With traffic in the Bay Area so notoriously bad these days, isn't it about time someone do something about it? That seems to be the thought of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, anyway, as The Mercury News reports that the commission just approved $40 million worth of projects designed to ease the commute over the Bay Bridge.

The various programs approved would tackle several different elements deemed to be contributing to bridge congestion, and are intended to be rolled out quickly.

"We're trying to do some quick and easy things that we know are effective, and we want to make that permanent," MTC's director of legislation and public affairs Randy Rentschler told the paper. "We have a real proposal to use real money to help people on that very congested corridor."

Some of those proposals include increased ferry service, the purchase of double-decker buses, and more HOV-lane enforcement. This project is separate from a BART pilot program to get riders to ride at non-peak times via some sort of points system. The East Bay Times yesterday reported that BART is expecting to roll out its gamified commute program within the next several months.

The Mercury News reports that commuters should start seeing the newly funded changes soon — increased ferry service will start in the fall, carpooling improvement should go into effect within the next year, and the double-decker AC Transit and WestCAT buses should be deployed late 2017. Whether they'll actually make a noticeable dent in Bay Bridge congestion, however, is anyone's guess.

Now if only someone could do something about San Francisco's traffic.

Related: Eighty Percent Of Bay Area Residents Think Traffic Won't Get Better
BART Seeks To Gamify Commute In Bid To Ease Congestion