MTC Honors Contributions to Bay Area Transportation

Ten Awards to be Presented

OAKLAND, Calif., Oct. 24 -- A total of 10 "Excellence in Motion" awards will be presented by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) on Wednesday, October 25, in the historic Ferry Building, at the foot of Market Street in San Francisco. A reception open to the public will begin at 8:45 a.m., with the award presentations by MTC Commissioners to begin at 9:15 a.m.

MTC's biannual awards honor people, projects and organizations that have made exceptional contributions to Bay Area transportation. 2006 marks the 27th year of the transportation agency's awards program.

This year's winners range from U.S. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi to urban neighborhood activists who reclaimed their local streets, to a high school that convinced students to carpool to school.

According to MTC Commission Chair Jon Rubin, "Our 2006 award winners represent a tremendous cross section of the thousands of people who help the Bay Area transportation network function and improve. These outstanding individuals have gone the extra mile and devoted their time and hard work to projects that benefit us all. We are extremely fortunate to have such committed and dedicated Bay Area residents who give of themselves to help improve the transportation network."

Following is a brief summary of the transportation award winners. For more details on each one, visit the MTC website: www.mtc.ca.gov

Grand Award: This year's Grand Award is equally shared by two neighborhood efforts to reclaim their streets from the blight and danger of heavy through traffic. Both projects involve thoroughfares in San Francisco, and both owe their success to countless volunteer hours on the part of community residents, and the professional expertise of the city's Department of Parking and Traffic as well as the Department of Public Works. The Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association convinced officials to develop the new, five-block long Octavia Boulevard in Hayes Valley, a triumph of urban transportation planning that serves both as a thoroughfare and a quiet pedestrian street. The roadway's success is due to 18 years of relentless determination and imagination of neighborhood residents, urban planners, city officials and engineers who created the tree-lined boulevard and neighborhood park on the site of an ugly, double-deck freeway that was damaged in the Loma Prieta earthquake and that had long marred the neighborhood.

In another San Francisco neighborhood, local residents took on the challenge of "calming" traffic on San Jose Avenue, Guerrero Street and Cesar Chavez Street, busy arterials where speeding vehicles endangered pedestrians. The San Jose/Guerrero Coalition to Save Our Streets coalesced neighbors, businesses and other organizations, lobbied city officials, and ultimately won the city's support to reduce the speed limit and the number of traffic lanes, create bicycle lanes, install a new traffic signal, and establish wider medians on these streets.

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi will receive MTC's John F. Foran Legislative Award for her work locally and in Washington, D.C., to dedicate funding for essential upgrades to the Bay Area's infrastructure. Projects that have received funding range from seismic retrofitting of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge to construction of the future Transbay Terminal.

Other Excellence in Motion awards being presented by MTC include:

Doris Kahn Accessible Transportation Award: Heart of the Valley, Services for Seniors, Inc. (HOV), which provides free transportation to hundreds of seniors in western Santa Clara County, allowing them to live independent lives in their own homes. HOV volunteers spend their own time and gas driving elderly residents to medical appointments, shopping errands and the like.

Miriam Gholikely Award: Ernest Bradford, a long-time member of MTC's Elderly and Disabled Advisory Committee. The Miriam Gholikely Award recognizes individuals for community service, volunteerism, advocacy, leadership and minority affairs. Bradford, a quiet leader, has focused the attention of MTC and other transportation organizations on the plight of older drivers and what transportation options are available to ensure their continued quality of life.

David Tannehill Special Employee Award: Jaimie Levin, AC Transit's director of Alternative Fuels Policy and Marketing. Levin has spearheaded the nation's foremost hydrogen fuel-cell demonstration project, with AC Transit leading a public-private partnership that has raised more than $21 million and produced five state-of-the-art fuel cell buses (with three buses now operating on East Bay city streets) and two hydrogen energy stations.

Greta Ericson Distinguished Service Award: Rodger "Tim" Reilly, a long- time carpenter and pattern maker for San Francisco's historic cable cars. Reilly's carefully crafted wood, metal and plastic patterns become the molds that are cast into cable car parts. Nearly every San Francisco cable car has a part that began with Reilly's skilled craftsmanship.

In addition to these special awards named in honor of outstanding individuals in Bay Area transportation, MTC will present four Merit Awards to the following:

Peter Tannen was San Francisco's first Bicycle Program manager. During his tenure, from 1992 until his retirement earlier this year, San Francisco added more than 40 miles of bike lanes, established a 200-mile bike network, erected 3,000 bike route signs and installed 1,500 bike racks. Tannen does not own a car and has bicycled every street in San Francisco.

Traffic jams, overcrowded parking lots and pedestrian safety risks are common problems on an around high school campuses, and typically are caused by too many students driving alone to school. Palo Alto's Gunn High School resolved these problems by creating the GO-FAST program, which provides incentives for carpooling, bicycling and transit with dramatic results. In two years, the number of students driving alone to school dropped from 250 to 83, while the number of carpoolers tripled.

The Ways to Work Family Loan Program, run by the Family Service Agency of San Mateo County, offers low-interest loans to help struggling families purchase a used car or for car repairs. The program, begun in 1998 and the first of its kind in California, has provided auto loans of up to $4,000 to more than 200 families with children in San Mateo County, making it easier for working parents to travel to their jobs, school and medical appointments.

Caltrans' Bay Bridge West Approach seismic retrofit team is accomplishing one of the most daunting and complex engineering projects in state history. The project involves replacing a one-mile stretch of freeway -- and three on/off ramps -- in a densely populated urban area while maintaining capacity for some 260,000-plus vehicles each. The West Approach team completed its greatest challenge when it closed the eastbound Bay Bridge during the 2006 Labor Day weekend to demolish 1,000 feet of the upper deck bridge approach and remove 10,000 cubic yards of concrete.

MTC is the regional transportation planning, funding and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. For a complete listing of all winners contact MTC or visit MTC's Web site at www.mtc.ca.gov.