>> welcome to beyond the headli headlines. today we're focusing on what's happening in our neighborhoods regarding housing and traffic, otherwise known as urban development. the population of the bay area is projected to balloon by 30% by 2040 from 7.1 million residents today to 9.3 million. that's an increase of more than 2 million people. we' going to talk today to so bay area groups who already staed to address the expecting increase.

improvements are being made to make them more safe and easy congestion. one source of pride has been the easte section of the bay bridge. here is the story filed when the bridge reopened. >> reporter: with the ceremony y'a al -- the chp said the morning commute went well but bridge tourists may have contributed to a longer than average back up at the toll plaza this family came from concord. >>i really like it. it's really open. you can't even really tell it's a bridge at first. it's reay broad and nice. >> the chp had been concerned out the new bridge being one giant cause for lots of distracted driving but this officer was pleantly surprised by vy little bad behavior.

>> i was expecting a few more people to do things that we were expecking to ha happen. it's nice to see the commute wt well. >> 93-year-old clara's son drove her here for a look. >> and her thoughts on the newsstand? >> it's magnificent. >> abc 7 news. >> it really is magnificent. we have a shot of that every d from a newscast. randy is the director of legislation and public affairs. you had to organize that party. that must have been something. >> it was a lot easier than getting the bridge done.

>> i'm sure. 24 years. >> it was really a long time. more important across the state of california, where we have a lot of earthquakes, structures throughout our area have been made safe throughout the period of time. the bay area bridge got a lot of attention, but the key thing around the entire bay area we have a much safer transportation system. >> people don't realize that it does take decades of work. everybody has to weigh in. >> in california, we found ourselves in this predicament. the bay bridge is noalone. >> how long is this bridge expected to last. >> it's design is 150 years. this bridge is bui to last and ilt to incredibly high seismic

standards. i think another important thing is while california committed to the freeway structure to make it safe, we still have a long way to go including schools and hospitals that need to be made safe. >> andhat's going to take a lot of planning, too. it's between two earthquake faults? >> one of the reasons the bay bridge looks the way it does is because of where it's located on a slope of bedrock that goes deep into the bay. all of the mud has risen p. there is a big earthquake fault on the san francisco side and a whole host on the east bay side. it had to be structured. and there is still work to be done? >> that was an unfortunate way to end the process. the bolts will be replaced. we will have the bridge the standard in which it was

signed. >> now the western span of the bay bridge? >> it was retro fitted at great expense including the rebuild in san francisco but tt expense was worth it. unlike just to the north and to the west you see the westmond cent, that bridge needs to last for years. >> everybody wants to know where the troll is. >> trolls are those weird creatures that live under the bridge and they don't like the sun. but that bridge will -- at troll will be protecting that bridge in a place where boaters can find him. >> of course. >> just like the o one. >> talk about the america's cup races. so people need to be involved in this. how do you want themo get involved? >> the most important thing is that we in california have a process where everyone is allowed to get involved. ed is you will see that all the

plans that we do in the bay area has a significant participation level. it's really your next go on a big project is what people need to focu on, not on this one. >> thank you so much for being here today. >> it's my pleasure. enjoy it. >> and we do have to take a break right now. but coming up in just a moment we will learn about an effort to invest our significant regional growth. stay withus

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>> welcome back to "beyond the headlines." we're talking about urban development and sprawl. there is is a collaboration of four regional agencies coming up with housing and transportation plans on response to the california sustainable community and protection acts of 2008. what it does is itequires each of the ste's 18 metropolitan areas to reduce greenhouse s emissions and 7% per capita by 2020 and 15% by 2035. i don't know if that's a tall order but we will find out from our experthere. with me in thetudio is the executive director of the ocean of bay area governments, otherwise known as abag. i hope i got all of that right.

