The Metropolitan Transportation Commission wants to know how you think the region should spent $30 billion in road and transit dollars in the next 25 years.

Heck, at the rate things are going, we’ll need every dime of it to pay for gas.

Visit its survey web site and tell local transportation leaders what you think.

Assemblyman Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, has been named chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee.

Under DeSaulnier, the Transportation Committee may never be the same. The panel’s vice chairman also sports a name with French origins, Assemblyman Mike Duvall, R-Brea.

As the unofficial Assembly “French Caucus,” DeSaulnier says the pair will institute immediate changes. The committee will now serve wine and baguettes, take two-hour lunches and have afternoon naps. Members will also receive an eight-week, paid vacation every summer.

(He’s kidding.)

And this is different from what they do now in what way?

(I’m kidding. French bread has way too many carbs.)

Seriously, though, it’s a prestigious if short gig.

DeSaulnier is leaving the Assembly at the end of the year. He’s running unopposed for the state Senate in the upcoming Democratic primary election on June 3.

He will have a Republican opponent in November, political unknown businessman Christian Amsberry of Walnut Creek. But barring a massive political misstep, DeSaulnier is highly likely to prevail in November the heavily Democratic Senate District 7.

DeSaulnier landed the Assembly post as part of a leadership cascade that started when outgoing Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez stripped two members of their chairmanships after they conspired against him in the fight to name Assemblywoman Karen Bass as the new speaker.

As a result, the former Transportation Committee Chairman and Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, is moving to chair the banking committee.

The good news just keeps pouring in on our flagging economy.

In a release just out from AAA of Northern California, gas prices in the state hit a record high of $3.58, a 46-cent increase since the last AAA gas price report on February 12.

Here’s what AAA said:

SAN FRANCISCO, March 11, 2008 - The relentless surge in the cost of crude oil pushed gasoline prices to an all time high in California. According to a new report from AAA of Northern California, which tracks fuel costs as a service to consumers, the statewide average cost for a gallon of regular gasoline is now a record high $3.58, a 46-cent increase since the last AAA gas price report on February 12.

“The cost of crude oil, the raw material from which gas is made, has reached a record high price of $108 per barrel,” said Sean Comey, spokesperson for AAA of Northern California. “A year ago it was selling for about $60.”

Why crude has gone up so much is not entirely clear. The plummeting value of the dollar is one reason why oil prices have risen. Oil is bought and sold in U.S. dollars, so when they are worth less, it takes more of them to buy a barrel of oil. Falling currency values do not seem to be sufficient to account for the entire run up in crude prices. Financial speculation in the commodities market may also be one of the forces that has led to higher oil prices.

“The number of times a barrel of oil changes hands on paper between the time it’s pumped out of the ground and when it’s turned into gas at a refinery has increased significantly,” said Comey. “The people who are making these trades aren’t running charities. They’re trying to squeeze profit out of each transaction, and it stands to reason that would gin up the ultimate cost paid by the consumer.”

The most expensive average gas price in the Northern California communities where AAA monitors fuel costs is in Tahoe City, where regular unleaded sells for $3.75 per gallon. The lowest price among Northern California cities tracked by AAA is in Chico, where gas costs an average of $3.51 per gallon.

Throughout Northern California, the average price is $3.60, up 45 cents since the last AAA gas price report. In the Bay Area, the average price is $3.72, an increase of 42 cents from last month. The nationwide average price of self-serve regular gasoline is $3.23, up 27 cents from last month’s AAA gas price report. That ties the previous record high price.

The average statewide price in California is 35 cents per gallon higher than the national average. The least expensive gasoline in the country is found in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where regular unleaded costs an average of $2.97.

The highest average price in the nation is in Wailuku, Hawaii, on the island of Maui, where a gallon of regular unleaded costs $3.93. No state in the country now has an average gas price below $3.

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the nine-county organization that holds the purse strings on regional transit and highway money, wants to know what you think about Bay Area transportation, climate change, land use and other issues. To participate, log on through Jan. 18 to www.mtc.ca.gov/T2035.

Here’s what MTC has to say about its poll via a press release:

Every four years, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) updates its regional transportation plan, the region’s blueprint for spending federal, state and regional transportation dollars over the next 25 years. In order to hear your opinions on a variety of issues relating to the Transportation 2035 plan, MTC is hosting a Web survey through January 18.

