Seamless and allies support strengthening MTC Transit Priority Policy
Transit priority - getting buses and light rail out of traffic - is a cost effective set of strategies to make transit faster and more reliable, and to increase ridership (see examples from San Francisco below).
Transit Priority is one of the leading strategies in the region’s Transit Transformation Action Plan, with sets of projects being funded and built all around the region. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission is working with transit agencies to develop a policy to support and fund transit priority investments around the Bay Area.
In late October and early November, MTC staff presented on the transit priority policy being developed. Seamless and allies including SPUR, San Francisco Transit Riders and Urban Habitat sent a letter in support of transit priority with recommendations for policy to be clarified and strengthened and to have a more robust process to refine and adopt it.
MTC’s presentation had a number of suggestions that we think should be required.
Local jurisdiction adoption of Transit Priority policies should become prerequisites for One Bay Area Grant funding, along the lines of the longstanding requirement for jurisdictions to have Complete Streets policies. OBAG grants are a large funding source that cities greatly value. The second round OBAG program approved in 2018 provided $386 million for 180 projects across the region, while the third round approved in 2022 provided $383 million for local projects across the region.
The creation of a regional transit priority network that can be used to prioritize investments. We support the MTC collaborating with agencies, Caltrans and jurisdictions to create such a regional transit priority network. The Transit 2050+ Connected Network Plan includes a set of projects that can be used as the start of such a network (though it leaves out the important bridge projects).
Standards, goals and metrics. At the RNM Council, transit executives working on multi-jurisdictional projects encouraged standards to be adopted, and we agree with this recommendation.
Parking and local street space. We also want to see provisions around parking and local street space. This is a key issue that frequently results in tensions and in the absence of robust attention to problem-solving, results in projects getting watered down. The policy and programs should include technical support for parking studies, outreach, and solution development, in order to proactively address local access issues while delivering effective transit priority results.
More systematic outreach to cities. MTC has been including County Transportation Authorities in the development of the draft policy, but staff were less clear about the engagement of local jurisdictions. Cities that are on the path of lines in the regional transit priority network should receive proactive, systematic outreach, even at the cost of somewhat slower adoption of the MTC’s regional transit priority policy. If key jurisdictions that control local streets on the transit priority network have not been proactively involved, this increases the risk that cities that hadn’t been involved may raise concerns raised late in the process that could limit the effectiveness of the policy.
MTC’s schedule proposes to have a draft policy in the winter of 2025, and to have a policy approved before the summer of 2025. Transit supporters will have opportunities to support a strong policy in the coming months with MTC, agencies, and local cities and counties.
