Here’s a startling fact: Alameda County holds roughly 20 percent of the Bay Area’s total population, yet is home to 40 percent of the region’s traffic congestion. This is how Supervisor, Scott Haggerty began his remarks at the Fremont Chamber of Commerce’s recent transportation policy forum, “How to Get to Fremont (from Fremont).” The forum was a focused conversation around policies, programs, and other ideas to deal with increased traffic and an aging public transportation system. In addition to Supervisor Haggerty, Fremont Mayor, Bill Harrison and BART Board Member, Joel Keller also participated in the panel which was moderated by Fremont City Engineer, Hans Larsen. In case you missed it, here’s the Cliffs Notes version!

  • Traffic on I-680 is a major cause for our local road congestion. We’ve all seen it—the backups on 680 extend for miles each day. People are using every alternate route imaginable, including major thoroughfares, like Mission Boulevard, and even rural roads in Sunol that aren’t equipped to handle the volume. The HOV (‘high occupancy vehicle’) lane in the southbound direction is helping and work will begin soon on the northbound side.
  • BART is the oldest system of its kind in the nation. Couple this with increased ridership from a booming economy, and the system is experiencing more frequent delays and service interruptions as a result. To combat this, investments are being made to modernize its fleet, increase capacity, accommodate parking needs and provide amenities closer to stations. Strong partnerships with cities where stations are located are crucial to improving the end-to-end experience of riders and Fremont has been a great example of this.
  • “You can either have traffic flow to your City or through your City.” Mayor Harrison learned this mantra from his mentors and is determined to choose the former option. That’s why he’s laser focused on initiatives like the employment-focused Warm Springs Innovation District development plan adjacent to BART’s newest station. Allowing for the addition of 4,000 residential units and 20,000 new jobs oriented to transit, will keep people off our local roads and freeways.
  • Measure BB funds will make a difference. In the transportation world, Alameda County is considered the darling of the area, since it the first region in California to increase from a half cent to a full cent in transportation sales tax. As a result, funding for local street improvements will double from $2 million to $4 million. For Fremont specifically, we will see funding for I-680 improvements, Mission Boulevard improvements at bottlenecks, the proposed Irvington BART station and a pedestrian bridge connecting the Warm Springs/South FremontBART station to new residential and commercial development on the west side of the railroad tracks.
  • Go local. Local regions must continue to identify alternative funding tools (like Measure BB) as Federal and State funding struggle to keep pace with the huge needs in transportation infrastructure. Case in point: the federal TIGER program only has $600 million of funding available for applications worth $9 billion!