A newly introduced piece of state legislation seeks to integrate the more than two dozen separate and independent Bay Area transit agencies into one “seamless” system.
Assembly Bill 2057 by Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, seeks to eliminate the barriers to ridership created by things like the differences in fare structures between systems, the uncoordinated schedules
that can make transferring from one system to another an unreliable exercise in frustration, and the confusing muddle of transit maps that don’t allow passengers to easily plan their trips when using multiple systems.
“This is about a future vision for the Bay Area,” Chiu said at a Tuesday morning news conference at San Francisco’s Salesforce Transit Center.
Currently, 27 different transit agencies run buses, trains and ferries in the nine-county region and each has their own fares, schedules, smartphone apps, discounts and planning processes.
This has led to a situation where, despite the region’s horrendous traffic congestion and abysmal commute times, transit ridership actually dropped by 5.2 percent between 2016 and 2018, according to information from Chiu’s office.
Initially, Chiu’s bill would establish a universal bus fare, establish uniform transfer and discount policies for all bus systems, create a single Bay Area transit map, standardize apps and develop real-time transit
information delivery to passengers.
It would also seek to create a taskforce charged with integrating fares and schedules across all systems as well as coordinating spending and project development.
BART Board Director Rebecca Saltzman, who represents parts of the East Bay, said her agency and the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit bus system have been working to coordinate schedules and fares, among other things, but such integration needs a more comprehensive approach.
“We need regional leadership and regional funding because one or two transit agencies can’t do this alone,” Saltzman said.
She noted that the housing crisis has resulted in people moving farther from their jobs in the Bay Area’s urban employment centers in order to find affordable homes, longer commutes have created a regional traffic
nightmare and more cars on the freeways means more severe climate impacts.
“This is the time for public transit to shine,” Saltzman said.
The bill could get a hearing in the Assembly Transportation Committee this spring.
Finally someone came up with a good idea.
This is long overdue..Take a page outta NYC transit, it’s one system, from the subways of the inner city , to buses, to the regional trains servicing the outer suburbs. Especially beneficial for para-transit. Shouldn’t be confined to services within the county you live in, because you have to coordinate transfer points between the various agencies. The only ones who will be opposed are the overpaid top brass at all these agencies, especially BART.
Sounds like a good idea. Let them start small and have them use the same words and age definitions for riders. Youth, age to x; Adult, age to x; Senior, age and above. I think I read were some have different age definitions for the riders. After they settle and agree on that one thing, then go on to something else.
You should be able to buy a debit card that could be used on all transit systems and bridges. Better yet, why not just let us use our existing cards or phones?
Sounds good so far. Almost suspiciously good… I’m guessing the catch is that this will somehow cost a flipping fortune.
A larger agency gives a few NON ELECTED more power.
Under NO circumstance do I want non elected officials making these decisions.
If they have to run for their position in an election. I might be more open to it.
True, but the non-elected people are still picked by the elected board. So you can hold your district’s board member accountable by writing them and even voting against them next election.
Time to call Elon Musk and ask him to make some tunnels
Fares should cost less the further one travels
How about dealing with union vs non union transit systems? A lot of the transit systems like westcat or county connection are non union.
What do you mean “deal with them”? What does this have to do with anything?
County connection is a unionized workplace under Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1605.
Sad it takes a Bill to achieve what is so obvious.
Needs regional (ie, MORE) funding.
See where this is going?
Hmmm government wants to combine and centralize the agencies so they can screw it all up at once? What could go wrong?