Plan Bay Area

Update: Video recordings of these meetings are now available. 6/9 MTC Planning Committee: Video Recording 6/9 MTC Operations Committee: Video Recording 6/9 MTC Legislation Committee: Video Recording Three of MTC’s standing committees will meet starting at 10 a.m. on Friday, June 8, at the Bay Area Metro Center. Highlights include a preview of a new report on autonomous vehicles, proposed action on two pieces of housing-related state legislation, updates on this week’s state primary election, and federal legislation and funding updates. Read on for links to everything, and tune in live to the Read More

Earlier this year, the blog provided a sneak peek at the long-awaited first new BART rail cars rolling into service around the Bay Area – and, with them, the promise of smoother, quieter, more comfortable and more spacious train rides for commute-weary Bay Area residents. In that post, we went into some detail on MTC’s essential role in funding and supporting BART’s $4.2 billion “Fleet of the Future” project to purchase and deploy 1,081 new rail cars. But it’s worth stepping back a bit from the funding mechanics to get a better understanding of the difficult realities that make these new rail Read More

Marshall McLuhan famously posited that “the medium is the message,” meaning that how you convey information is as important as the intended message itself. MTC’s Draft 2018 Public Participation Plan examines the media and methods the agency uses to get its messages across to the public, and to collect feedback. In essence, we are asking the public to comment on how they would like to receive information and comment in the future on MTC’s plans and programs. Read More

The entire Bay Area celebrated a major milestone last week as the long-awaited first new 10-car BART train began service in the East Bay on the Richmond line. As you can see in the above video from MTC’s partners at BART, the new cars will be smoother and quieter, with quicker and easier boarding, six digital screens in each car, more comfortable seats and more places to hang on. This is riders’ first taste of a decades-long, multi-billion dollar project to replace the aging BART rail car fleet and expand the BART system’s capacity with more rail cars. As you can imagine, making these new cars Read More

As the year winds to a close, it's a good time to take stock of all the things we are grateful for. Here at the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) and Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), there is an across-the-board commitment to hard work and excellence at both the staff and leadership level. We are thankful for all of the following honors and awards bestowed on us in 2017 by peers and professional organizations. Read More