Five things we can do right away to rebuild Bay Area transit ridership
Transit ridership is down by 80-90% across most Bay Area transit agencies, and will take time to rebuild. Once the current shelter-in-place orders are lifted, full travel won’t resume until there are vaccines and treatments, which could be a year or more away. Patterns for commuting and working from home are likely to change over the long run, presenting additional hurdles for transit agencies to be able to reattract riders, restore service, and return to financial stability.
While some things are not within our control, there are immediate actions we can take to make our transit system more convenient and connected that will support bringing back our transit systems sooner. Simple, common-sense policies can strongly support rebuilding ridership and public trust over the coming months and years - and provide better access of those who continue to ride transit.
On April 22, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission is scheduled to divide the first slice of $1.3 billion in emergency funding from the federal CARES Act to keep our transit system operating. In allocating these funds - as well as any future state or federal emergency and recovery funds - our goal should be not only to enable transit agencies to continue to operate service, but also to implement simple and long overdue policies that will immediately create more convenient, affordable, and connected network.
Here are five initiatives MTC commissioners should ask be implemented immediately in connection with emergency transit funds to rebuild our region’s transit ridership more quickly:
1. Develop an region-wide core transit network plan within 30 days
SFMTA’s core service plan was developed very quickly; a region-wide core service plan is urgently needed to ensure access of essential workers and coordinated restoration of service.
The Bay Area has never had a region-wide core transit network plan that clearly identifies our key corridors with common levels of transit service - minimum frequencies and speeds - that make up to a connected, multi-modal transit network. This needn’t take a long time - in response to the COVID-19 crisis, SFMTA developed such a network for reduced service within a week.
A core transit network plan is needed now at a regional scale more than ever to ensure that essential workers can get to their jobs and people can take essential trips.
Because of our lack of such a plan, emergency service cuts have happened without coordination, creating large new gaps in the network and leaving riders in the lurch. While in other regions, transit operators and vehicles are being moved to where they are most needed across agency boundaries, the Bay Area doesn’t yet have a way to coordinate this.
We propose that within 30 days, MTC and transit agencies be required to develop and approve a core rapid transit network plan that should be a blueprint for service now and for the next several years. The plan should then be updated at least every 60 days for the next two years to adapt to new travel patterns as societal activity is restored, and as service is brought back to ensure a core connected transit network is maintained.
The plan should be transit agency-agnostic. It should consider locations with the most transit-dependent populations and people taking essential trips, maximize access to key healthcare facilities and other essential destinations, and maintain feeder connections during times of reduced service.
Transit agencies should show they are meeting the minimum service levels on each corridor. The plan should identify priority corridors for service at least every 10 minute, 20 minute and 30 minutes. The plan should deploy increased service to corridors where there is crowding to enable social distancing, including across agency boundaries, to maintain public health and keep needed workers employed.
Lastly, the emergency core rapid transit network plan should then be the basis of a more coherent and connected network plan as the region restores service.
2. Eliminate transfer fees and charge riders only one fare
Stanford’s widely used Marguerite shuttle system simulates what it would be like if we had free transfers between buses and trains. Palo Alto Caltrain station has some of the highest rates of train-bus transfers anywhere in the Bay Area because users are not charged an extra fee for changing agencies; timed transfers and excellent physical proximity also help.
To encourage regional transit use, reduce the relative cost of transit compared to driving, and help low income and transit-dependent people who have no other choice but to make long journeys on transit, agencies should eliminate unfair transfer fees for the duration of emergency funding, if not permanently.
In the past, transit agencies’ fear of losing fare revenue has stood in the way of eliminating transfer fees, despite broad agreement that eliminating these extra fares will help build transit ridership over the long term. For the foreseeable future, with fare revenue and ridership at record low levels, the cost of eliminating transfer fees is lower than ever.
To implement this quickly and simply, we propose that for any transit trips involving one or more transfers within a 2-hour period, users should be charged a maximum fare equal to that of the most expensive leg; all other fares should be waived or rebated.
As an example:
For a transfer from BART to a local bus, the bus fare would be waived.
For a transfer from a bus to BART, a rider would be given credit for the bus fare they were already charged, and only be charged the difference of the additional BART fare. If the rider went on to transfer to another local bus after BART within the 2-hour window, that local bus fare would also be waived.
For transfers between two regional services (e.g. BART, Caltrain, SMART, Ferry, Golden Gate Transit) a standard flat discount may be applied, roughly corresponding to the cost of a local transit fare ($2-3)
3. Eliminate restrictions that prevent transit agencies from transporting passengers in other service areas.
Believe it or not, there are rules barring transit agencies from picking up and dropping off passengers outside their service area, to prevent transit agencies from poaching riders from each other.
In light of COVID-19, some transit agencies have already begun to relax these restrictions; for example Golden Gate Transit and Muni have agreed to allow Golden Gate to temporarily pick-up and drop off passengers within the City of San Francisco to make up for lost Muni service.
These restrictions should be immediately eliminated region-wide for as long as state emergency and federal funding is propping up the transit system - and then should be eliminated permanently. This will allow for more efficient deployment of resources and a better experience for passengers as service is restructured over the coming months.
If combined with the waiving of transfer fees and honoring of any local transit agency pass products, eliminating this restriction will ensure that riders aren’t charged extra for using a different agency’s bus for a local transit trip.
4. Make transit free for children 12 years of age and under.
In 2015, Toronto Mayor John Tory introduced free transit for kids 12 and under, which led to a doubling of transit ridership among children and contributed to overall transit ridership growth.
While the exact definition of a child varies from transit agency to transit agency, children under 5 can ride most Bay Area transit systems for free, but a child aged 5-18 is charged a “youth fare”. This discourages families with children over 5 from using transit, often making it cheaper for families to drive than use public transit. Children 12 and under are usually accompanied by an adult and should also be able to ride for free to incentivize more families to use transit, especially on weekends and non-peak times when the system has the most capacity.
Making transit free for children 12 and under has been shown to lead to a significant increase in ridership in other regions. As an example, Toronto found that making transit free for children under 12 led to a doubling of ridership by children since it was introduced in 2015. Paris also introduced free transit for children 11 and under in 2019. Because children under 12 are usually accompanied by an adult, it helps build adult, full-fare ridership and is less likely to result in reduced revenues for transit agencies. It’s a low risk, low cost way of encouraging transit ridership right away.
5. Develop regionally consistent emergency safety standards for workers and riders
Bay Area transit agencies have struggled to protect workers and riders’ safety, leading to significant trust challenges between operators, riders, and agencies.
Moving forward, MTC should take a leadership role in creating common regional safety protocols and standards, and resources to help transit agencies through this period. Standards are already being developed on a national level by groups such as the American Public Transit Association, but MTC still has an important role to play in facilitating transit agency access to national, state, and international expertise, as well as improving communications to the public and riders.