By Matt Williams
In May, the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) released a draft update to its 2009 Long Range Transportation Plan, which will run through 2040. The County plan is supposed to be supportive of the regional transportation plan, “Plan Bay Area,” which incorporates a state-mandated Sustainable Communities Strategy intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the nine-county Bay Area. Unfortunately, a review of Contra Costa’s transportation plan and its draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR), released along with the plan, show that it is detrimental to the region’s Sustainable Communities Strategy.
Plan Bay Area has several “performance targets” that need support from Contra Costa’s transportation plan. One is to raise the share of all trips that do not involve a car by ten percent. Unfortunately, the County’s transportation plan will only increase walking, biking, and taking transit by 0.8 percent — a far cry from the goal of ten percent. This could be due to the fact that 47 percent of the funds going to the County plan are directed toward freeway and roadway projects.
The key objective of the state law mandating that Plan Bay Area include a Sustainable Communities Strategy (Senate Bill 375) is to cut the driving of cars and light trucks. Spending 47 percent of the CCTA budget on freeway and road projects isn’t helpful to achieving that objective.
Another one of Plan Bay Area’s performance targets is “decrease automobile vehicle miles traveled per capita by 10 percent.” In this performance metric the Contra Costa transportation plan again falls far short; from 2015, the base year, to 2040, vehicle miles traveled per capita is expected to increase, not decrease. The DEIR actually finds that not doing anything (the “No Project” alternative) would increase vehicle miles traveled per capita less than the proposed transportation plan! That is, the plan will actually make things worse than no plan at all.
Accommodating new residents in already established urban areas (called Priority Development Areas, or PDAs) is a key strategy in lowering greenhouse gas emissions from driving. PDA residents are supposed to be able to walk, bike, or take transit to work or to shops. Yet of 39 PDAs in Contra Costa County, the Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) reported that 15 would not have public transit routes operating at 15-minute frequencies within a quarter mile. That is, 15 of 39 do not have adequate transit. It is unclear if Contra Costa’s transportation plan will correct this transit deficit. In a letter to MTC in June, AC Transit pointed out that there may be not enough funds to operate the existing level of transit service in the Bay Area through 2040 and recommended that, if necessary, funding to support transit operations “should be shifted from capital projects and/or roadway projects.”
The Sierra Club wants to see the CCTA help achieve the greenhouse gas reductions that are the goal of the region’s Sustainable Communities Strategy. We have asked that a new, revised transportation plan be developed for Contra Costa with that objective in mind.
Matt Williams is the chair of the Bay Chapter’s Transportation & Compact Growth Committee