Agencies are starting to offer up their rough plans and priorities for reauthorizing and augmenting Contra Costa County’s Measure J transportation sales tax and bringing in $2.3 billion over 25 years for needed transportation improvements. Projects and programs with the most support to date from local cities are:
- repaving streets (up to 30% of funding)
- improving BART service and access to BART (10%-15% of funding)
- senior transportation service (5%-8% of funding)
- major road and freeway upgrades (15%-50% of funding)
While bicycling and walking does not separately rise to the top of priority lists, there is support for increasing funding for bike-ped projects and there is growing support for ‘complete street’ projects on major roads, which include bike lanes. This is good news and is exactly what we want, but there is more work to do to make our case for complete streets.
Complete streets projects are projects that give drivers attractive options to leave their car keys at home and take a bus or shuttle van, bicycle or walk. They can include bus service improvements to speed buses along, add protected bike lanes to streets, and improve pedestrian safety. They can also better control traffic signal timing and repave streets, which benefits drivers too.
| Project/Program | Funding Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| BART | 10% | New BART train cars and new train control technology to run more 10-car BART trains |
| Major Roads-Freeway Interchanges | 15% | Traffic smoothing on major arterials, freeway on and off-ramps and intersection improvements |
| Bus Service | 20% | Improve bus service to 15 minute headways on all major transit routes |
| Complete Streets | 15% | Reduce congestion by giving commuters options to driving, including bus service improvements, protected bike lanes, intersection upgrades for safe pedestrian crossing |
| Local Streets & Roads | 15% | Repair potholes |
| Senior Transportation/ADA Improvements | 5% | Paratransit service, shuttle service expansion and other projects to keep seniors and persons with a disability mobile |
| Bike Ped Improvements | 5% | Finish gaps in Regional Trail Network |
| Student Bus Pass | 3% | Expand free bus passes to middle and high school students based on need |
| Smart Technology | 3% | Smart cars of the future and other technology-based solutions to reduce driving and improve safety |
| High Capacity Transit Projects | 5% | Rapid Transit projects along 680 and 80 corridors, to connect to BART |
| Safe Routes to School | 3% | Safety projects to encourage more walking and bicycling to school |
| Administration of Measure J | 1% | Staff time at Contra Costa Transportation Authority to administer Measure J |
What you can do:
- Sign up on our Measure J mailing list to keep informed
- Get trained as a Measure J outreach volunteer. Contact: Erica Tan
- Come to an upcoming meeting for Measure J and show support for more walking and bicycling projects in Measure J
Our Project List for the Countywide Transportation Plan
More information on CCTA website about Countywide Transportation Plan
Why Supporting Bike Improvements is Important:
- Public opinion surveys show strong support for complete streets, where traffic functions better, and safety is improved for walking and bicycling
- Bike East Bay committed 1,000 hours of volunteer time to help pass Measure BB in Alameda County in 2014. We are ready to do the same in Contra Costa County in 2016
- Residents in Contra Costa County want options. They don’t want to be compelled to drive everywhere. They also want more walkable neighborhoods
- Contra Costa voters like BART. We do too. To maximize BART’s effectiveness, Measure J needs to give commuters attractive options to bike to BART. For this, we need better bikeways designed to separate bicyclists from moving traffic