Almost a year ago, Transform signed on to a letter opposing a project to build new highway lanes connecting State Route 92 from the San Mateo Bridge to Highway 101. The project — first proposed in 2016 by the San Mateo County Transportation Authority (SMCTA), City/County Association of Governments of San Mateo County (C/CAG), and Caltrans — recently gained powerful new opponents: the San Mateo City Council.
Building a movement against new lanes, one project at a time
The 101/92 connector project is particularly fraught because it would require taking more than 30 properties by eminent domain, including public parks. Bus service across the San Mateo Bridge was discontinued during the pandemic and hasn’t been restored; making more space for cars instead of resuming suspended transit service is the wrong approach.
Advocates have been building a movement against this project, and it paid off at a recent City Council meeting, where Streetsblog SF reported that there was overwhelming public comment in opposition to the new connector, with no one speaking in favor.
101/92 Connector Alternative 1101/92 Connector Alternative 2101/92 Connector Alternative 3
Members of the San Mateo City Council criticized the project for prioritizing car travel over other forms of transportation and contributing to the pollution burden in the affected communities. The highway expansion would come at the expense of homes, including senior housing, and public parks that provide recreational space for children.
Transform is working with our allies to encourage planners, engineers, agency staff, and elected leaders to look beyond highways for solutions to local and regional transportation issues. Building new highway miles in a time of accelerating climate crisis is effectively pouring gasoline on a burning building. Change is hard, but we believe there are transportation and housing options that will work better for everyone while mitigating climate change.
Our budget should reflect our values
The enormous expenditure required for even a few miles of new highway could be more productively spent. For example, civic leaders could use the expected $300 million price tag for this highway expansion to restart the transbay public transit service or build workforce housing on the Peninsula, so workers aren’t forced into long commutes by high housing prices.
The San Mateo City Council will write a letter requesting that the involved agencies redirect the funds to projects that will truly benefit the community. In the face of such strong opposition from both residents, advocates, and elected officials, we hope SMCTA, C/CAG, and Caltrans will scrap this project.
The Bay Area Infrastructure Financing Authority (BAIFA) will hold a webinar tonight and a hearing on May 9, 2025, to solicit public comments on proposed changes to tolls on express lanes in the Bay Area. You can submit comments until 5 p.m. on May 9 by emailing [email protected].
New charges, new toll lanes
BAIFA is a joint powers authority between the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and the Bay Area Toll Authority. The changes in this proposal include:
Confirm the end of toll discounts for clean air vehicles such as EVs
Increase the minimum toll per zone from $0.50 to $0.75 for all BAIFA Express Lanes
Add tolling to the new Solano County I-80 express lanes coming to Fairfield and Vacaville
Extend the time of tolling pilots
Extend the toll zones on 680 to close an express lane gap.
Transform’s work includes developing policy on equitable tolling. Toll lanes can help reduce congestion and air pollution, while also providing funding for other forms of transportation, such as public transit, biking, and walking. Public participation is essential to ensure equity is at the heart of both program design, expenditures, and process.
Public input on the toll changes is essential to creating tolling and express lane policies that benefit all road users without disproportionately impacting low-income residents. You can learn more at the webinar, 6:30 p.m. on April 23, on Zoom. You can comment in person at the hearing on May 9 at 9:35 am via Zoom or attend in person at the Bay Area Metro Center, Board Room, First Floor, San Francisco.
You can also submit a written comment. Email [email protected] or mail comments to:
https://transformca.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/AdobeStock_283865694_Editorial_Use_Only-scaled-e1720486272938.jpeg12801920Carrie Harvillahttps://transformca.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Company-Logo.pngCarrie Harvilla2025-04-23 14:57:372025-04-23 14:57:39Public Invited to Comment on Proposed Toll Lane Changes
Transform is excited to announce our partnership with the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) and the School of Arts and Culture (SOAC) at the Mexican Heritage Plaza (La Plaza) through the Transit-Oriented Communities (TOC) Grant Program. Our collaboration aims to enhance sustainable transportation options and reduce car dependency for the annual Avenida de Altares event hosted by SOAC in East San Jose.
TOC grant aims for culturally competent transit encouragement
The VTA’s TOC Grant Program is designed to foster equitable, mixed-use, and mixed-income communities within a half-mile of transit stations and hubs. The program seeks to:
Increase activities that promote transit-oriented communities
Improve accessibility to transit stops
Address community challenges with equitable outcomes
Strengthen community identity and inclusivity
Boost community support for transit-oriented investments
Align with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s (MTC) Transit-Oriented Policy requirements.
