Advocacy needed to realize the Seamless Integrated Fare Vision
Implementing Seamless Bay Area’s Integrated Fare Vision - or something like it - will require transformative changes to the way transit is funded and managed in our region.
Last month, Seamless Bay Area unveiled our Integrated Fare Vision, a proposal for a regional, zone-based system of fares that would improve transit connectivity and accessibility across the region.
Implementing an integrated fare system like the one we’ve proposed will require transformative changes to the way transit is funded and managed in our region. Fortunately, there are regional initiatives in the works that have the potential to advance change. With sustained public advocacy, we know we can achieve transformative change, not just minor tweaks to our costly and confusing system.
To bring our seamless transit vision to life, we will need participation from thousands of petition signers, hundreds of letter writers, and dozens of speakers at regional and transit agency boards, whose buy-in is essential to achieving these our vision. Decision makers need to hear from massive numbers of transit riders that the status quo isn’t working well enough, that riders demand a seamless system, and that riders insist that our institutions overcome barriers to change.
We encourage all advocates interested in advancing our vision for seamless transit to join our mailing list to be alerted about opportunities to make public comment and take other actions in support of seamless transit and fares. In the meantime, supporters should consider taking one of the following actions:
Sign the Seamless Transit Principles petition
Write your own letter to the boards of transit agencies you use
Plan to make public comment at regional transit bodies, and at meetings of the boards of transit agencies you use
Fare Vision Advocacy Landscape
Here is an overview of regional initiatives in the works, and more on how your advocacy can help:
Regional fare study
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and the region’s transit agencies are in the midst of a Fare Coordination and Integration Study, which is exploring possible fare integration options and estimating the costs and benefits of fare integration. The study is being managed by staff from BART and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, with the support of Steer, an international consulting firm with expertise on transit fare systems worldwide. We expect a final report by the end of 2021.
The body that is supervising this study is the Fare Integration Task Force, composed of general managers of leading transit agencies. In addition, there is a policy advisory body that is providing feedback on the study, the MTC Policy Advisory Council Fare Coordination and Integration Subcommittee. This advisory group is composed of members of the MTC Policy Advisory Council, plus members of stakeholder groups such as transit riders, businesses, educational institutions, people with disabilities, seniors, and others. MTC Policy Advisory Council gets regular reports from the Subcommittee, and makes its own recommendations to the MTC.
The Fare Coordination and Integration Study is expected to bring forward policy options in December and January for review by the MTC and the Blue Ribbon Transit Recovery Task Force.
The Blue Ribbon Transit Recovery Task Force
Significant institutional reforms will be needed to bring about a regionally seamless transit system. The fragmented Bay Area transit network, with 27 agencies working independently without coordinated schedules or fares, is not set up to manage an integrated system of service, nor to administer an integrated fare system.
Fortunately, a regional task force is currently working to develop opportunities for institutional change to provide better integrated transit service for riders. In response to COVID, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission set up a Blue Ribbon Transit Recovery Task Force that will make recommendations to help the public transportation system recover and rebuild from the COVID crisis. Members of the task force include MTC commissioners, general managers of transit agencies, and representatives of business, labor, transit advocacy, disability, and other groups, plus members of the State legislature, who are participating with a goal of bringing reforms that may require legislative change to Sacramento.
As a member of the task force, Seamless Bay Area is working to ensure that the task force prioritizes funding and institutional reforms that will create a sustainable, high-performing, and seamless transit system. There is an important opportunity for the diverse stakeholders on the task force to work together to lobby funding at the regional, state and federal level, and to start to lay the groundwork for regional funding that would enable a more robust and integrated transit system.
The Blue Ribbon Transit Recovery Task Force is expected to make its recommendations regarding institutional reforms and funding in the spring.
Transit agency boards
In today’s fragmented system, policy changes need to be approved by the separate boards of the Bay Area’s 27 transit agencies. An integrated fare system would represent a major change from the status quo, and would entail loss of control of each agency to set their own fares.
Traditionally, transit agency boards think about transit from the perspective of their own services. By contrast, transit riders think about their travel needs that often cross agency boundaries. For example, the fare integration study’s analysis showed that more than 50% of transit riders who use Clipper use multiple agencies in a month. It will be very important for transit agency board to hear from riders who want to see integrated fares.
The need for advocacy at regional bodies and transit agencies
In order to build momentum for transformative change, there will need to be a large, diverse, and coordinated effort to demand change that creates a system that is seamless, convenient and affordable for riders, even though that requires changes to the institutional status quo.
This will require regular attention and public comment at the regional bodies to make sure that they pursue and don’t shy away from policy recommendations and institutional reform recommendations that would support a seamless system. And it will require regular attention and public comment at transit agency boards so they hear that their customers demand a seamless system.
Seamless Bay Area will make it easy for you to advocate for integrated transit and fares. Sign up for our mailing list and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and we’ll notify you about opportunities to give public comment at regional bodies and transit agency boards.