The online survey asks participants questions about greenhouse gas emissions and global warming, housing, improving traffic congestion, and planning and transportation funding priorities in the region. Participants also may compare their personal answers with the results of a telephone poll of 1,800 Bay Area residents conducted by MTC. The survey is also available in Spanish and Chinese.

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to help create a shared vision for the region’s transportation network that will help protect the environment, preserve our quality of life and improve mobility over the next 25 years.

MTC is the transportation planning, coordinating and financing agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.

Dublin Mayor Janet Lockhart, in an e-mail from China where she is visiting a sister city, confirmed that she is seriously considering a run for the BART board next year.

She lives in the district of incumbent Zoyd Luce, a man who unexpectedly beat prior BART Director and former Dublin Mayor Pete Snyder. Luce won largely due to support from Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty.

At the time, Haggerty was furious with Snyder over what the supervisor considered the BART director’s negative attitude about a future BART extension to Livermore. Snyder had stated that there was no money for it. Ironically, Luce came to the same conclusion in his first year of office.

It’s unclear whether Luce will seek re-election. He has expressed interest in a second term although he has talked about other posts, as well.

Luce, a former BART employee who says he was forced out because he objected to the agency’s safety program, has been a controversial figure at the agency. Luce and retiring BART manager Tom Margo openly loathed each other. Luce’s BART board colleagues tried to temper his blunt language and encouraged him to find more productive means to promote what they considered good ideas.

Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo, introduced today a bill that would make the cost of providing free local transit rides during MacArthur Maze reconstruction eligible for federal dollars.

According to Tauscher’s press release on the subject, the “Commuter Emergency Relief Bill” would be retroactive to April 29, which would include the time during which the Metropolitan
Transportation Commission has estimated the state spent $2.7 million on transit relief. As most will recall, a semi-truck crashed and caught on fire in the maze, which melted a portion of the busy interchange.

Under the Federal Highway Administration’s current emergency relief program, California is eligible to be reimbursed only for repairs made to a damaged highway, the press release reads.

The costs associated with offering free transit services such as BART and AC Transit in the aftermath of an emergency are not eligible, except for ferry boat service.

“When there’s a catastrophe on a major artery, everyone is forced to switch gears and make changes that affect their daily lives,” Tauscher said. “In the case of the MacArthur Maze meltdown, thousands of commuters needed to find alternate routes to and from work, and in a record number of cases, that involved people getting out of their cars and onto mass transportation.

Co-sponsors on the bill inlcude a number of Bay Area lawmakers including Reps. Barbara Lee, Oakland, Jerry McNerney, Pleasanton; and George Miller of Martinez.

BART top manager Tom Margro, who recently announced his retirement from the Bay Area transit agency, apparently has no plans to actually stop working.

Margro will assume the CEO post of the organization that manages the toll road system in Orange County, the Foothill/Eastern and San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agencies. Click here to see the press release from the agency. He starts July 10, according to an e-mail circulating at BART.

Has retirement gone out of fashion?

You know, the kind where you garden or travel or take up underwater photography?

Several Bay Area legislators and transportation officials want to name the new Benicia span, set to open to traffic in late August or early September, after Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez.

It makes sense.

The existing Benicia bridge between Martinez and Benicia, built in 1962 and widened in 1991, is named after Miller’s father, the late state Sen. George Miller Jr.

Naming a state-owned bridge requires approval by the Legislature and Assemblyman Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, is working on a bill.

The congressman, however, is reportedly not jumping up out of his seat over the idea.

Miller is known for his humble, down-to-earth personality and, unlike many veteran elected officials, his ego remains thoroughly under control.

If the moniker should become official, “Congressman Miller would be honored to have the new Benicia bridge bear his name, when the traffic is running smoothly, of course,” said Miller’s chief of staff, Danny Weiss.

But Miller, a lifelong union advocate, also favors “dedicating the bridge to all of the construction workers and engineers who built it and the local community that is paying for it,” Weiss said. “The bridge project has been a great team effort at all levels of government and will be a boost to area commuters.”

Of course, naming it the Miller bridge probably won’t change the ubiquitous radio traffic reports and newspaper references to the span as the “Benicia bridge.” The Contra Costa Times’ official stylebook mandates that we call it the “Benicia bridge.”

