Proposed toll boost raising some hopes
Money could fund transportation projects across Bay Area
Although Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a bill allowing Bay Area voters to raise bridge tolls, no date for an election has been set nor has the amount of the proposed increase or whether it would rise all at once or over a number of years.
What is clear, however, is that the toll increase would raise about $4.5 billion that would pay for at least three dozen transportation projects.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission will decide early in 2018 on the logistics of Regional Measure 3, which would require an overall majority vote in the nine Bay Area counties to become law. If voters go along with it, the toll increases would cover all of the Bay Area’s state-owned bridges but would exclude the Golden Gate Bridge, which is independently owned and sets its own tolls.
The spending plan established by the Legislature offers something for every part of the Bay Area, with a little extra for the most populated areas, and includes highway projects as well as mass transit improvements.
It does, however, continue the Bay Area’s strategy to emphasize public transportation while focusing highway improvements on traffic choke points. As has been the practice for years, no new highway construction would be funded.
Carl Guardino, head of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, which pushed for the bill, said the spending plan’s strategy is to take a regional approach to making it easier to get around the Bay Area.
“In our region especially, we have be-
“In our region especially, we have become very adept at creating and passing countywide measures, yet so many of our traffic tie-ups transcend county borders.” Carl Guardino, head of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group
come very adept at creating and passing countywide measures, yet so many of our traffic tie-ups transcend county borders,” Guardino said. “This allows us to cross county borders and address some of our toughest regional traffic jams.”
The spending plan includes some headline projects, including money to complete the BART extension, now under construction to Berryessa, to downtown San Jose and Santa Clara; a Caltrain extension to the Transbay Terminal; a SMART extension to Windsor and Healdsburg; and funding to complete the widening of the notorious Novato Narrows.
“It has proceeded in fits and starts for years,” said John Goodwin, an MTC spokesman. “This would allow that project to at long last get knocked out.”
The measure would also raise money for both BART and Muni Metro to expand their fleets of new railcars to handle their growing ridership and to expand the San Francisco Bay Ferry fleet and its routes. There’s also money for buses: regional express buses and transbay buses and bus rapid transit in the East Bay.
In addition to the Narrows, the plan would fund expansion of the Bay Area express lane project, which converts carpool lanes into shared carpool-toll lanes for solo drivers who want to buy their way in. It also funds upgrades to interchanges at Interstate 680Highway 4 in Martinez, I-680 and Highway 84 near Sunol, and Highways 101 and 92 in San Mateo.
The plan also calls for funding improvements to the North Bay’s Highway 37, which often floods during heavy rains, and the Dumbarton Bridge corridor.
The bill also requires the measure to include a proposal to create a position for an inspector general whose job it would be to examine BART finances and operations. State Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, insisted on its inclusion in the measure despite BART’s opposition.