WTS San Francisco Bay Area Honors MTC’s 511 Regional Carpool Program
The Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) San Francisco Bay Area Chapter recognized three awardees with ties to MTC at its 2017 Annual Scholarship and Awards Event on June 7 in Oakland.
MTC’s 511 Regional Carpool Program won this year’s Innovative Transportation Solutions Award for its partnerships with private-sector carpool matching apps to reduce vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions in the Bay Area. Specifically, 511 partnered with BART and Scoop to develop a “Carpool to BART” program that guarantees parking spots for carpoolers at the BART Dublin/Pleasanton station, winning the program a Federal Transit Administration Mobility on Demand grant. The program saved the region an estimated 500,000 car trips this year. WTS noted the program’s successful campaigns to build public awareness and increase carpooling in the region’s most congested areas.
“As our region’s buses, bridges, roads and trains are pushed to their breaking points,” explained Barbara Laurenson, project manager for the 511 ridesharing program, “it’s never been more important to promote carpooling, changing people’s perceptions about their personal, private relationship with their cars, improving the HOV infrastructure, and working with the private sector.”
Catalina Alvarado, a senior public information officer at MTC, won the WTS International Rosa Parks Diversity Leadership Award and traveled to New York to accept the award at the organization’s Annual Conference. She was also recognized by the WTS San Francisco Bay Area chapter, receiving another local award for the honor. Alvarado has dedicated her 30-plus-year career to improving public accessibility to transportation policy decisions, with a focus on the underrepresented and underserved..
Adrienne Tissier, former MTC commissioner and San Mateo County supervisor, was yet another honoree of the evening, accepting the WTS Lifetime Achievement Award at the event. Tissier served on the MTC Commission for 11 years and was twice elected president of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors during her tenure from 2005–2017. She also served on the boards of SamTrans, Caltrain, the San Mateo Medical Center, the San Mateo County Commission on Aging, the Children’s Fund for Jobs and Youth, and the San Mateo Local Agency Formation Commission. Prior to her election to the Board, she was a Daly City councilmember for eight years, serving as mayor for two terms.