By funding projects that align with these objectives, the VTA aims to increase transit ridership, reduce car trips, and support vibrant, walkable neighborhoods around transit facilities.
A festive night of art and culture
Avenida de Altares (Avenue of the Altars) is a cultural celebration hosted at La Plaza in San Jose, attracting over 3,000 attendees. Save the date and join us on November 1, 2025!
This free cultural event celebrates Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) at La Plaza. It’s an immersive experience centering on a curated altar walk that spans from the intersection of Alum Rock Avenue and King Road all the way to the entrance of Highway 101, culminating inside La Plaza.
After taking in the cultural sights and sounds on the Avenida de Altares, community members are invited into La Plaza for a wide variety of activities. This includes Day of the Dead-themed face painting, private tarot readings, local artisans and makers selling original creations, and a picturesque cemetery installation.
Public transit enhances the celebration
Recognizing the potential transportation challenges associated with such a large event, Transform will develop a comprehensive Transportation Demand Management (TDM) plan in partnership with SOAC to:
Promote sustainable transportation: Encourage attendees to utilize public transit, biking, and walking to access the event.
Reduce traffic congestion: Implement strategies that decrease reliance on single-occupancy vehicles, thereby alleviating parking demand and roadway congestion.
Enhance accessibility: Ensure that all attendees, including Spanish-speaking and limited-mobility individuals, have convenient and equitable access to the event.
Foster community partnerships: Strengthen collaborations between Transform, the School of Arts and Culture, VTA, and other stakeholders to support the event’s success.
As part of creating the Transportation Demand Management plan, Transform will document existing conditions through walk audits, focus groups, and surveys. We will explore potential incentives and benefits to encourage sustainable travel choices. To help people navigate to and from the event on transit, our project will enhance wayfinding, education, and outreach, ensuring that all information is presented in a culturally relevant format that supports the spirit of the event.
The Avenida de Altares project will allow Transform to create a model for sustainable event transportation that can be replicated for future community events. Through thoughtful planning and community collaboration, we can enhance the attendee experience while promoting environmental sustainability and community well-being.
We will share updates as the project progresses and invite the community to join us in making the Avenida de Altares event a success through sustainable transportation options.
https://transformca.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/LaAvenida-142-scaled.jpeg12801920Julia Gerasimenkohttps://transformca.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Company-Logo.pngJulia Gerasimenko2025-04-14 20:12:242025-04-14 20:12:26San Jose Dia de Los Muertos Will Be Spooky and Sustainable
Every year, advocacy groups like Transform work on two separate but related campaigns in Sacramento: legislation and the budget. For 2025, Transform has a packed legislative agenda, but that doesn’t mean we’re ignoring the budget process. This year, we have three big budget asks of the legislature: $2.9 billion for housing and homelessness assistance, $2 billion to support transit operations, and to restore $400 million taken from the Active Transportation Program (ATP) in last year’s budget.
Budget negotiations are less visible and harder to follow, but they’re no less critical to California’s future. Here’s what Transform is doing to advocate for equitable budget priorities to improve transportation, housing, and climate.
How does the state budget process work in California?
The California budget process starts at the beginning of the year and finishes by the end of June, the deadline for the governor and the legislature to come to an agreement and pass a budget for the next fiscal year. Along the way, there are several significant milestones and big hearings, plus many, many meetings to hammer out the budget details.
In January, the governor releases his budget, the opening salvo for budget negotiations. The legislature may release its own budget recommendations, and various caucuses may release statements on their budget priorities.
After months of negotiations and hearings, the governor releases another budget draft, called the May Revise, in — you guessed it — May. Then the governor and the legislature conduct a final round of negotiations to hammer out a deal before the June 30 deadline.
Throughout this process, Transform and our allies send letters like the ones below, testify at hearings, and attend meetings with legislators, advocating for our priorities. We’re not alone in this; lobbyists for various industries, labor unions, state agencies, and many nonprofits representing diverse interests all weigh in on how our state should allocate its resources.
In 2025, the process is complicated by chaos in the new federal regime, making it difficult to rely on previously committed federal funding. It’s unclear what gaps legislators might need to fill due to unmet federal commitments.
Transform and our coalition partners have made three requests to the governor and the legislature to fund housing, public transit, and active transportation infrastructure. Each of them will make a significant difference in the lives of California residents but represent a small fraction of California’s $230 billion budget.
