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7B BRUCE LIEDSTRAND Page 11 COMMUNITY DESIGN DIRECTOR As Downtown Redwood City grows, regional transit connectivity will become even more important. If there is a disruption in the price or supply of gasoline, as some predict within the next few years, regional transit connectivity will be an important key to allowing people to get to work and back. Some connectivity suggestions: 1. Although the elements of the regional system are operated by separate transportation agencies, (Caltrain, BART, SF Muni, etc.), this should not be apparent to the transit user. The regional system should look to the user like a single system, with one ticket giving full access to the whole system. The transportation agencies need to improve their cooperation to achieve this. 2. The regional system should have a single schedule that coordinates all the elements. Such schedules are usually based on the major transit lines (BART, Caltrain, for example) and the others adjust their schedules to link with the major lines. 3. At present, the separate transit agencies compete with each other for funding, rather than cooperating. 4. Interconnectivity between the Peninsula and East Bay needs to be improved. Funding Transit through #Value Capture" Transit, though important, is expensive to build and to operate. In the United States, fare box revenues don't come close to paying the full cost of construction and operation of the transit system. Public funding usually makes up the difference. In Japan, however, a portion of the system cost is funded by "value capture", capturing "the appreciation in land values that accrues from increasing the accessibility of properties near rail stations./6 Despite the differences with the political and legal systems in Japan, "value capture" may be a tool worth pursuing to assist in funding improvements to transit systems here in the Bay Area. 6 The Transit Metropolis, A Global Inquiry, by Robert Cervero (1998), page 194. -8- 0 ,-