BART board believes seamless transit will promote ridership return and voter confidence for funding
Last week, the BART board held its annual workshop discussing topics that will be strategic for the year to come.. Major themes discussed by the board this year included the importance of providing excellent, frequent, well-connected service to bring riders back; and the beginning of a process to seek funding from voters.
In the words of DIrector Li, “BART and Bay Area transit have to show the public that we're not asking for more money just to provide what we've historically provided. This work to Integrate fares and coordinate service for riders is what we need to do be innovative and is critical for future funding.”
“BART and Bay Area transit have to show the public that we're not asking for more money just to provide what we've historically provided. This work to Integrate fares and coordinate service for riders is what we need to do be innovative and is critical for future funding.”
Ridership on the Bay Area’s regional services is recovering more slowly than regional services around the US, as Bay Area office occupancy rates remain the lowest in the country. Survey data from the Bay Area Council presented at the meeting showed that office employers do plan to bring workers back, but people will likely be in the office less frequently - on average three days per week.
At the same time, travel patterns are changing. Ridership on BART and other regional services has been returning faster on weekends, largely for social and recreational trips. And current riders are more likely to be low income, people of color, and to not have a car.
At the workshop, BART staff presentations and BART board members highlighted progress on regional transit coordination as key to restoring ridership.
The all-agency transit pass pilot, which will start with colleges and universities starting in August for the next school year, was highlighted as an opportunity to incent ridership among students, since students are among the groups returning to transit more quickly.
Also to bring back ridership, BART will be partnering and co-promoting recreational destinations around the region, including promotions for urban hikes and East Bay Regional Parks destinations accessible with an AC Transit connection. Currently, riders get a 50 cent discount when transferring from BART to an AC Transit bus, but no discount in the other direction. The transfer will soon be free starting in 2023 with the next generation Clipper card, according to recently approved Fare Policy Vision. This proposal was approved in November by the agencies’ general managers, but still needs to be approved by agency boards in the spring.
Importantly, BART board members cited more seamless transit as key to winning the confidence of voters for funding. The workshop started a conversation about a potential ballot measure in 2024, with options ranging from a measure in the 3 counties served by the current BART board (San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa), the 5 counties served by the BART system (adding Santa Clara and San Mateo), or the 9 county region served by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Outreach for a ballot measure could start as soon as June of this year.
A more regional approach (5-counties or 9-counties) would be better for riders. Frequent service is essential on regional service and local connections in order for people to be able to travel where they need to go. And a pot of regional funding would be especially helpful to fund seamless transit initiatives including fare integration, integrated signage and branding, and well-integrated hub stations. The fact that much operating funding is raised locally is a barrier to coordinated service.
There will be important opportunities to participate in discussions this year about regional funding for public transportation, and we will keep you posted on chances to weigh in.
