Barry Eberling can be contacted at beberling@dailyrepublic.net
Þ-®-Þ-®-Þ
Bart Reed
User ID: 1606604 Apr 20th 12:30 AM
Contra Costa Times: Friday, April 18, 2003
Perata calls for buck toll hike for transit reforms
By Lisa Vorderbrueggen
Contra Costa Times Staff Writer
OAKLAND -- An East Bay state senator unveiled a $1.6 billion transportation project list Thursday he hopes will persuade voters to shell out an extra buck at Bay Area toll bridges next year.
Sen. Don Perata, D-Alameda, outlined a transit-heavy program to link BART to Livermore and East Contra Costa County, expand the ferry and express bus network and retrofit the seismically vulnerable Transbay Tube.
The plan would dedicate $50 million to defray cost overruns for the new Benicia bridge construction.
Perata has tied the spending plan to SB916, draft legislation that places a $1 toll hike question on the March 2004 ballot in the seven Bay Area counties with state-owned bridges. A fee increase,
the measure requires two-thirds voter approval.
"We've seen in the Bay Area that voters will support fees if we lay out a specific plan for how the money will be spent," Perata said. "We're not saying, 'Trust us.' We're saying, 'This is what your money will buy.'"
The bill appears to have hefty Bay Area political support.
Leading labor, environmental and regional transportation officials flanked the senator at a packed press conference Thursday.
Many of them participated in and emerged successful from a yearlong series of hearings during which Perata's staff received and evaluated billions of dollars in requests.
Metropolitan Transportation Commission Executive Director Steve Heminger heartily endorsed the toll hike as a critical cash infusion for the region's underfunded transportation budget.
"How do you spell congestion relief?" asked Transportation and Land Use Coalition executive director Stuart Cohen. "SB916."
Cohen's group, a coalition of environmental, labor and social justice groups, would receive $20 million to improve bicycle and pedestrian
access to transit centers.
Perata and his consultant, Ezra Rapport, selected projects they say quickly benefit people who travel the bridge corridors.
It includes $22 million to expand the universal fare card called TransLink; $1.5 million to develop a common zoned monthly transit pass; and $20 million to create a regional rail master plan.
The program also dedicates money for express bus operating costs.
Before voters have their say, the spending plan must survive the Legislature and win the governor's signature.
Perata vowed to try to protect the list from Sacramento raiders seeking to lard it with pork.
But he is optimistic that the Legislature, even his anti-tax Republican colleagues, will endorse the bill.
"The Republicans will vote for it because it places the toll on the ballot where the voters can decide for themselves," Perata said.
"The Legislature generally supports local communities that want to help themselves. We know Sacramento doesn't have the money to help us."
BRIDGE TOLL PROJECTS
If the Legislature and the governor place a proposed $1 bridge toll hike on the March 2004 ballot and if voters in the seven counties
with state-owned bridges agree, here are a few projects that would receive cash:
Project Funding; (millions $) Year of Construction
-------------------------------------------------
BART Transbay Tube seismic retrofit; $143; 2005
Ferry service in Berkeley/Albany; $12; 2009
E-BART* in East Contra Costa County; $96; 2011
Rail or express bus connectors to BART from Livermore; $65; 2010
Interstate 80/680 improvements in Solano County; $100; 2010
Car pool lane link from I-680 to Pleasant Hill BART; $15; 2007
* E-BART refers to the use of lighter-weight diesel locomotives on an existing railroad line with direct platform connection to BART's
Pittsburg-Bay Point station.
Lisa Vorderbrueggen covers transportation and growth. Reach her at 925-945-4773 or lvorderb@cctimes.com
Þ-®-Þ-®-Þ