$2.9 billion for housing and homelessness programs
In our coalition letter, below, Transform and our allies have outlined precisely where we’d like to see $2.9 billion in housing money allocated. The funding will close gaps, facilitating the construction of affordable housing and helping unhoused Californians find long-term shelter. The letter calls for $1 billion in funding for Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention, an effective program that has moved 40,000 people out of homelessness in the past two years, but which will be unfunded without this money. The money would also keep alive the Multifamily Housing Program, which builds new and preserves existing affordable housing. Without new funds, this vital program won’t be able to make more grants.
Transform has joined a coalition asking for $2 billion to shore up our state’s struggling transit systems. We can’t afford to lose the vital bus and train connections that millions of Californians rely on to get around. The legislature provided stopgap transit funding coming out of the pandemic. As transit providers work to develop long-term funding solutions, we’re asking the legislature to allocate $2 billion over the next two fiscal years to keep the buses rolling until those solutions come online.
$400 million for the Active Transportation Program
Last year’s budget cuts stripped $400 million from the ATP. This left it with only enough funding to approve 13 projects to make biking and walking safer across the whole state. Transform is part of a coalition asking for those funds to be reinstated. That would allow the ATP to fund an additional 36 excellent, shovel-ready active transportation projects.
Equitable road pricing is one of the most important strategies to reduce excess driving, support public transit, and reduce climate pollution. Transform co-leads a working group of California advocates that support equitable pricing, and in February, Betsy Plum from the New York Riders Alliance spoke with California advocates about her group’s yearslong campaign for congestion pricing.
Plum’s experience in developing effective messaging for a new charge on people driving in Manhattan is an inspiring example of putting the benefits of a complex policy into terms everyone can understand.
New York City’s congestion pricing program
Drivers who enter Manhattan below 60th Street are now charged a daily fee of $9. The program, which started on January 5, 2025, had immediate benefits. Those who drive into the city have found their commute times significantly reduced as traffic has dropped. At the same time, business is up, with Broadway ticket sales booming and retail ticking up. The program is popular with New Yorkers, even as President Donald Trump seeks to rescind federal approval given under the Biden administration.
Plum reported that, in its first six weeks, 1 million fewer vehicles had entered the congestion relief zone. Bus service was faster and more reliable, especially to the farther reaches of the city. Express bus ridership had grown on the weekends, and subway ridership was up every day. Polling showed that two-thirds of people who drive cars supported the toll, a strong early success.
Building an equitable tolling program
One of Riders Alliance’s foundation principles was to design an equitable program. It should support low-income drivers, especially those who live in the Congestion Relief Zone. Revenue should fund programs to improve health in impacted communities by studying air quality, expanding asthma treatment centers, adding vegetation barriers next to highways, and installing air filtration systems in schools near highways in New York and New Jersey.
There are also discount programs for those who still need to drive. Eligible low-income New Yorkers can apply for a 50% discount, effective after the first 10 tolled trips in any calendar month, and people with disabilities can apply for an Individual Disability Exemption Plan, which will exempt them from paying the toll. Just as importantly, in anticipation of congestion pricing, the City initiated “Fair Fares NYC,” a program that gives New Yorkers with low incomes a 50% discount on subway and bus fares.
Much of the revenue will go to NYC’s vital transit system, including $15 billion for new transit projects creating faster subways via signal upgrades, new buses and trains to prevent breakdowns and delays, and new subway stations and elevators to increase ADA access.
The winding road to a critical policy
It took years of organizing by a coalition of groups to achieve all this. Along the way, there were lawsuits, multiple governors, and many different advocacy tactics.
New York finally passed a law authorizing the City to implement congestion pricing in 2019. It needed federal approval, which wasn’t forthcoming during the first Trump administration, but Biden’s Department of Transportation gave the green light in 2021.
Work to implement congestion pricing kicked into high gear ahead of a planned launch on June 30, 2024 — until New York Governor Kathy Hochul pulled the plug in early June, putting an indefinite pause on the program.
That’s when Plum’s organization kicked into high gear. Riders Alliance hired a strategic communications firm and ran ads, a first for the group. They aimed ads at the governor, urging her to reverse her decision. The ads focused on benefits everyone could understand: improved air quality, less gridlock, faster emergency response times.
