Idea Competition for Solving Bay Area Traffic Names Finalists

Erin Baldassari provides an update on the status of the Request for Transformative Projects undertaken by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), the regional transportation planning agency in the Bay Area.

The Request for Transformative Projects was announced in June 2018 as part of the Horizon initiative, which explores the challenges and opportunities likely to face the Bay Area between now and 2050. "The reason for the contest, an MTC spokesman told this news organization in July, is that public agencies often get tunnel vision when it comes to thinking about what’s possible. They’re constrained by what’s politically feasible, the funding available and what’s achievable in the short-term," writes Baldassari.

The MTC received more than 500 proposals, eventually settling on 12 finalists [pdf], but Baldassari takes the opportunity to call attention to the most outlandish ideas left on the cutting room flow of the proposal process. Included among the ten most outlandish proposals identified by Baldassari are ideas for gondolas, flying cars, and a conveyor belt.