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The Problem

Public transportation in the Bay Area does not work for people.

Unreliable service, slow speeds, lack of connections, confusing information: the poor experience of using Bay Area public transit causes many people avoid it completely. It's no wonder only 5% of people’s trips in the Bay Area are on transit, while at least 70% are in cars.

The Bay Area's lack of a connected, convenient public transportation system hurts us all.  It leaves many people with no option but to drive everywhere, spending more of their paycheck on transportation costs, and more of their time in long commutes.  As the Bay Area continues to grow, inadequate public transportation worsens our region's most pressing problems:

COVID-19 has added to public transit’s challenges in the Bay Area; service cuts and declining revenues have put the future of public transit in even greater doubt.

Root Causes

The heart of the Bay Area's transportation problem is fragmented transportation governance.

27 different agencies provide transit service separately with little coordination and no regional vision.  By most measures, the Bay Area has the most fragmented public transit network in the country. 

Fragmentation contributes to:

• An incoherent network that, for riders, is inconvenient to use and nearly impossible to understand.

• Shortsighted planning, where piecemeal transportation projects are favored over larger systematic improvements that would serve more people.

• Poorly coordinated essential transit service in the event of emergencies that limits essential workers’ ability to access their jobs.

• Little public accountability for our lack of regional transit connectivity.

• High operating costs, paid for by riders, and duplication of many overhead functions that could be shared.

• Poorly managed transit expansion projects where severe delays and cost overruns are the norm.

If we don't fix our inefficient and unaccountable system of transportation governance, public transit will continue to decline. We will all suffer the environmental, social, and economic consequences.

Our Vision

We need a single lead authority with the mandate and resources to integrate and expand public transportation in the Bay Area.

We envision a Seamless Bay Area where it's easy to get around on a frequent, connected network of excellent public transit and other forms of mobility.

With clear leadership from an accountable and modern transportation authority, we can create a world-class system that will provide us with: