Metropolitan Transportation Commission (San Francisco Bay Area)

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The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) is the government agency responsible for regional transportation planningand financing in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was created in 1970 by the State of California, with support from the Bay Area Council, to coordinate transportation services in the Bay Area's nine countiesAlamedaContra CostaMarinNapaSan FranciscoSan MateoSanta ClaraSolano, and Sonoma.[1]

 

Contents

  [[[hide (San Francisco Bay Area)|hide]]] 

 

Duties

MTC is designated a regional transportation planning agency (RTPA) by the State of California and a metropolitan planning organization(MPO) by the federal government. MTC is not the Bay Area's council of governments (COG); the Association of Bay Area Governments(ABAG) holds that role.

MTC administers state-provided money through the Transportation Development Act (TDA) and has decision-making authority over the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). MTC administers federal funding through various grant programs, including the Transportation for Livable Communities (TLC) Program, Low Income Flexible Transportation (LIFT) Program, and Innovative Climate Grants Program.

MTC has overseen administration of toll revenue collected on the seven State-owned bridges in the Bay Area through the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) since 2005. From 1997 through 2004, BATA administered only a portion of the toll revenue.

Since 1999, MTC has worked to implement a regional transit fare-collection system called Clipper (formerly TransLink), where transit riders use a single card to pay fares on the region's different transit systems.

MTC manages various regional operational programs, including 511, the Freeway Service Patrol (FSP), call boxes, ridesharing, FasTrakelectronic toll collection, regional pavement management (including the pavement management system software StreetSaver), arterial operations, and regional signal timing programs.

MTC operates a library[2] that jointly supports MTC and ABAG. The library, which is open to the public, has a collection covering transportation and planning issues for the Bay Area.

Governing structure

MTC is guided by a 21-member board of commissioners:

  • Sixteen commissioners are appointed by local elected officials.
    • The five most populous counties have two representatives each: The respective counties' board of supervisors select one representative, and the mayors of the cities within the respective counties appoint the other.
    • The Mayor of Oakland and the Mayor of San Jose each appoint a commissioner
    • The four remaining counties appoint one commissioner each, with the commissioners representing both the cities and the board of supervisors for their respective counties.


  • Two members represent regional agencies: ABAG and the Bay Conservation and Development Commission.
  • Three non-voting members are appointed to represent the federal housing department and federal and state transportation agencies.

MTC is headquartered in San Francisco and has a staff of approximately 130 people. In July 2016, the ABAG board approved the consolidation of its staff under MTC, combining the work of the Bay Area's two primary regional planning agencies. [3]

See also

References

  1. Jump up^ About MTC
  2. Jump up^ Library
  3. Jump up^ "ABAG-MTC Staff Consolidation Overview" (PDF). ABAG. Association of Bay Area Governments. 30 January 2017. Retrieved 13 October 2017.

External links[edit]