Bay Area Gets All-Points Comprehensive Ferry Service; $12 Million Targeted to Launch Bay Area Water Transit Authority.News & Business Editors SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 27, 2000 World-class water transit is on its way to the Bay Area, the Bay Area Council announced today, with the allocation of $12 million of state funds to the new Bay Area Water Transit Authority. The funds, included in a Senate Bill (SB 1662-Burton) that Governor Davis signed Monday, will allow the Water Transit Authority to plan and develop an expanded water transit system, bringing needed relief to gridlocked grid·lock n. 1. A traffic jam in which no vehicular movement is possible, especially one caused by the blockage of key intersections within a grid of streets. 2. commuters. Improving transportation conditions consistently ranks as a top priority of Bay Area residents and employers. Area residents surveyed in the 1999 Bay Area Poll ranked transportation the biggest problem facing them. "The Bay Area's transportation crisis is a regional problem that needs regional solutions," stated Sunne McPeak, president and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of the Bay Area Council. "An expanded water transit system will provide such a solution, by creating a central hub service that will link the Bay Area's many transit operators together into a seamless region-wide network." The Bay Area Water Transit Authority intends to dramatically improve mobility by expanding transit service on the Bay, the most underutilized transportation asset in the region. The Water Transit Authority is responsible for developing the first new region-wide transit service since the creation of BART in 1957. "Bay ferries Bay Ferries Limited, referred to simply as Bay Ferries, is a ferry company operating in eastern Canada and the United States and is headquartered in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. once serviced 50 million passenger trips each year," noted Michael Cunningham Michael Cunningham (born November 6, 1952) is an award-winning American writer, best known for his 1998 novel The Hours, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1999. , vice president of the Bay Area Council. "With roads and bridges suffering from record congestion The condition of a network when there is not enough bandwidth to support the current traffic load. congestion - When the offered load of a data communication path exceeds the capacity. , it's time It's Time was a successful political campaign run by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) under Gough Whitlam at the 1972 election in Australia. Campaigning on the perceived need for change after 23 years of conservative (Liberal Party of Australia) government, Labor put forward a to rediscover Re`dis`cov´er v. t. 1. To discover again. Verb 1. rediscover - discover again; "I rediscovered the books that I enjoyed as a child" the mobility benefits afforded by water transit." The Bay Area Water Transit Authority is a state-chartered public agency that was created in order to plan, develop, and operate an expanded high-speed water transit system on the Bay. The Authority's first responsibility is to develop an Implementation and Operations Plan that includes a system plan, environmental assessment, technical design criteria Noun 1. design criteria - criteria that designers should meet in designing some system or device; "the job specifications summarized the design criteria" criterion, standard - the ideal in terms of which something can be judged; "they live by the standards of their , and coordination with land transit operators for submission to the Legislature. Following approval of the plan by the Legislature, the Authority will then build the system and start passenger service. The Bay Area Water Transit Authority was created in the wake of the successful work of the earlier Water Transit Task Force, a multi-stakeholder working group that was led by the Bay Area Council and the Bay Area Economic Forum. Charged by the California State Senate The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature. There are 40 State Senators. The state legislature meets in the state capital, Sacramento. The Lieutenant Governor is the ex officio President of the Senate. to investigate the feasibility of expanding water transit in the Bay Area, the Task Force completed its work in May 1999 with the release of the Bay Area Water Transit Action Plan. The Action Plan demonstrated that a dramatically expanded high-speed water transit system offers numerous advantages for the Bay Area. The Action Plan outlined a conceptual water transit system that would serve 28 destinations and carry 15 million to 20 million passengers annually. "Water transit is a cost-effective, environmentally-friendly solution to traffic gridlock Gridlock A government, business or institution's inability to function at a normal level due either to complex or conflicting procedures within the administrative framework or to impending change in the business. , and it can be implemented very quickly," stated Sean Randolph, president of the Bay Area Economic Forum. The Bay Area Council is a CEO-led, business-sponsored public policy organization founded more than 50 years ago to promote regional economic prosperity and quality of life. The Council presents a strong, united voice for more than 250 major Bay Area employers to help shape public policy affecting transportation, environmental quality, economic development, housing and land use, sustainable development Sustainable development is a socio-ecological process characterized by the fulfilment of human needs while maintaining the quality of the natural environment indefinitely. The linkage between environment and development was globally recognized in 1980, when the International Union , water policy, education and workforce preparation, and telecommunications infrastructure. Further information on the Water Transit Task Force, including its May 1999 Action Plan, is available on the Web at http://www.bayareacouncil.org/watertransit/. |
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