The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a)It is essential for the economic well-being of the state and the maintenance of a high quality of life that the people of California have efficient transportation systems that will reduce traffic congestion, vehicle miles traveled, and greenhouse gas emissions, and improve travel times and air quality.
(b)In 2006, the Legislature passed Assembly Bill 32 (Ch. 488, Stats. 2006), which enacted the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Division 25.5 (commencing with Section 38500) of the Health and Safety Code), a landmark act that establishes a first-in-the-world comprehensive program of regulatory and market mechanisms to achieve real, quantifiable, cost-effective reductions of greenhouse gases.
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The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a)
It is essential for the economic well-being of the state and the maintenance of a high quality of life that the people of California have efficient transportation systems that will reduce traffic congestion, vehicle miles traveled, and greenhouse gas emissions, and improve travel times and air quality.
(b)
In 2006, the Legislature passed Assembly Bill 32 (Ch. 488, Stats. 2006), which enacted the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Division 25.5 (commencing with Section 38500) of the Health and Safety Code), a landmark act that establishes a first-in-the-world comprehensive program of regulatory and market mechanisms to achieve real, quantifiable, cost-effective reductions of greenhouse gases.
(c)
Implementation of the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 will require creative and innovative solutions, including strategies designed to integrate land use and transportation measures to reduce vehicle miles traveled and traffic congestion, improve travel times, and encourage transit use.
(d)
The proposed development of Treasure Island includes an innovative and comprehensive land use and transportation program designed to discourage motor vehicle usage, reduce vehicle miles traveled, encourage public transit, and serve as a model of sustainable neighborhood development. An element of the transportation program is the use of congestion pricing.
(e)
Congestion pricing is a potentially useful tool for influencing the behavior of drivers of private motor vehicles, controlling traffic congestion, and reducing vehicle miles traveled and the production of greenhouse gases. The potential of congestion pricing for this purpose is well documented and has been implemented or is under consideration in a number of prominent, high-traffic cities around the world, including London, Stockholm, and Singapore.
(f)
Because Treasure Island is located adjacent to an urban area with a single point of vehicular access, but is easily served by multimodal public transit, it is an ideal candidate for a demonstration program designed to test the feasibility of congestion pricing as a tool to encourage and fund public transit use and reduce vehicle miles traveled in furtherance of the state’s goals to improve regional air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and traffic congestion.
(g)
The proposed development of Treasure Island is a leading example of performance-based infrastructure that uses private innovation, access to financing, and management efficiencies to build infrastructure, combined with the social responsibility, environmental awareness, local knowledge, safety requirements, and job generation concerns of the public sector. The proposed transportation program for Treasure Island, including congestion pricing, will further these goals by allowing private development to advance funding and resources for construction of a public transit infrastructure and mixed-use development in a transit-oriented and sustainable manner, then generating from that development congestion pricing fees that will maximize use of public transit and generate revenues to offset the public sector’s costs of public transit facilities and equipment design, construction, operation, and maintenance.
(h)
The purpose of the Treasure Island transportation program is to accomplish all of the following:
(1)
To facilitate the implementation of an innovative, sustainable transportation program for Treasure Island that will encourage public transit, bicycle, pedestrian, and waterborne modes of transportation, reduce vehicle miles traveled, and minimize the impact of Treasure Island development on the system of state and local roadways affected by the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, as well as on the bridge itself, in furtherance of the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Division 25.5 (commencing with Section 38500) of the Health and Safety Code).
(2)
To develop a comprehensive set of transportation demand management programs to encourage and facilitate transit use and to minimize the environmental and other impacts of private motor vehicles traveling to, from, and on Treasure Island.
(3)
To manage Treasure Island-related transportation in a sustainable manner, to the extent feasible, with the goal of reducing vehicle miles traveled and minimizing carbon emissions and impacts on air and water quality.
(4)
To create a flexible institutional structure that can set parking and congestion pricing rates, monitor the performance of the transportation program, collect revenues, and direct generated revenues to transportation services and programs serving Treasure Island.
(5)
To promote multimodal access to, from, and on Treasure Island by a wide range of local, regional, and statewide visitors by providing a reliable source of funding for transportation services and programs serving Treasure Island that will include bus transit service provided by the city’s municipal transportation agency, or its successor agency, and ferry service.
(i)
The congestion pricing demonstration program authorized by this act includes an important reporting requirement to the Legislature that will allow the Legislature to assess the success of the program in achieving its goals.
(j)
The Treasure Island Development Authority and its private development partner have undertaken numerous technical and economic feasibility studies demonstrating the effectiveness of the transportation program to conserve energy, discourage motor vehicle usage, reduce vehicle miles traveled, increase transit ridership, and deliver significant public infrastructure improvements through public-private partnership.