>> you did. >> something you consider to be very important to the bay area? >> yes. it's a plan forhe future. it's a way of the oceans to work with local government and make sure that neighborhoods are being planned in a way that people really will appreciate in the future and that it's connected to a system that is close to employment. >> what motivated the legislature to make this happen? >> i think part of it is the work that they were doing already where we recognizedthat if we didn't do the planning for future land uses that we were going to end up with a lot mre growth and that was going to produce annormous congestion problem on the highways. so to build an alternative to that, we were inviting cities to look at their neighborhoods and see wherehey think growth would be appropriate and the help fund their planning costs and make sure that their neighborhoods were being developed as a whole and not working it project by prject.

>> what kind of reaction are you getting? i know there has been some controversy? >> there have been pockets of the bay area where there is a lot of anti-development. but mostly in the areas where we are planning on 98% of the growth aound the east bay and west bay a peninsula and south bay, local governments have been the ones who have been drive in. >> so if i am heari you right, you come up with a plan to better incase housing potential and. >> everybody is struggling with public services. usually those are the first cuts that they have to make. if there is an option for dollars to besed to help them with appropriate neighborhood planning and improving amenities

in the area. they are very happy to do that. >> sure. this is a gat idea. so what are the areas that you see that have the biggest concerns? >> in terms of -- well, the ncern concerns and that is where you see sme of the protest movements. looking at pretty extensive growth in the future and we have to make sure that the infrastructure can support that level of development. >> we're talking about a combination of housing? and better transportation to access all of that? >> it's not one size fits all. it's much higher density in the big central cities than the transit corridors, which are three or four story buildings that are appropriate to size.

>> one small was really close to this right? >> yes. i think there has bee an awful lot of misinformation that has been spread. agencies are imposing mandates where they will change the way people live. these are all local government plans. every development area has been self-nominated by local government. wh we offered dollars for plnning through the transportation mechanism to tie up the transit, a lot of cities stepped up to that. so we have 70 jurisdictions participating and about 170 priority development areas. >> so one quick question. concern about water and how will that be confronted. >> this type of development is very efficient for energy, wate and other kinds of services, much easier to recycle. most of the water districts can supply urban water. there are a couple of pockets where it's more of a problem but

in general, i tnk the utilities are able handle the growth in the futu. there is still enough capacity. >> all right. great. so interesting to learn about this. >> all right. we do have to take anoth break but we will learn about planned bay area transportation areas.

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>> welcome back to "beyond the headles". we're confronted with housg and transportation challenges as the bay area continues to grow over the years. this report was filed about the debate for better tnsportation in the bay area. >> reporter: a major traffic study already claims the bay area as the second worst commute in the nation. nearly 60,000 new jobs were created in san francisco last year and that number is expected tobe higher this year, putting moretrain on the highway system. >> our public transportation system, roads continue to

deteriorate. we do have challenges. >> a study group is working on pry ortizing needs. here in the bay area, stake holders said better transportation is crucial for job growth. but who will pay for it? >> it's not all public sector dollars. private sector funding can be part of t answer and we have projects in the state that is totally privately funded. other states and countries are doing this. >> another example where the state kicked in only 10% for the $2.3 billion project. a half cent sales tax has been approved. >> voters have csistently reported measures that are providing more transportation. we could not do it without the support of the voters. the name of the game is regional and it is working together. >> and 49er ceo thinks levi

stadium wil warm people up to support and ride public ansit was they take it to games. >> i think once californian's get more comfortable, you will see it more and more. >> this project is still five year ace way. any new project will take years of planning, financing and constructio relief from congestion is many years off. david louise. >> plning director and project manager. >> can youalk about the transportation aspect of it? >> sure. >> i think one of the things that is different about this pl than past plans, mtc has been doing regional transportation plans. this is the fourth plan that has

been integrated. sif you look at the kind of growth, really focused growth by transit, it's really incumbent on us to come up with a plan. there are a couple of ways that has been done. the plan goes to maintain the existing system. we want to know when our children and grandchildren are trying to get on the train or drive down a neighborhd street that it's in good working order. we also have a performance based plan that looks at projects and does a cost benefit assessment and really ies to maximize the use of public tax dollars and come up with an interconnect system that serves this growth pattern. a couple of the key projects in the system. one is something called bart metro. it's the highest scoring project. it would provide a lot more capacity in the core of the brt system that lead into this segment talks about our job growth.

