GUEST OPINION: Comments sought on potential new bay crossings GUEST OPINION: Comments sought on potential new bay crossings (March 21, 2001)

by Sue Lempert

San Mateo County has much to gain or lose as a result of a new Bay Crossings study, just underway. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission is conducting the study at the request of Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-San Francisco.

In November, 1999, the senator urged Governor Grey Davis to promptly conduct "a regional traffic and transportation study for the Bay Area with respect to alternative bay crossing and other options to increase the capacity and mobility for transbay travel between San Francisco, the East Bay and the Peninsula."

This will be the third attempt to answer the question "Do we need other Bay crossings?"

In 1972 voters in Alameda, Marin, Contra Costa, San Francisco, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties rejected a proposal to build a new bridge extending from India Basin in San Francisco to Alameda, Oakland and San Leandro.

In 1991, the transportation commission took a broader approach, rather than focus solely on a new auto bridge. It studied 11 alternatives. No new crossing was recommended because of plans to widen the San Mateo bridge and provide more frequent BART service. This would accommodate transbay travel to the year 2010 but at high and increasing levels of congestion.

Two alternatives studied but not recommended in 1991 included:

1. A new bridge connecting Highway 380 to 238 with a cross-bay BART connection. This would carry the greatest number of trips but peak hour volumes on the Bay Bridge would not be reduced even though the duration of the peak period would be shortened. Moreover, construction would have significant land use impacts, including displacing homes and businesses and destroying wetlands.

2. A tunnel or tube under the Bay. This would have significant environmental impacts due to dredging. Bay water quality would be affected.

Conditions have changed since the previous study. Projections of traffic volume in 2010 are up 17 percent on the Bay Bridge, 50 percent on the San Mateo Bridge and 36 percent on the Dumbarton Bridge. The present study will update the 1991 findings and consider some new options. Among the possible alternatives to be studied are:

** Widen the San Mateo Bridge or Dumbarton Bridge for express buses and other high occupancy vehicles.

** Build new bridge crossings for auto and/or rail, and include bicycle and pedestrian use. This could include a new transbay crossing, or modification of the Bay Bridge, or rail from the new Transbay Terminal in San Francisco to the East Bay.

** Create new rail transit services via a tube or tunnel under the Bay Bridge (including connections between the Oakland and San Francisco airports); and

** Establish Dumbarton Bridge rail service.

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission is interested in your comments. A public workshop will be held in San Carlos at SamTrans, 1250 San Carlos Ave. Wednesday evening, March 28 at 7:30 p.m. It is an opportunity for San Mateo County residents to obtain more detailed information and to express their views. A similar workshop is being held in San Leandro for East Bay residents.

Here are just a few of the many questions which need to be answered:

** What would be the traffic impact on Highway 101 in the vicinity of the San Francisco Airport if a new bridge was built to connect the East Bay to Highway 380?

** How would plans to expand runways at San Francisco Airport work with a new crossing at this location?

** Would an additional lane on the San Mateo Bridge dedicated to express bus service and carpools attract enough riders to help eliminate delays whic now give this bridge the worst ranking of all afternoon commutes in the Bay Area?

Would rail on the Dumbarton Bridge as part of CalTrain service to San Jose and San Francisco be cost effective and induce motorists to use transit? Would an express bus running between Fremont and Menlo Park make more sense?

** What role could ferries play and what additional parking facilities or shuttles would be required to make this alternative work?

** Which of these options is the most cost-effective in reducing congestion? Which is the most convenient in linking commuters to their jobs?

Plan on attending the meeting on March 28th to learn more and share your views. Sue Lempert, duputy mayor of the city of San Mateo, is an MTC Commissioner representing the cities of San Mateo County. She also is co-chair of the Bay Crossings study.