After the November election, Hochul reversed her decision and the race was on to pass the final hurdles for implementation while the Biden administration was still in charge in Washington. Riders Alliance ran an ad touting the benefits shortly after congestion pricing started.
What California advocates can learn from NYC
New York is unique in its density, but California can build on the knowledge of advocates like Plum in pushing our cities and highways to adopt tolling. Here are some key takeaways from Plum.
Coalitions move the needle. Working with a diverse set of organizations with different strategies gave power to the movement for congestion pricing. Plum described an inside/outside strategy: Riders Alliance was willing to be more hard-hitting toward elected leaders. Other allies took a gentler approach and had the ear of elected officials. The combination of public pressure plus pragmatic insiders kept the pressure on the governor’s office. Coalitions can be unified without being uniform.
Organize, organize, organize. Transit riders are the power base: mobilize them and keep up the pressure. Focus on the people who will benefit from tolling to counteract well-funded opposition.
Show that government can do hard things. It rebuilds trust in democracy when you show that government can provide positive change. Give elected leaders the win; frame the policy as a victory for leadership and vision.
The success of New York’s congestion pricing is making the case for road pricing better than any advocate could. But it took a foundation of committed advocacy to get to implementation. California should be next, and Transform will work to ensure whatever solutions our state adopts include equitable pricing, as we move beyond highways.
https://transformca.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/congestion-pricing-still.png5601095Zack Deutsch-Grosshttps://transformca.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Company-Logo.pngZack Deutsch-Gross2025-03-18 17:21:112025-03-18 17:21:14Lessons from New York City’s Long Campaign for Congestion Pricing
Transform is leading a coalition of over 50 advocacy groups in housing, transportation, climate, and equity to urge California’s legislature to improve the state’s landmark Cap-and-Trade Program, closing loopholes that subsidize our most polluting industries and reinvesting additional revenue in sustainable transportation and affordable housing programs that center frontline communities.
What is Cap-and-Trade?
California’s Cap-and-Trade Program puts a limit on overall carbon emissions each year by charging large polluters based on their emissions. The allowed emissions limit, or cap, lowers over time and the price of carbon emissions, at least in theory, increases.
This incentivizes polluters to reduce their emissions via a market trading system. The program generates $4 billion a year that is reinvested in programs that further reduce emissions, such as new affordable housing near transit and sustainable transportation options.
With the program set to expire in 2030, a diverse movement of organizations spanning issues of housing, transportation, climate, and environmental justice are uniting against the interests of extractive carbon-spewing industries. The carbon lobby is strong and well-funded after decades of profiting from lax regulation and externalized harms, so the voices advocating for a cleaner, greener, more equitable Cap-and-Trade Program must be loud.
Current status of Cap-and-Trade
California’s Cap-and-Trade carbon market has provided funding for many worthy projects. For example, the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) Program, which provides grants for infill housing and sustainable transportation, is a smart way to reduce vehicle miles traveled by providing affordable housing close to transit and amenities. Cap-and-Trade also funds vital transit through the Transit and Intercity Rail Corridor Enhancement Program (TIRCP) and the Low Carbon Transit Operations Program (LCTOP), as well as California High-Speed Rail.
However, from the start, the carbon lobby has gotten loopholes in Cap-and-Trade. Over 50% of all pollution allowances are given free to utilities and carbon-intensive industries like oil, gas, and cement production. While these free allowances are intended to protect Californians from price hikes, they are effectively massive subsidies for polluting industries. In fact, a Pro Publica investigation showed that, in the initial years of the program, emissions from the oil and gas industry rose rather than declined.
Astroturf “green” groups are already lobbying in Sacramento for a “clean” reauthorization that would continue billions of dollars of oil and gas subsidies via these free pollution allowances.
Full funding for frontline communities
The lack of affordable housing and sustainable transportation options in California are major contributors to the climate crisis and increasing unaffordability, and significant investment is needed. At the same time, frontline communities have seen very few greenhouse gas emissions reductions or air quality improvements since the advent of Cap-and-Trade, and many of our top priorities, like Transformative Climate Communities and Equitable Building Decarbonization, remain underfunded.
Rather than fighting over scraps of the revenue from Cap-and-Trade, Transform and our allies have come together around a set of recommendations rooted in shared solidarity across different funding areas. By removing free allowances and offsets, another subsidy that allows polluters to keep polluting, we can not only achieve additional reductions in pollution that damages climate and health, but we can also increase the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, adding revenue to support existing and additional expenditures that prioritize frontline communities, affordable housing, and sustainable transportation.
