Contra Costa Transportation Authority board meeting

I (Kenji) attended today’s CCTA meeting to make a comment on behalf of Bike Concord in support of a strong commitment for active transportation funding in the prospective transportation sales tax measure that CCTA is considering putting before voters soon (a renewal of 2004’s Measure J). Report below.

The full meeting packet, including agenda and attachments, is available online.  You can also get the agenda alone, a much smaller file.

Comment

Board members and members of staff, thank you for the opportunity to comment.

My name is Kenji Yamada.  I live and work in Concord and I’m here on behalf of Bike Concord, an organization of Concord residents working to make bicycle transportation safe and convenient in our community.

We are eager to see the Transportation Authority dedicate more resources to the mainstreaming of active transportation in our county.  We welcome and are prepared to spend considerable volunteer hours to support the Authority’s upcoming effort for a new county transportation sales tax measure.  In order to ensure that this revenue, if the measure is approved by voters, will support the quantity and quality of infrastructure necessary to make active transportation mainstream in Contra Costa – not just a supplement – we ask that the Authority commit to dedicate at least 15% of the measure’s revenue to active transportation infrastructure projects.

We learned at the community meeting recently held in Walnut Creek by Supervisors Andersen and Mitchoff that the County still uses Level of Service as the primary engineering criterion for the design of roadways.  This approach is not conducive to the goal of mainstreaming active transportation, as it privileges motor traffic flowthrough above other factors.  It thereby encourages the continued dominance of single-occupancy vehicle travel.  Instead, we urge the Authority to shift to Vehicle Miles Traveled, a measure which integrates other transportation modes and directly encourages the choice of modes other than single-occupancy motor vehicles.