| Thank you to those of you who submitted transformative projects! Your creative ideas have given us plenty to work with as we build a next-generation plan for the Bay Area. MTC and ABAG have announced the 12 finalists in its Transformative Transportation Projects competition. Six Transformative Transportation Projects – plus six transformative operational strategies – were selected as finalists in a public competition launched earlier this year to solicit big, bold and billion-dollar (or more) ideas for improving mobility across the nine-county Bay Area. The campaign is part of the Horizon initiative undertaken by MTC and ABAG to explore a wide range of the challenges and opportunities the Bay Area may face by 2050. These 12 finalists – selected from a pool of over 500 megaproject ideas submitted by individuals and non-governmental organizations – will be added to the Horizon Transportation Projects list along with 82 other potential new transportation projects. Each of these proposed projects will be analyzed to determine its efficacy in improving the region's transportation system. Depending on how they stack up, these projects may be considered for inclusion in Plan Bay Area 2050, the region's next long-range plan for transportation, land use, economic development and resilience. Plan Bay Area 2050 is slated for adoption in 2021. A panel of regional transportation experts evaluated all of the submissions for feasibility, potential regional benefits, alignment with Horizon's Guiding Principles, creativity and consistency with the minimum cost threshold. The six finalists for transformative capacity-increasing projects are: - Optimized Express Lane Network + Regional Express Bus Network– SPUR and TransForm
- Bus Rapid Transit on All Bridges– Tony Breslin
- SMART to Richmond via a New Richmond-San Rafael Bridge – William Manley, Joseph Naujokas, Christopher Sork and Sonoma County Transportation & Land Use Coalition
- Interstate 80 Corridor Overhaul – Arup
- Regional Bicycle Superhighway Network – Arup
- Bay Trail Completion – Jim Stallman
The six finalists for transformative operational strategies consist of: - Integrated Transit Fare System – Eddy Ionescu & Jason Lee, Seamless Bay Area and SPUR
- Free Transit – Mark Apton, Christian Rodgers, Danielle Venton and Gabriela Zuniga
- Higher-Occupancy HOV Lanes – 3 Revolutions Book Club
- Demand-Based Tolls on All Highways – Jeremy Besmer and City of San Jose
- Reversible Lanes on Congested Bridges and Freeways – City of San Jose
- Freight Delivery Timing Regulation – Daniel Ayers, Marc Brenman, Kevin Brooks and Cesar Plata
To learn more about each of these transformative ideas – or to see the full list of proposals submitted through the competition – please visit the Transformative Projects Finalists webpage. | 