A better Cap-and-Trade Program
The reauthorization of the Cap-and-Trade Program is a critical opportunity to enhance its structure. Transform will continue to campaign for a more effective program that truly reduces carbon emissions, reduces the pollution burden on environmental justice communities, and advances California’s sustainable transportation and affordable housing goals.
Header image is a Bryon Rumford mural at Sacramento and Ashby in Berkeley, created by Zach Franklin, Seth Martinez, Sofia Zander, and community members.
Black History Month is a good time to lift up the roles that African Americans have played in building our public transit systems and advocating for fair housing regulations. Here are just a few of the Black trailblazers who broke barriers and worked tirelessly for a more just, equitable, and liveable Bay Area.
Mary Ellen Pleasant (1814-1904) was one of the most powerful Black women in Gold Rush-era San Francisco, and she used her wealth to fight discrimination in San Francisco’s transportation system. Accounts differ on where she was born and whether or not she was enslaved; however, by the 1820s, she was in New England, working at a busy shop and helping fellow Black Americans to freedom along the Underground Railroad.
Thomas Fleming (1907-2006) worked as an editor, reporter, and columnist for the Black press in San Francisco for 61 years, starting in 1941. As a journalist and editor at the Sun-Reporter, Fleming documented transportation inequities and consistently advocated for improved public transportation access in predominantly Black neighborhoods.
Cecil Poole (1914-1997) was the first African-American U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California and the first appointed to the federal bench in the same district. Judge Poole ruled on significant housing discrimination cases in a career marked by being the first African American at virtually every level of state and federal legal office in Northern California.
Byron Rumford (1908-1986) was the first Black person elected to state office when he won a seat representing Berkeley in the California Assembly in 1948. During his long tenure in public service, he advocated for improved public transportation access in Berkeley and Oakland. He passed the Rumford Fair Housing Act of 1963, outlawing housing discrimination in California, despite fierce opposition.
Maudelle Shirek (1911-2013)was an eight-term city council member in Berkeley and also served as vice mayor. Shirek advocated for rent control, senior housing, and robust public services — including accessible public transit — particularly for low-income elders. When she left office at age 92 in 2004, she was the oldest publicly elected official in California. A San Francisco Chronicle article referred to Shirek as “the godmother of East Bay progressive politics.”
Lois Cooper (1931-2014) was the first female engineer to work for the engineering division of the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), known during her time as the California Division of Highways. She became a trailblazer for many women and African Americans in this critical transportation field.
Maya Angelou (1928-2014) worked in a variety of jobs before she became a celebrated poet and author, including a career as a singer, dancer, and songwriter. But, before any of these accomplishments, her first love was working as a streetcar operator in San Francisco, a job she started at age 16. Angelou was the first African-American streetcar operator in San Francisco in 1943, operating the 7-Haight line. She received a lifetime achievement award from the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials in 2014.
https://transformca.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Rumford_Mural.jpg7681024Nicolay Kreidlerhttps://transformca.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Company-Logo.pngNicolay Kreidler2025-02-10 19:12:092025-02-14 14:13:06Essential Contributions of Black Americans to Bay Area Housing and Transit
On January 21, 2025, Transform was one of 61 nonprofits that joined together to send a message to California agencies in charge of transportation, housing, and air quality: We urgently need to lower our transportation emissions now. Transform was a central member of the group drafting the letter, which outlines concrete steps the agencies must take to ensure California meets its transportation emission targets.
Transform’s work advocating for transportation and housing policies to avert climate change has never been more crucial. The wildfires that have devastated Los Angeles are just the latest in a string of climate disasters to rock our state, threatening the lives and livelihoods of Californians. Yet our state agencies and elected officials often act as if changing our driving habits and petroleum addiction would be more harmful than fires and floods that wipe out whole towns and communities.
We can’t afford to push climate action to some fuzzy date in the future. We need concrete, significant action now. The strong and determined coalition united behind this letter is demanding just that.
No help from Washington
One of the biggest sticking points for climate action is money. It costs money to ensure transit systems have robust operating budgets. Building infill housing near transit hubs takes funding. Creating bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly streets requires infrastructure spending that most California communities can’t take on without support.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and other infrastructure legislation passed during the last administration sent a large influx of money to the states to fund climate-resilient infrastructure. Unfortunately, even under a supportive administration, California used the funding on projects that will lead to a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions.