we are fort unate to be bringin in so many jobs. to support that, people have to get to work. we need more frequent service. >> are u dealing with high speed rail at all? >> we are deang with high speed rail. one of the key procts is the ele electrification. its right now a dee sill system. >> that's another project that has a lot of angst in connection wit it because of the dollar amount? r >>it's a big public works project and it will take a lot to get it right. >> and we touched on highway

widening projects. can you tell us about some of the big projects? >> highway widening is not a big part of the plan. there are no new freeways. there is something called the regional express lanes network. most are familiar wi the high occupancy lanes. at this point they are probably also famili with the fact that there are segments that are not complete. that is a problem for buses and van pools and things of that sort that attempt to get people to and from work efficiently. that program would help address some of those gaps. we have some other major transit projects moving forward in the near term. bart to san jose is now under construction. that's a few years away. but there are more imminent openings coming.

another commuter rail line is the smart corridor up in the north bay as well as the connection to oakland airport. >> can't wait until that's done. ken, thank you so much for being here and explaining what is goi on. >> my pleasure. >> we do have to take another break. we will talk to a san francisco planning and urban research about public transit options. stay with us. we will be t

>> we are back with "beyond the headlines" talking about urban development. spurs was called san francisco urban research but now it is much, much bigger. >> we have opened in san jose, which many people don't know is not only the largest city in the bay area but all of northern california. >> a lot of people need to get around there. >> what do you do? >> i'm the regional plning director so i am trying to tink about the bay area as we a today and where we're going and how we get there.

the urban policy think tank but we are also a group with members. we really try to bring a lot of the urban planning ideas out to the people and to t decision makers to think about where do we go? >> how doou do that? hall meeti? >>e have an urban center. we just opened an urban city. we have speakers on a wide array of topics. >> we have about 400,000 people who rly on public transportation daily. >> about 10% of people are taking public transit to work each day. it equates to 1.5 million trips. it is a critical and crucial part of how people get around in the bay area. imagine the freeways without that level of transit service. >> like during the bart strike. >> and the fires and a little

before that. transit is critical to moving people around. it is also critical whenou think about increasing where we are going in our economy. people want close connections to eacother. innovati and more. you need transit to move people in and out o the dense job centers. >> how is it working right now? >> it's working well. we have a very good transit system. but there are a couple of big probles. one is we need more money to really operate this system. and a lot of that is about reliality and speed. a lot -- it goes well and has great service but don't go quite fast enough. we need to grow the ridership. >> what's your goal? what's your eam goal? we have got 10% now? >> we can compare ourselves to other parts of the world. it is more important, we have a lot of capacity that we could add people that don't have as many pele riding it today.

that's one particular goal. and oth systems where we are getting clos particularly coming in and out of downtown, we need to invest more there. a lot ofpeople will take transit if put more money into that corridor. >> we have about a dozen major subway systems in new york. here we have about two dozen? >> we have 2 different transit properties. really there is about seven big ones. bart is about 400,000 riders. bart of the challenge when you have so many operators, is a little bit difficult to vigate. we want to move forward in a direction where someone can more seamlessly go between the different operato within the region and look and feel like one region, not 27 different operators. >> so we need to coordinate that? >> we are doing a better job. we have clipper, it's not on

every system. we nd to push it a lot further. t just imagine someone coming on. they might learn the bart map. we have different maps where you go under the train. we ne a common map. >> i have just a few seconds. transit village are they worth investing in? >> a old idea that we had. neighborhoods like rock dge. simply the notion we want to put a lot of people's jobs and activities around them. they are doing a good job. all right. we are out of time. my thanks to all of our wonderful guests today. for more information, just go to our website. we're on facebookt abc 7 community affairs and follow me on twitter.

thanks for joining us have thanks for joining us have great week. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

>> this is the show with all kinds of people doing all kinds of stuff. some call it crazy. some call it adorable. everyone calls it "bloopers." stop what you are doing. unless what you're doing is watching "bloopers."let's go. [applause] >> hi, i'm dean cain. this is "bloopers."where we soe upped our blooper count you don't have to. up yours. wait. i may have