Poll Finds Transportation Vexes Most Bay Area Residents

According to Bay Area residents, transportation is the most important problem facing the region, with 26 percent of residents identifying it as the area's top problem in the 2004 Bay Area Poll released this week by the Bay Area Council.

In the first of a series of results, the poll found that the economy was second with 23 percent, a 10 percent decline from 2003 when it was the top concern of Bay Area residents. Housing more than doubled with 17 percent to place third among respondents. The results are intended to help guide the region's policymakers in their decision-making and help the Bay Area Council develop its annual work plan.

"It's clear that the economic recovery, as incremental and fragile as it may be, is being felt among Bay Area residents, yet issues surrounding transportation and housing again surface as big worries," said Jim Wunderman, president and CEO of the Bay Area Council. "Future growth and continued competitiveness of the region requires that we make significant progress in alleviating the shortcomings in our transportation infrastructure and undersupply of housing."

Concerns about housing spiked to second highest intensity since 1991 and nearly 80 percent of those polled believe that the cost of housing has worsened from the previous year.

In Santa Clara (34 percent), San Mateo (26 percent) and San Francisco (23 percent) counties, the economy rose to the top as their chief concern. Transportation and housing followed as the second and third most important concern, respectively, in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. Housing and homelessness were filled out the top three concerns in the County of San Francisco.

A significantly large number of North Bay residents (39 percent) cited transportation as their chief concern. Spanning Marin, Sonoma, Napa and Solano counties, residents of the North Bay region specifically pointed to roadway construction and traffic congestion as their most pressing issue.

Although a large percentage (61 percent) still believe the Bay Area is in bad economic times, the number of residents who believe the area is in good economic times more than doubled from the previous year (29 percent from 14 percent). When asked whether they expected regional economic conditions to get better or worse in the coming 12 months, 39 percent expected improvement, while 59 percent saw the economy staying the same or getting worse.