Transportation Fund for Clean Air
Part of the Bay Area 1994 Clean Air Plan involves implementing “transportation control measures” (TCMs) to reduce motor vehicle emissions. To provide funding for public agencies responsible for the TCMs, the state Legislature passed Assembly Bill 434 in 1991 and AB 414 in 1995. The legislation authorizes the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) to impose a $4 surcharge on motor vehicle registration fees paid within its jurisdiction. Surcharge revenues, which total approximately $20 million annually, are channeled into the Transportation Fund for Clean Air (TFCA).
Eligible Projects
The enabling legislation provides that the following types of projects are eligible for funding through the TFCA:
- Implementation of ridesharing programs
- Clean fuel bus purchases or leases for school districts and transit operators
- Feeder bus or shuttle service to rail and ferry stations and to airports
- Arterial traffic management, including, but not limited to, signal timing, transit signal preemption, bus stop relocation and “smart streets”
- Automobile buy-back scrap page program
- Rail-bus integration and regional transit information systems
- Demonstrations of low-emission vehicles and congestion pricing of highways, bridges and public transit
- Smoking vehicles program
- Bicycle facility improvement projects that are included in a countywide bicycle plan or congestion management program.
In addition, TFCA funds allocated through the CMAs may also fund the following project categories:
- Trip reduction (other than ridesharing)
- Park and ride facilities on the Regional HOV Lane Network
- Transit service improvements
- Access to rail/ferries
- Intercity rail improvements
- Ferry service
- Youth transportation
- Transit incentives