But, as the letter notes, we can’t expect support from the federal government under the current administration, which has already signaled its intent to prioritize oil production and strip EV mandates. The good news is that California has the money it needs for transportation transformation.
Stop building highways
Transportation emissions are the largest single source of GHGs in California, and the state has developed excellent policies to reduce tailpipe emissions. However, while our state’s transportation spending includes some funding to support active and public transportation, we’re still spending too much money on highway expansion.
Every mile of state-controlled highway is a debt against the future. Although planners widen highways to reduce congestion, it’s empirically evident that widening roads only eases traffic flow for a few years. In the long term, it leads to more driving, more pollution, more climate-killing emissions, and even worse traffic jams. And, every highway mile California builds is a future maintenance cost. New highways are money pits that drag climate stability down with them.
The coalition letter demands that the agencies controlling California’s transportation budget take steps to ensure we follow established laws and policies for reducing driving. Plus, simply shifting the money allocated for new freeway miles would free up a significant amount of money that could be used to shore up struggling public transit systems and build low-stress bike networks and walkable neighborhoods.
Strength in numbers
ClimatePlan headed the coalition that sent the letter. The group included environmental advocates like NRDC, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Sierra Club. Regional and statewide active transportation groups signed on, including local bicycle coalitions in Santa Monica, San Diego, the East Bay, and Los Angeles, as well as CalBike and California Walks. The Coalition for Clean Air, the American Lung Association, and the Central California Asthma Collective are part of the coalition, as are climate action groups, including Climate Action California, 350 chapters, and Elders Climate Action. Transit, housing, and street safety groups also signed on.
The diversity of the groups coming together to advocate for a shift in California’s transportation spending reflects the seriousness of the issue. Changing the focus of our transportation policies from moving as many cars and trucks as possible as fast as possible to clean, efficient, and safe alternatives affects every facet of our lives. Spending more on bike lanes and sidewalks creates safer streets, reducing traffic fatalities and injuries. Making transit more efficient reduces air pollution that causes a myriad of diseases, from lung cancer to Alzheimer’s.
A coalition with voices from so many diverse interest areas will be heard in Sacramento. Transform is proud to join forces with allies across disciplines to unite around our shared interest in moving California back from the climate abyss.
The steps we take to wean California from its carbon addiction are crucial to protect our communities from the worst ravages of climate change. But those same actions also improve health and well-being in a variety of ways. Reimagining our transportation systems is an opportunity to create a future that’s human-centered, efficient, cost-effective, and healthy, for the planet and the creatures who depend on it.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) recently released its final blueprint of Plan Bay Area 2050+, the region’s latest long-range plan to address transportation, housing, the economy, and the environment over the next 30 years. According to MTC, Plan Bay Area 2050+ is “an opportunity to refine select plan strategies to integrate the lessons of the last three years.”
Unfortunately, much of the plan could have been written for the past 30 years, as it continues highway expansion policies that worsen congestion and contribute to a warming planet while continuing to under-invest in active and public transportation infrastructure, making the Bay Area less affordable for the average working family.
A recently released project list details $45 billion in highway projects over the next 30 years. While that represents about 9% of MTC’s total projected transportation investment, a smaller percentage than other metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) and California’s state transportation budget put toward highway widening, much of the highway spending is front-loaded at the beginning of the plan, undercutting transit, walking, and biking investments while baking in congestion, pollution, and emissions for the next three decades.
Plan Bay Area 2050+ will likely fail to meet its emissions reduction target
As part of Senate Bill 375, MTC is required to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions from passenger vehicles by 19% by 2035. As our state contends with horrific wildfires during a wildfire season that extends year-round while also battling floods and drought, hitting this goal is more important than ever. However, according to the California Air Resources Board’s emission-tracking dashboard, we are moving in the wrong direction, with regional GHGs and vehicle miles traveled exceeding pre-pandemic levels.
Unfortunately, based on the transportation project list, we’re concerned that Plan Bay Area 2050+ is unlikely to achieve the required emissions reduction. Of the $45 billion dedicated to highways, over a third, about $16 billion, is earmarked for highway expansion, interchanges, and ramp widening, which all generate significant emissions and don’t even reduce congestion.
While the highway investment represents a fraction of the overall plan, it has an outsized climate impact. According to research from Georgetown Climate Center, you would need 10 times the investment in intercity rail to offset the emissions generated by each lane mile of highway expansion.
