San Francisco endorses Seamless Transit Principles
This morning, San Francisco became the latest jurisdiction to endorse the Seamless Transit Principles, which call on local and regional leaders to pursue a more integrated, efficient, and rider-friendly regional transit system.
During its Tuesday meeting, conducted remotely due to the shelter-in-place order, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority – which consists of the 11 members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors – unanimously endorsed a resolution in support of the principles.
San Francisco Supervisor and SFCTA Chair Aaron Peskin speaks at a March 10 meeting of the Transportation Authority Board.
“This [collaboration] has not happened among the [27] transit agencies over many years for a lot of different reasons, some of them having to do with different agencies hanging on to their turf,” said San Francisco Supervisor and SFCTA Chair Aaron Peskin at the Board’s March meeting. “As we [pursue seamless transit], we have to make sure that that core capacity – BART, Muni, and AC Transit, which carry three-quarters of all transit riders – continues to stay robust.”
The resolution adopted by SFCTA includes a recommendation that any future regional Task Force or Transit Network Manager – two provisions included in AB 2057, a Seamless Bay Area-sponsored bill announced by Asm. David Chiu in February – focus on enhancing and optimizing transit in areas with strong transit ridership.
San Francisco is home to more than 800,000 people, and San Francisco Muni provides 44 percent of all transit trips in the region, but only within the city limits. Transit riders crossing between San Francisco and any of the other Bay Area’s nine counties are required to make connections between Muni and other transit services such as BART, AC Transit, Caltrain, Golden Gate Transit, SamTrans, and the San Francisco Bay Ferry.
San Francisco joins Alameda County, the cities of Millbrae and Berkeley, and the Cities Association of Santa Clara County, in endorsing the Seamless Transit Principles. Together, these jurisdictions represent over 4 million residents and about half of the Bay Area’s population.
The principles have also been endorsed by non-profit groups including SPUR, TransForm, the Greenlining Institute, San Francisco Transit Riders, and Friends of Caltrain.
The increasing number of calls for seamless transit could inform how the Bay Area’s transit agencies attempt to rebuild transit ridership following the COVID-19 crisis, which has devastated transit agency revenues and led to service cuts. Seamless Bay Area has advocated that new emergency funding for transit should be accompanied by reforms that support a more seamless, integrated system to win back the trust of the public, grow ridership, and be better prepared for the next emergency.
The Bay Area has one of the most fragmented public transportation systems in the country, with over 27 different separate transit agencies operating in the region with no requirements for coordination or integration.
The Seamless Transit Principles, developed by a coalition of local non-profit groups, are designed to encourage transit agencies and municipalities to work together to create a better integrated, better functioning regional transportation network in the Bay Area.
Learn more about the Principles and sign the petition here.