The ABAG Legislation Committee, the ABAG Finance Committee, the Advancing California Finance Authority Governing Board and the ABAG Executive Board will meet on Thursday, May 17, at the Bay Area Metro Center, beginning at 4:00 p.m.

Read on for a preview of major meeting topics and for links to the full meeting agendas. Read More

Here’s more good news for transportation in California and the Bay Area:

Caltrans announced [last week] the recipients of $105 million in State of Good Repair (SGR) program funds from Senate Bill 1 (SB 1), money that will provide capital assistance to local governments and agencies to rehabilitate and modernize California’s existing local transit systems. This program has a specific goal of keeping transit systems in a state of good repair, including the purchase of new transit vehicles and maintenance and rehabilitation of transit facilities and vehicles.

This includes nearly $38 million for 29 projects across the Bay Area for Fiscal Year 2017-2018. This funding for Bay Area transportation is separate from the nearly $2 billion over 10 years in grant awards and grant recommendations for 23 Bay Area projects announced last month from SB 1 competitive grant programs.

Continue reading on to find out which Bay Area projects received funding. Read More

Horizon is an exciting new effort from MTC and ABAG to allow the public, planners and policymakers to wrestle with challenging questions about the external forces that could shape the Bay Area through 2050. Horizon will explore a range of pressing issues and attempt to put the region on sounder footing as it prepares for, and tries to shape, a trajectory that is both equitable and resilient to potential headwinds.

Horizon will identify a suite of potential external forces and allow residents, planners and decision-makers alike to think through policy and investment solutions that make sense in each distinct future. Ultimately, policies and projects that perform well regardless of what happens in the decades ahead will be identified as top priorities going forward. This planning initiative will inform the next regional transportation and land use plan, a separate but closely related effort that will kick off in mid-2019.

Currently, major Horizon work efforts have been directed towards establishing Guiding Principles that will help orient the process, as well as on identifying the futures themselves. Keep reading to find out more about the futures and watch the video above for additional background. Read More

May 10 is the Bay Area’s official Bike to Work Day. To commemorate the yearly event, a few of our staff members shared their stories about biking, along with pictures of themselves, their families, or their bike routes. Meet some of the friendly faces around our office who love to bike, and learn more about the bike-related events happening around the Bay Area today. Read More

Three meetings are scheduled for Friday, May 11, at the Bay Area Metro Center: the MTC Operations Committee, the Joint MTC Planning Committee with the ABAG Administrative Committee, and the Joint MTC Legislation Committee and ABAG Legislation Committee. 

Read on for a summary of the major items that will be discussed and the recommended actions for the MTC Commission/ABAG Executive Board.

Tune in live to the meetings on Friday from our Live Webcasts page, and bookmark the main Meetings page to read the meeting agendas and keep up with all MTC meetings. Read More

May 1 was the start of National Bike Month and this year there are more ways than ever for Bay Area residents to participate. The Bay Area Bike Challenge, previously known as the Team Bike Challenge, is designed to encourage people of all abilities bike to work, school, a lunch meeting or any other trip during the month of May. Whether you want to join a team of riders, compete for prizes, track your rides, try out the Ford GoBike bike share program at no cost, or participate in Bike to Work Day on May 10, National Bike Month in the Bay Area has got you covered.

Keep reading to find out more! Read More

There’s a whole new way to experience the San Francisco Bay Trail, a planned 500-mile walking and cycling path around the entire San Francisco Bay.  Download the Vizzit app to your smartphone to get personalized tours of 15 selected locations along the trail from long-time Bay Area TV host Doug McConnell.

The Bay Trail runs through all nine Bay Area counties, 47 cities, and across the region’s seven toll bridges. Over 350 miles are already in place, connecting communities to open spaces, parks, transit, schools and each other.

Find out more on the Bay Trail website and download this brochure and map to plan your own adventure. The San Francisco Bay Trail is a program of ABAG and receives funding for project operation and trail development from MTC. Read More

Three MTC Standing Committees will meet at the Bay Area Metro Center on Wednesday, May 9, in addition to a Budget Study Session, a Policy Advisory Council meeting, and a Policy Advisory Council Equity & Access Subcommittee meeting. Read on for a preview of the agenda items for the standing committee meetings.

Tune in live to the meetings on Wednesday from our Live Webcasts page, and bookmark the main Meetings page to read the meeting agendas and keep up with all the meetings happening each week. Read More

Last week was a big one for transportation in California, with the state announcing grant award recommendations or winners for four different programs funded by Senate Bill 1 (SB 1), the state’s landmark transportation funding law signed in 2017.   

The nine-county Bay Area did very well. The region is currently on track to receive a total of $2 billion in funding over the next 10 years to support 23 critical Bay Area transportation projects. These projects range from a host of improvements along U.S. Highway 101, including Express Lanes and express buses through the heart of Silicon Valley and HOV Lanes through the Marin-Sonoma Narrows; a planned BART extension from San Jose to Santa Clara; new rail cars and capacity for SF Muni and BART; Caltrain electrification and expansion; increased frequency for trains along the Capitol Corridor; extending SMART to Larkspur and Windsor; express regional bus service in Solano County; plus improvements at the Port of Oakland, new clean zero-emission buses, and pedestrian projects, among many others. 

Continue reading to find out more about the state's grant award recommendations and grant award winners and what it means for the Bay Area. Read More

April's Map of the Month from MTC and ABAG Executive Director Steve Heminger looks at the predicted impact of the Census Bureau's recent decision to include a citizenship question on response rates to the 2020 Census.

From the Executive Director's latest report to the MTC Commission and ABAG Executive Board:

April’s Map of the Month recently was featured in a post from CityLab and highlights potential issues with the Census Bureau’s recent decision to include a question about citizenship in the upcoming 2020 Census. Though the issue of adding this question to the census largely has been thought of as a partisan one, a deeper investigation reveals there may be consequences for both parties. This map uses data from the Census Bureau’s new Response Outreach Area Mapper (ROAM) and shows predicted mail non-response rates. The darker blue areas depict low mail-in response areas.