Making matters worse, Transform has already raised concerns about two of these highway expansion projects, SR 37 and I-680. We believe these projects will have much larger negative VMT and emissions impacts than MTC is projecting.
Front-loading climate destruction
MTC has put much of the highway widening in the first 10 years of the plan, baking in climate-killing emissions for the duration of the plan and ensuring maximum damage from the additional vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Nearly 80% of the highway expansion and 41 out of 88 projects are slated for the early years of the plan.
At the same time, some of the most effective greenhouse gas reduction strategies — all-lane tolling and pricing parking — won’t begin until 2035 at the earliest. We are already late in deploying these tools; we cannot and should not wait another 10 years before we take significant steps to reduce driving.
MTC — and all of California’s state and regional agencies — must stop acting like climate change is anything but an emergency. While Plan Bay Area 2050+ is an improvement on previous plans, it is simply not aggressive enough to compensate for decades of nonstop highway expansion. We can act quickly when needed; the actions already taken to respond to and streamline rebuilding after the Los Angeles fires demonstrate that. We need the same sense of urgency in addressing the climate emergency that we have in rebuilding after the catastrophes it causes or makes worse.
We need a better direction for the Bay Area’s transportation future
The projects included in Plan Bay Area 2050+ will set the funding decisions and priorities for the Bay Area’s transportation, housing, environment, and economy for the next 30 years, so getting this right is critical. Setting the wrong priorities or front-loading funding to projects that aren’t aligned with the priorities could lead to missed funding opportunities and missed climate goals.
Transform’s advocacy will inform the final blueprint, which the MTC will approve this spring. MTC will then send it to the California Air Resources Board, which must approve it and certify that it will meet sustainable communities strategy goals. We will continue advocating as the agencies involved finalize the plan over the next year, working to eliminate highway widening and expand funding for programs that support climate mitigation and the affordable, accessible, sustainable transportation options the Bay Area needs.
https://transformca.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/City-view-SF-Twin-Peaks-scaled.jpeg15361920Zack Deutsch-Grosshttps://transformca.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Company-Logo.pngZack Deutsch-Gross2025-01-21 17:11:472025-01-30 13:58:26MTC released its latest transportation plan. Here’s why we’re worried.
The Bay Area has two problems with the same solution: highway congestion and the climate crisis. Both require us to drive less and use other transportation modes more. However, incentivizing people to choose other modes can be a challenge.
In 2022, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) launched the Next Generation Bay Area Freeways Study with the goals of “analyzing the feasibility, costs, benefits, and public support for tolling certain Bay Area freeways as a strategy for delivering reliably high-speed travel and reducing greenhouse gas emissions caused by passenger vehicles.” In September and October 2024, MTC briefed and solicited feedback from Transform staff on the options it’s studying.
What is tolling?
Toll roads are not a new concept. In other parts of the country, you can find many highways where drivers must pay a fee on entering or exiting. This may be a flat fee or based on the distance traveled.
Studies have found that introducing tolls can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Tolls on highway travel have the added benefit of reducing congestion, making travel faster for those who still need to drive. In fact, tolling is a better long-term solution for congestion than adding highway lanes. New lanes, even HOV or tolled lanes, lead to more driving, more greenhouse gases, and — within five to 10 years — more congestion.
Getting around in a private vehicle imposes an external cost on everyone, whether they drive or not, by creating pollution and contributing to a warming climate. Tolls place more of the true costs of driving back on the driver. Tolling is an excellent strategy for the Bay Area to explore. However, as the study notes, the MTC doesn’t currently have the authority to impose tolls; it would need state legislation to do that.
Two tolling options
The MTC study includes six pathways that they studied but really focuses on two main pathways. The first is all-lane highway tolling, which means all lanes of all major highways during weekday rush hours from 6-10 a.m. and 3-7 p.m. would be tolled. The second is a mileage-based user fee that would charge drivers on all roads in the Bay Area based on the number of miles they drive during all hours.
When it comes to affordability, reliability, equity, and safety, each option has its pros and cons, according to modeling MTC staff uses to estimate the costs and benefits. For example, all-lane tolling would potentially:
Decrease overall vehicle miles traveled by 4%
Decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 2%
Decrease highway peak travel times by 14%
Increase transit usage by 0.3%.
The tolling option would also be more affordable for families as tolls for households below 200% of the federal poverty level would be capped at a maximum of $70 annually.
