Marin Independent Journal interviews Andrew Fremier, newly appointed executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and its constituent agencies, and gauges local reaction to his elevation from within senior management of the Bay Area’s premier planning agency. Fremier discusses a primary responsibility of the job, implementing the $1.4 trillion, 30-year Plan Bay Area 2050, which addresses housing and climate issues, as well as the region’s significant transportation needs. Transit network funding is a particularly acute problem, he says, at a time when major Bay Area providers are facing pandemic-related fiscal crises. On the positive side, Fremier notes that hundreds of millions of dollars in federal and regional funding have recently become available for landmark transportation infrastructure projects including a BART extension to Silicon Valley, restoration of State Route 37 and a proposed US 101 and I-580 interchange in Marin County.
