Tuesday 1pm - Regional Fare Integration Study Milestone

On Tuesday at 1pm, the regional Fare Integration and Coordination Study has a major milestone - the region’s transit general managers will decide which options for more convenient, affordable, predictable fares will be studied in depth. The fare integration options will be evaluated for their potential to improve equity, increase ridership, and reduce driving.  The good news is that there are some solid options on the table.

Options proposed for study include:

  • Zone- or distance-based fares with a flat local bus fare that let you pay a predictable amount for a trip regardless of which agency or agencies you use - e.g. the same price to take BART or an express bus across the bay. (This type of system is what Seamless Bay Area’s fare vision map depicts)

  • Budget-friendly fare caps that let you take transfers and trips with multiple agencies and know the maximum you will have to pay in a day, week, or month

There are also options that are closer to the status quo:

  • Some more transfer discounts for common trips with transfers

  • Transfer clusters in subregions (North Bay, East Bay), or for similar services (BART, Caltrain)

All the options being studied are compatible with discounts for seniors, students, people with lower incomes, and other groups.

Can you give public comment on Tuesday, Feb. 16 at the 1:00 p.m. meeting of the Fare Integration Task Force? If so, here’s the link to attend; you can also sign up to make public comment via this form. We also encourage you to send a note to the Task Force (email info@bayareametro.gov) as well as agencies you use, ideally by 5:00 pm on Monday, February 15. It is important for agencies to hear that riders care about easier to use, affordable fares.

Here are ideas to include in your email or public comment:

  • Thank transit agencies for collaborating in an unprecedented manner and continuing to advance fare integration.

  • Urge the Fare Integration Task Force to keep all options on the table and study them to identify options with the greatest benefits for riders, for restoring and increasing transit ridership and equity

  • Tell a personal story you may have about the potential benefits of integrated transit fares, especially if it would enable you to use transit more or drive less.

  • Values-based reasons why you support regional fare integration, such as - equity benefits for low-income people, convenience to bring people back to transit, increasing transit use to combat climate emissions

Also, please copy your note to the boards of transit agencies that you use, and feel free to copy us, info@seamlessbayarea.org

So far, the study has ruled out a few options that it considered to have fatal flaws.  Some riders have suggested regionwide flat fares, but the study did not find any regions the size of the Bay Area with flat fares.  In order to charge flat fares around the region, either fares would need to be much higher than today, or a much greater subsidy would be needed than the other options.  Also, many regions around the world have zones designed as concentric circle. This option works well for regions that have a single central city surrounded by suburbs, but does not work for a region with a large body of water in the middle and with several larger cities and many smaller cities ringing the Bay.

For the options the Task Force chooses to study further,  a full assessment of costs and benefits will come back for review over the summer, after which the Task Force will be asked to make a recommendations of which options to pursue for implementation

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Adina Levin