California Sen. Dianne Feinstein and East Bay Congressperson Mark DeSaulnier penned a letter to the Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission this week, urging the agency to build an additional bay bridge, a new east-west transbay connection, and—while they’re at it—a second Transbay Tube.
The California lawmakers cite “intolerable” traffic throughout the region.
“Quality of life is suffering; and our economy is not nearly thriving as much as it could be if these transportation challenges were addressed,” reads the request.
The solution? “An additional route across the Bay for both BART and vehicular traffic.”
The letter continues:
The most congested freeway segments in the Bay Area for the second year in a row are the afternoon commutes northbound and eastbound on U.S. 101 and Interstate 80 from the I-280 interchange in San Francisco to the Bay Bridge’s Yerba Buena Island Tunnel. Moreover, the next most congested route is the westbound direction on I-80, through the Bay Bridge, to Fremont Street.
A second crossing would alleviate this traffic through San Francisco and the East Bay, would better connect the entire Bay Area, and would provide significant benefits for toll payers.
The letter, addressed to MTC Executive Director Steve Heminger, references Regional Measure III (RM3), calling it inadequate to solve transit problems., If passed by voters next year, RM3 will raise bridge tolls and put the money toward transit.
DeSaulnier previously called RM3 unfair. He told East Bay Times that it “disproportionately put the burden of financing [transit] investment on East Bay residents.”
The idea of a second bay crossing is as old as the Bay Bridge itself. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright even created a design for an additional span. (Wright hated the idea of a second steel design, and partnered with engineer Jaroslav J. Polivka to propose the concrete “Butterfly Bridge,” which would have spanned from Cesar Chavez and Third Street to its eastern terminus on Bay Farm Island, just north of the Oakland Airport.)
Back in 2000, Feinstein sent a similar letter urging then governor Gray Davis to start planning on a southern bridge project. Similar to Wright’s vision, the new bridge’s price tag sunk the idea.
- Feinstein, DeSaulnier Letter [Sen. Dianne Feinstein]
- Metro Transportation Commission
- Bridge Tolls Head To Ballot [Curbed SF]
- Toll Increases Not the Answer [East Bay Times]
- Wright’s Other Bay Bridge [Curbed SF]
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