Contrary to the insistence of some folks in Martinez, the bridge’s full name is the “Benicia-Martinez Bridge,” ostensibly because the toll plaza is located on the Benicia side of the span. There’s even been some loose talk that the order of the cities ought to change after the new span opens because the new toll plaza is on the Martinez side.

But that naming protocol only seems to apply only to the Benicia and the Richmond-San Rafael span, where the toll plaza is on the Richmond shoreline. It also works on the Antioch bridge, mostly because there’s no town on the other shoreline.

The toll plaza on the San Mateo-Hayward bridge is in Hayward. And we all know, from those long minutes we sat looking at the Oakland skyline, where the Bay Bridge’s toll plaza is located — it’s full name is the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

The Carquinez bridge, which links Crockett and Vallejo, bears neither name although the new span was named after the late famed bridgeworker Al Zampa.

The Dumbarton bridge, according to Wikipedia, is named after nearby Dumbarton Point, which was named after a town in Scotland. Who knew?

The best part about being a reporter is having the opportunity to explore new bridges before they open to the public.

This morning, I toured the new Benicia-Martinez bridge, scheduled to open in late August or early September, with Caltrans engineer Mo Pazooki and public information officer Keith Wayne. (See tomorrow’s Contra Costa Times for the full story and photos by Karl Mondon.)

We drove from one end of the bridge to the other, a feat possible only in the past few months since the contractors finished the concrete segments and installed the hinges in the deck that allow the bridge to move up to 3 feet in an earthquake.

We walked down the middle of the span, which won’t be possible as soon as the five-lane bridge opens to traffic.

And we roamed through the tunnel beneath the toll-taker booths, a place that will be strictly off-limits to the general public after opening day. The toll may only be $4 but multiply that amount by the thousands of vehicles that travel this bridge every day and you are talking about some serious money.

I’ll be working on a full-length retrospective about the construction of the Benicia-Martinez bridge to publish in late summer before it opens. If you worked on this bridge, I’d love to hear from you. Call me at 925-945-4773 or email me at lvorderbrueggen@cctimes.com.

The humorous documentary about the construction of the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge, “A Bridge So Far: A Suspense Story,” has won two Emmy awards. (See the film web site and order a DVD here.)

The film won for documentary and graphic arts and animation at the 36th Annual Northern California Area Emmy Awards at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.

Filmmaker David Brown produced the documentary at the request of the Professional Engineers in California Government. Other key talent on the film included directors of photography, Vicente Franco and Dave Drum; humorous animated cartoons by Charlie Canfield; motion graphics designer, Rick Pepper of Aha!Visual; writer, Stephen Most; editors Tal Skloot, Steven Baigel and Shirley Gutierrez; music composer, Tom Disher; and associate producers Hadley Dynak and Heather Carawan.

In the interest of full disclosure, I’m biased because I appear throughout the documentary.

But this is a great and funny film that offers a whole new perspective on the saga of the Bay Bridge project. Brown and his crew conducted several on-camera interviews with me when I was the Times’ transportation writer.

Other voices that help tell the story include former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, Sen.Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch, Caltrans Director Will Kempton, former Metropolitan Transportation Commission member and former Alameda County Supervisor Mary King and bridge builder C. C. Myers. The film also features hysterical commentary by Bay Area political satirists and comics Will Durst, Joe Klocek, and Michael Capozzola.

When the film debuted at the Mill Valley Film Festival, it was a shock, as a print reporter, to see myself on a giant movie screen. (I was regretting every dessert I ever ate, of course.)

My brief foray into the world of movie-making culminated in a glamorous evening in San Francisco on Saturday night complete with a glittery, full-length gown and a walk onto the Emmy stage. I had the honor to stand with others who worked on the documentary behind filmmaker David Brown as he accepted the golden statue.

The evening was as close as I’ll probably ever get to being a movie star but that may not be a bad thing.

Sitting for three hours in a formal dress in a scratchy theater seat listening to acceptance speech after acceptance speech in an industry I know almost nothing about was a major test of my well-known impatience with all things ceremonial.

But when emcee Will Durst announced “Bridge So Far” was the winner for best documentary, I forgot all about the sharp pain in my ribs generated by the underwire in that stupid strapless bra or how my feet were killing me in those high-heel sandals.

So, order the DVD (it’s $14.95, which includes tax and shipping) and watch the film. You’ll get a laugh and you’ll learn something.

And you can watch it in your pajamas. No underwire bra required or necessary.