Impact of BART on Highway Planning and Policy

The construction and operation of BART resulted in no dramatic changes in State highway facilities and planning, However, the State of California and BART did enter into policy agreements to develop existing highway rights-of-way for joint transit and highway use. The policy decision-making process and BART-State interactions were traced through the period of BART planning and construction to assess changes in highway planning and policy that might have resulted from BART. The policy outcome—joint use of facilities for transit and highways—appeared to be a cost effective development strategy in terms of broad public constituencies. An assessment of this policy outcome also provides some lessons learned for other communities considering rapid rail transit development such as the need for an independent third party to make trade-offs during negotiations and the need for clarity and formality in policy agreements.