The Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) unanimously elected Santa Clara County Board of Supervision President Dave Cortese as its new chairman last week.
Cortese will serve a two-year term through February 2017.
The commission oversees planning, financing and coordinating of transportation in the nine counties of San Francisco’s Bay Area. This includes transportation facilities and services, such as bus and subway routes, as well as the free 511 transportation information system.
Cortese has served as an MTC commissioner for eight years and was vice chair for two years.
“I am honored to be steering MTC during this time of tremendous challenge and opportunity for the agency and the region,” Cortese said. “On the one hand, the Bay Area is blessed with renewed economic growth, but on the other, we must contend with the transportation impacts of this growth, and work to ensure that people at all income levels have access and mobility options.”
Cortese also serves as chair of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors’ Housing, Land Use, Environment and Transportation Committee, where he has secured funding for more school crossing guards, and for a study of areas with a high number of pedestrian and bicycle accidents in order to improve safety.
