Ford: Combine MTA and SFCTA?
MTA Director Nat Ford proposed a new round of Muni reform to the Chronicle this week, suggesting that the SF County Transportation Authority, which administers the half cent sales tax most recently approved by voters in 2003 as well as doing countywide transportation planning, be merged into the Municipal Transportation Agency, to create a single entity that would oversee all transportation funding and operations in SF. This is the structure of the Valley Transportation Authority in Santa Clara County.
This is an interesting idea, not least because SFCTA and MTA have often found themselves conducting related but sometimes competing planning exercises (e.g. Geary and Van Ness BRT, Transit Effectiveness Project). However, it was considered and rejected by the authors of Proposition E, including current Supervisor Tom Ammiano and Mayor Newsom, in part because the state requires elected officials to serve on the board for a congestion management agency, and in part because of a desire to keep the Supervisors in charge of allocating tax revenue.
If this gains momentum we will certainly have specific recommendations. However, the SF voters just passed Muni re-reform last fall, so it’s not likely that another charter amendment (with associated State law changes) will get six votes at the Board so soon after. We’ll keep an eye on this.
He is opening up Pandora’s box with consolidating. But that’s a good thing because I think ALL the bay area transit agencies need to be consolidated. One HR dept, one purchasing dept, ONE UNION, one department for each and every level of duplicate, triplicate, octoplicate department in place amonst the…what is it, 18 agencies?
New York did it successfully. They had the same mess of various systems and then they said “you know what? we’re not going to tolerate this crap anymore” unlike the soft, passive bay area citizenry who continue to sit quietly with hands neatly folded in laps waiting for a big commitee decision on every single little thing lest somebody feel offended or discriminated against for not having their opinion heard.
It’s time we get New York Eye for the bay area guy!
be careful what you wish for. until a local analog of NY’s Taylor Law which bans strikes by transit workers, we cannot afford a single agency/single union setup. I should also note that Muni, Bart, AC are organised by three separate and competing unions.
beyond the union issue, the various Bay Area transit systems are so different in perceived market and institutional response as to make them unlikely to coalesce easily. For example within AC Transbay service is aimed at upscale choice riders who expect polite friendly drivers… A far cry from the guys driving E 14th some of which mimics Sunnydale for civility.
There is also something to be said for local ability to influence the service. Not likely if the riders in CC county would need to deal w/MTC miles from their homes/work and much of the “board” from other counties with different concerns. Dumb as SF MTA sometimes is, you don’t want meddling from Marin etc.
Finally, as long as Ford fields DpT officers to sabotage Muni service (see yahoo group for description of DPT stalling LRV’s in favor of autos), I want him reprimanded and fined for interfering w/ service, not given a bigger fiefdom.