Frustration over increasingly congested traffic around the region has reached the point that most people don’t think it will ever get better, according to a poll by the Bay Area Council. Yet a Metropolitan Transportation Commission poll finds that most — but not quite enough — voters are likely to favor a Bay Area gas-tax increase to fund road repairs and bike and pedestrian routes.
The polls were conducted and released independently but point to transportation, and how to improve it, as key issues facing the Bay Area. Results of a related poll by the council, released Wednesday, showed that most of those polled want more housing as long as it’s outside the nine-county region, which would only exacerbate traffic.
“It’s kind of an existential challenge here,” said Randy Rentschler, spokesman for the MTC. “If people in the Bay Area are feeling comfortable about their finances, comfortable with the economy but have concerns about more housing in the Bay Area and are already frustrated with traffic, that’s a problem. There’s a clear disconnect here.”
The council’s poll, conducted by EMC Research of Oakland from Feb. 12 through March 9, surveyed 1,000 people online. It has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points. The MTC poll, a telephone survey, was conducted in March and April by Corey, Canapary and Galanis Research of San Francisco and involved 2,048 people. It has a margin of error of 2.2 percent.
Pessimistic view
The poll by the Bay Area Council, a business-sponsored public policy advocacy group, focused on traffic, finding that a whopping 83 percent of those surveyed believe that it may never improve. More than half of those survey — 54 percent — said it was harder to get around the Bay Area than a year ago. Just 11 percent envisioned clearer roads and speedier drives around the region.Despite the crowding on transit agencies like BART, Caltrain and ferries, 69 percent cited driving alone as their main way of getting around. Eight percent said they walk, 13 percent take transit, 7 percent carpool, 2 percent bike and 1 percent ride employer shuttles.
The vast majority of those polled identified the Bay Bridge, San Francisco and Oakland as the worst places for traffic, and 28 percent said traffic was at a crisis level requiring changes in the law to speed improvements. Another 26 percent wanted improvements but want to continue to have a voice in the process.
When it comes to transportation planning, those polled preferred a strong regional approach instead of a local focus for both roads and highways and public transportation. For roads and highways, 67 percent wanted regional planning while 64 percent favored a regional approach for public transportation.
Traffic follows jobs
Jim Wunderman, president and chief executive officer of the Bay Area Council, said the region’s congestion should be expected, especially given economic growth. But the region shouldn’t give up.“We don’t think that’s what residents are really saying,” he said. “The business community is not going to accept this fate nor should the public transportation agencies.”
Wunderman called on transportation planners to harness the innovative and technological riches of the Bay Area to improve traffic and transit, creating easier ways to make transit connections, metering traffic to flow better, coordinating carpooling with apps and modernizing transit systems.
Paying for transportation improvements will be a challenge, especially with drastic declines in funding from Washington and Sacramento. Among the approaches being considered are a regional gasoline tax. State legislation allows the nine Bay Area counties to vote to raise their gas taxes by as much as 10 cents a gallon to fund transportation.
The MTC poll, which just concluded last week, found that 65 percent of voters would support a nickel-per-gallon tax and 58 percent would back a dime-per-gallon tax.
That’s short of the two-thirds supermajority needed to approve the tax, but is greater support than polls have shown over the past five years, Rentschler and Wunderman agreed.
Poll results
A Bay Area Council survey asked:Thinking of transportation in the Bay Area compared with a year ago, is it much easier to get around than a year ago, somewhat easier to get around than a year ago, about the same as a year ago, somewhat harder to get around than a year ago, much harder to get around than a year ago?
Bay Area residents responded:
|
54% |
31% | 11% |
| Harder | Same | Easier |
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