The Regional Agencies Smart Growth Strategy (see Aug/Sept 2000 issue) is now being coordinated with the Bay Area Alliance's Regional Livability Footprint project. The overall goal for the combined Work Plan is to achieve support among public officials, civic leaders and stakeholder organizations regarding a preferred land use pattern that will guide how the Bay Area could grow over the next 20 years. Workshops and extensive outreach to local governments will be used to develop this support; they will also contribute to maps indicating which areas could be available for various types of development, and which areas are environmentally important and need to be preserved or enhanced. Finally, a set of implementation actions and incentives will be developed for local governments and regional agencies to guide them in implementing desired land use changes.
Staff for the Regional Agencies are developing a pool of qualified consultants and technical experts who may be used to assist the combined project in planning, developing and facilitating the workshops and analyzing the results. The Bay Area Alliance will be developing a similar pool to analyze alternative scenarios other than the single Smart Growth alternative which will be considered by the Regional Agencies, and also to compile the results of the public education and feedback process through the media following the workshops. At its October meeting, the Regional Agencies Steering Committee received a proposal developed by the Alliance and its consultants for the mapping exercise.
Leslie Stewart
For more information about the Regional Agencies Smart Growth Strategy Steering Committee, call Victoria Eisen at ABAG, 510-464-7960. Bay Area Alliance Steering Committee meetings and Livability Footprint meetings are also continuing. For Alliance Steering Committee information, call Ceil Scandone at ABAG, 510-464-7900, or check the Alliance Website at http://bayareaalliance.org. Livability Footprint information is available from Andrew Michael at Bay Area Council, 415-981-6600, e-mail amichael@bayareacouncil.org.
Electronic toll collection on the Golden Gate Bridge (see May/June 2000 issue) has been so successful that after three months of operation, toll plaza backups during the morning commute have virtually disappeared. The FasTrak program has already reached a participation level which was projected to take 16 months. Initial projections were for the daily market share of all toll transactions to reach 35% by the end of the first year, 45% by the third year and 66% by the seventh year. By November 15, 2000, four months after beginning implementation, 56,000 FasTrak tags had been issued to almost 39,000 account holders, and the market share of toll transactions had reached 59% during the morning commute and 34% overall. The Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District estimates that the 35% market share level will be reached in early December 2000.
District officials have eliminated the use of toll discount tickets effective mid-November, a step which is necessary to offset the financial impact on the district of the lower FasTrak rate of $2.67 per car instead of $3.00. The new FasTrak system has begun to meet objectives related to increased customer convenience and administrative efficiency, and one important objective, congestion relief, has demonstrably been met. As FasTrak users became a significant segment of bridge drivers, the district opened a dedicated 24-hour FasTrak lane on September 11, which handles approximately 1250 vehicles per hour during the morning commute, compared to an average of 535 vehicles per hour in a staffed lane. A second lane for the morning commute opened on October 4.
Meanwhile, FasTrak lanes are continuing to open on bridges operated by Caltrans. The Carquinez, Benicia and Richmond-San Rafael Bridges are already open, and lanes were scheduled to open on the Bay Bridge at the end of November. The remaining Bay Area bridges should have FasTrak capability by the end of the year. Although transponders work on any FasTrak toll bridge, drivers should obtain them from the agency whose bridge they use most, either the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, or Caltrans.
Leslie Stewart
For More Information:
FasTrak transponder applications:
Caltrans bridge drivers: 888-725-TRAK; online, http://www.dot.ca.gov/fastrak.
Golden Gate Bridge drivers: 877-GGB-TOLL; download at http://www.goldengatebridge.org.