Summit Aims To Bridge Gaps

Summit Aims To Bridge Gaps
By Reporter Staff
Article Launched: 04/10/2008

Across the country, economic activity is increasingly concentrated in closely linked groups of metropolitan areas known as mega-regions.

One of these emerging mega-regions is in northern California, where growing business and commute connections between the San Francisco Bay Area and the Sacramento metropolitan area are reshaping communities from the Pacific coast to the Sierra Nevada-and deep into the Central Valley.

To explore how the Bay Area and the Sacramento region can better coordinate transportation investments and land-use planning, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments are teaming with the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, University of California, Davis, Caltrans and the Solano Transportation Authority to host an interregional summit.

This meeting is being held today from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Room 232 of the ARC building at 1 Shields Avenue on the UC Davis campus.

"Solano County is a great place to see the growth of a mega-region connecting the Bay Area and Sacramento," said MTC Commissioner and Solano County Supervisor Jim Spering.

"One of the best illustrations is the planned Vacaville Intermodal Station, which will provide a single convenient location for commuters to catch express buses to either downtown Sacramento, or to the Pleasant Hill or El Cerrito del Norte BART stations."

West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon said, "Our two regions are building a strategic partnership to develop a list of goods movement priorities to benefit all of northern California. One of the keys to reducing traffic on Interstate 80 is deepening the Sacramento deep water ship channel. That will take up to 23,000 truck trips between the Bay Area and Sacramento off the road each year."

Participants in the interregional summit will share initial findings from a new study highlighting how the Bay Area and the Sacramento region can improve the coordination of transportation investments, land-use planning, and travel modeling along the I-80 corridor and Amtrak's Capitol Corridor.

The summit is free and open to the public, but participants must register in advance.

Space is limited to 140 registrants. The fee for parking at UC Davis is $6. Online registration is available at www.mtc.ca.gov.

MTC is the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area's transportation planning, coordinating and financing agency. ABAG is the comprehensive planning agency for the San Francisco Bay Area, with a mission to strengthen cooperation and coordination among local governments. SACOG coordinates transportation planning, funding and project delivery for Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer, Yolo, Sutter and Yuba counties and the cities within them. SACOG also engages elected officials in land use and other regional issues.