A mileage-based user fee would:
Decrease overall vehicle miles traveled by 2%
Decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 2%
Decrease highway peak travel times by 2%
Increase transit usage by 0.7%.
A mileage-based user fee would be less affordable for families than all-lane tolling, as households below 200% of the federal poverty level would pay as much as $300 annually before they reached the cap.
The all-lane tolling option could increase local street usage by 11%, according to MTC’s modeling, bringing more smog and pollution to our local roads. It could also cause local roads to need more frequent repairs, which would upset local politicians. However, it is important to note that tolling freeways doesn’t just divert all the traffic to local roads. It’s also more likely to reduce overall demand for driving, so even though MTC’s modeling shows an increase in local road usage, we might not see this big of an increase on local roads when it’s applied in real-world conditions. This option would decrease vehicle miles traveled on highways by much more than a mileage-based user fee, but the user fee does not increase local street usage at all. In fact, it decreases street usage by 2%.
Increasing transit usage is an important cornerstone of Transform’s philosophy, and the mileage-based user fee would increase transit usage more than highway tolling because it would generate more revenues than highway tolling. Therefore, more transit investments could be made by reinvesting revenues from the mileage-based user fee for transit for the same amount of GHG reduction. The user fee has a lower initial financial cost to implement because it comes with zero capital costs and brings in an annual net revenue of $2 billion. All-lane tolling would require $2.3 billion in capital costs to implement and would bring in an annual net revenue of $550 million.
Equitable tolling
For Transform, equity is an essential component in all policy changes. Tolling and increasing transit ridership are imperative in reaching our state climate goals and decreasing climate change globally. If structured equitably, these measures can also redress past transportation harms and avoid burdening already struggling families.
One of the best ways to mitigate harm to lower-income drivers is by capping the amount of money low-income families will pay in new tolls. MTC has proposed monthly caps on toll expenditures where households earning less than 200% of the federal poverty level — $62,400 for a family of four — only pay a maximum of $30 a month, while households at 200-300% of the federal poverty level would only pay a $60 maximum per month.
Additionally, highway tolls could result in a large increase in the use of local streets. While this model states that equity priority communities — Census tracts with a significant concentration of underserved populations, including people of color and households with low incomes — would not be disproportionately impacted, we remain cautious that the increase in vehicle miles traveled on local streets doesn’t disproportionately impact communities already burdened by pollution.
Equity includes ensuring that all regions of the Bay Area benefit from the money raised through tolling. Therefore, it is concerning that, in the highway tolling option being studied by MTC, the North Bay would only get 6% of the revenue from regional tolling for transit, local roads, and reparative infrastructure (investments in highway-adjacent low-income communities, such as urban greening and highway pedestrian crossings). We are all one region, so re-investment should not be exclusively tied to the percentage of county-generated revenue but allocated with the need and the importance of regional connectivity in mind.
All-lane tolling must also be equitable in how revenues are spent. MTC has proposed that 50% of the revenue from all-lane tolling will go to transit improvements, while 30% will go to roadway improvements and 15% to ‘reparative community investments.’ Since low-income and marginalized communities disproportionately use transit and have been harmed by past transportation decisions, the expenditures from all-lane tolling as proposed are progressive and would be an important step toward a more equitable transportation system.
Next steps for tolling
In a November 2024 policy advisory council meeting, MTC staff stated that while they are not saying one specific policy is better than another, they recommend that for Plan Bay 2050+, MTC should maintain the highway all-lane tolling option as a strategy in the plan and update it with the “latest strategy specifics to better balance tradeoffs between mobility, environmental, and equity outcomes.” In its upcoming implementation plan, MTC will identify actions to address some of the challenges mentioned in this blog.
While potential implementation of these tolling or user fee options would not start until 2035, MTC will be giving recommendations and an implementation roadmap during the fall and winter of 2024 and 2025, so this is a vital time for Transform to weigh in. We have been selected to be part of a diverse group of stakeholders participating in this process and have consistently reiterated the importance of equity in all tolling policy recommendations.
It’s critical to move forward on all-lane tolling, but Transform remains committed to ensuring an equitable solution moves forward.
https://transformca.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/daniel-lee-dzi83tDenUY-unsplash-scaled-e1721781696850.jpg19201280Abibat Rahman-Davieshttps://transformca.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Company-Logo.pngAbibat Rahman-Davies2024-12-04 14:59:522025-01-27 15:07:49MTC Tolling Study an Important Step Forward, But Equity Concerns Remain
