Sen. Josh Becker introduced a bill Thursday that would require Bay Area transit agencies to coordinate their fare structures and schedules in an effort to entice riders back to public transit.
Senate Bill 917 would require the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the region’s 27 transit agencies to utilize a universal fare system, coordinate their schedules and develop a single transit map and trip planning system by mid-2024.
Becker, D-San Mateo, noted that the transit agencies operating across the Bay Area’s nine counties have multiple different fare structures, discount and loyalty programs and trip planning systems and lack integrated schedules and live transit data.
As a result, he argued, transferring between multiple public transit systems can be unreliable and leave riders waiting for needlessly long periods of time.
“Right now, riding transit in our region can be a disjointed and unreliable experience,” Becker said. “This legislation will help transform our system into a world-class, seamless experience for the public, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving access to jobs and housing for residents.”
Becker also argued that making transit across the region more seamless would help entice riders back to systems that have seen significant ridership drops since the pandemic began.
Even before 2020, however, transit ridership across the Bay Area was flagging. According to Becker’s office, transit ridership fell 5.2 percent across the region between 2016 and 2018 and just 12 percent of the Bay Area’s residents have used public transit for their commute since 1970.
“We must act quickly to entice riders back to public transit and put the rider experience front and center,” Becker said.
SB 917’s requirement of a streamlined fare structure would help mitigate the so-called “transfer penalty,” when riders must pay a fare for each individual transit system they enter, regardless of the length of each segment of their trip and even if they use a fare system like Clipper that is available across multiple transit agencies.
According to Becker, the bill would require the universal fare system to include free transfers between local systems, like the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, and regional ones like BART.
The MTC has already endorsed fare integration between transit agencies and formed a Fare Integration Task Force in early 2020 to oversee studies of a potential universal fare system.
Becker argued that riders are already benefiting from inter-agency coordination as Caltrain and BART have aligned their schedules at MillBrae Station and Golden Gate Transit now provides local service within San Francisco.
The bill is supported by regional transit and business groups, including the Bay Area Council and the transportation think tank SPUR.
“As we move past COVID, it’s critical we get commuters back on public transit,” Bay Area Council President and CEO Jim Wunderman said. “Making transit as easy, affordable and convenient for everyone to use is paramount in that effort and better integrating fares is one of the most cost-effective, common-sense tools for making that happen,”
The Senate’s Transportation Committee is expected to begin discussing SB 917 this spring.
19 comments
When mass-transit options stop being more unpleasant and unhealthy than a cruise ship without the bar and buffet line, you might see ridership improve.
The fact is that people are avoiding mass-transit if at all possible for a reason, and this bill does not address it.
When the government gets involved in anything it ruins it every time.
The transit districts are bad enough as they are.
What will happen if they are forced to comply with this new scheme?
The costs will most likely force services reductions for some districts.
Meaning that either that state fund them to maintain service or the entire program falls apart.
Of course, the state will subsidize and then eventually take over an already poor system of transportation that will become an intolerable waste of money and be unusable by the people who need it the most.
The more government gets involved the worse everything gets.
As far as co-ordinating schedules–Easier said than done. I have to take 2 buses each way to get to work, and I usually have to wait 10-25 minutes between bus 1 & bus 2. (This is with County Connection)
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Wow. This proposed legislation,
on its face, actually makes sense.
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Now let’s see if these transit agencies and local district attorneys, can enforce laws and punishments of violations thereof so transit riders use the network.
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Let’s start with BART… the SF Bay Area’s social sewer system.
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Peek inside any Bus around Concord/Clayton. The only person I see inside is the driver. That will soon change when the driver is removed and autonomous buses will be the new norm.
Chris is right on!! I’ve been telling folks about the EMPTY $400,000 busses going by for years!?!?
The driver will constantly watch in her mirror for people that dont have masks over their nose,and yell at you,,and one time a big african american female bus driver going from Martinez to Concord on the Amtrak bus made a huge scene saying she would pull the bus over and just wait for the police,as if the police would ever come.No the bus driver is trying to turn all passengers against the one that wants tpo breath,by making everyone late.,and she wants to start violence.The drivers arent even watching the raod,they arte in the huge mirror,looking at passengers.One was pointing at the camera while telling a passenger to put the mask over her nose.The drivers are told they will be in trouble if the dont hassle the passengers with the death mask?Or are they just raging liberals?You never see a white male bus driver btw.Or trash truck driver.
So, in Senator Becker’s mind, we will have a “world class” transit system if he passes this measure to equalize schedules and fares. Genius. And I thought I hated BART because of the filth and crowding and street people and crime, when in reality the whole problem is they did not coordinate the train schedule with Caltrain and other agencies. I feel so clueless.
Organized groups of folks who liberate catalytic converters and wallets because they need them will appreciate the integrated schedules.
It’s not seamless transfers between transit providers stopping folks from using them. It’s their unsafe, filthy, and unreliable service and facilities. Try them and decide for yourself.
My drive to work takes 17-20 minutes each way, depending on the small amount of traffic I may hit. If I were to use public transit, it would take around 2 hours each way. Even if it was free to use I wouldn’t use it for going to work and lose that many hours of my day.
If this country didn’t have it’s head you know where public transportation could be free.Then you wouldn’t have to entice riders.When it takes as much time and add the cost of riding it’s not worth it.Add the chances of getting robbed or hurt on to that.It is not convenient for most commuters.
I rode BART two nights this week. I changed my plans to Saturday afternoon instead of tonight, hoping that riding the train earlier will be safer and cleaner. I don’t blame BART. Pre-pandemic, I traveled all over the world and used public transit. In no other country did I see patrons put their feet on the seats, eat and drink, throw trash on the floor, smoke, sell drugs, inject themselves, scream, or argue loudly on their phones.
I backtracked on Tuesday to avoid waiting at Civic Center for an Antioch-bound train with the druggies and screamers. On the way back, I changed cars twice to find a safe, somewhat clean seat. Friday night, I boarded to find a fellow lounged across the first row by the middle door. He was on the phone and wielding a long-handled paint roller the length of a broom handle. He had an open gallon of bright yellow paint on the floor and was rolling the paint on the train floor as he chatted. I called it in. They apprehended him at MacArthur. When I got off in Concord, I saw a huge hand-rolled joint in the paint on the floor.
I refuse to ride BART, for the reasons you listed. It’s disgusting and dangerous.
This is what’s wrong with the world: someone is trying to make improvements to the overall beauty of the train and they arrest him. Sheesh!
Was he painting “Black Lives Matter” on the BART train carpet?
If so, BART management is likely OK with that.
Just liberals acting like they are busy,for something that will only increasw costs.All this will do,if will cost the public more money and make the state more money,or they wouldn’t be doing anything.They dont care one iota about the individual in California,and you know it.Newsum is king,we are peasants.
They needed to create a bill for this? Wow!
They make these ideas sound “new” and “revolutionary “. Yet when I traveled 2-3 decades ago every other first world country had their public transportation system in order.
To the points about the scum: I felt safer and cleaner on the third world public transport
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