Sign now to ask CA Assembly Transportation Committee Chair to support the Bay Bridge Fast Forward Program
Transportation Committee Chair Assemblymember Laura Friedman
The bus needs to be a more reliable and faster option for people crossing the Bay Bridge. Growing traffic congestion makes buses, vanpools, and private shuttles too slow and unreliable for trips across the Bay Bridge corridor.
Improving the performance for these modes of transportation will develop more efficient and affordable transit service with more riders, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and local asthma-inducing pollutants, increase the drive capacity of the Bay Bridge, and create a more resilient transit network for the most congested and economically important link in the region.
That's why Assemblymembers Rob Bonta and Buffy Wicks and Senator Scott Wiener introduced the Bay Bridge Fast Forward Program. The bill will address climate justice, transit equity, and economic recovery by prioritizing fast and reliable bus travel across the Bay Bridge corridor, and maximizing the number of people that can move across this vital transportation link.
“Congestion and traffic lead to long, slow arduous commutes -- this is a real challenge for people in their everyday lives,” said Assemblymember Rob Bonta. “If you create an efficient, quick and easy commute for constituents, we’re doing a service for them. Buses will become a more compelling commute option compared to driving in cars, which creates more efficiencies for the community and the environment."
Please sign now to ask Transportation Committee Chair Assemblymember Laura Friedman to support the Bay Bridge Fast Forward Program.
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To:
Transportation Committee Chair Assemblymember Laura Friedman
From:
[Your Name]
Thank you for your years as a Climate Champion. As fellow advocates for fast and efficient commutes, healthy air, and climate justice, we urge you to support AB 455 from Assemblymembers Bonta and Wicks and Senator Wiener: the Bay Bridge Fast Forward Program. The bill will address climate justice, transit equity, and economic recovery by prioritizing fast and reliable bus travel across the Bay Bridge corridor, and maximizing the number of people that can move across this vital transportation link.
The bill establishes minimum bus speed and reliability targets to guide congestion relief projects in the Bay Bridge corridor and directs the relevant authorities to implement changes that yield these improvements -- and authorizes a bus and very-high-occupancy-vehicle lane on the Bay Bridge Corridor if those speed targets are not met. This will drive efficient, equitable, high-ridership, and low-emissions transportation investments that reduce commute times for tens of thousands of Californians and spur economic growth. It will lower operational costs for transit agencies at a time when it is most needed by enabling the same number of buses to move far more people in less time. This legislation is especially important as the Bay Area seeks to rebuild its economy following the COVID-19 crisis, meet its climate goals, and avoid traffic gridlock wasting millions of dollars of labor productivity.
The bill will support riders on all of AC Transit, WestCat, and SolTrans transbay routes and make these routes a more reliable and faster option for tens of thousands of commuters who currently drive, helping them make the switch to riding the buses, vanpools, or very high occupancy carpools. This will allow more commuters to cross the bridge with less overall pollution, and reduce competition for parking in San Francisco. It also makes our region more resilient in the face of countless issues that can take the transbay BART tube out of commission for hours, days, weeks, or months.
We appreciate all the work you have done as a climate champion in the legislature. We must work boldly to implement fast and reliable bus travel across the Bay Bridge corridor, focusing on moving the most people possible so our region can better serve our essential workers and meet our mobility and climate goals. We urge you to vote YES on AB 455, the the Bay Bridge Fast Forward Program. Thank you!
Sincerely,