OFFICIALS FROM THE regional transportation planning agency Metropolitan Transportation Commission joined with the public policy nonprofit SPUR on Wednesday afternoon at a panelist forum in San Francisco to discuss the progress made to streamline public transit and what the future holds.
Three years after the MTC created the role of a regional network management director, a position that looks at the entire transit system and works with public transit agencies to help improve efficiency and rider experiences, transit experts at the panel said traveling has gotten faster and cheaper despite challenges they have faced.
Sebastian Petty, a senior transportation policy advisor with SPUR, said the forum was an opportunity to highlight regionally coordinated programs that have attracted passengers and enabled new mobility options.
“While there’s a long way to go to achieve the system any of us would like, it’s an exciting moment to check in on the progress that regional network management made over the past several years,” said Petty.
MTC director of regional network management Melanie Choy said her team and partners saw how interconnected transit agencies were when COVID-19 locked down parts of the Bay Area in 2020. She said a task force was then created to have more collaboration in regionwide transit projects to make it easier for both operators and riders.
“What anchors a lot of our work is continuing the momentum that we have started together,” said Choy. “And it’s not always easy and quick and fast, but the intent is there in terms of sincerely delivering something that does work for folks riding the systems.”
Michael Eiseman is a financial planning director with BART and broke down how fare programs have evolved to make it easier for people.
“If you’re switching between agencies, you might pay an extra cost that might be a barrier, then they decide not to make that trip,” said Eiseman. “If it’s too complicated to figure out, it’s going to be a less positive experience for you and might discourage you from using transit.”
Clipper, the fare payment system the majority of transit agencies use to collect payment, launched a new generation of its system in December. It now allows for free and reduced transfers across all Bay Area transit agencies, something Eiseman said will potentially bring thousands of new daily riders.
Gordon Hansen, a principal transportation planner with the MTC, wanted to draw attention to wayfinding projects that have made it easier to navigate public transit systems. He said there are over two dozen agencies, each with their own signage, and that level of complexity can make it confusing for travelers.
“That’s over 200 stations and over 21,000 bus stops, from complex hubs like Powell in downtown San Francisco to rural stops like the Inverness store near Point Reyes, and everything in between,” said Hansen. “Note that the right information isn’t always the most information, so too much detail can also confuse the project. We believe that when we give riders tools to make a transit journey with confidence, good things happen and we’re already seeing this.”
Pilot programs in Santa Rosa and El Cerrito station have been implemented to have a singular style of signage and wayfinding. All other Bay Area stations are expected to receive an update to their signs later this year.
The challenge: getting the ‘right people’
Panelists on the forum said one of the hardest parts of coordinating across several agencies is gathering the necessary teams for planning.
“It’s kind of hard for us to make sure that we always have the right people in the room, and it requires us to all have our unique working groups,” said Choy.
“When everyone started doing Zoom meetings, it was a lot easier to get a lot of operators spread over a pretty big region,” said Petty.
Although much progress has been made to make commuting more convenient, Bay Area transit agencies are facing a fiscal cliff this year that risks decimating services across the region. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government provided emergency funds to public transit operators to prevent them from closing following a sharp decrease in ridership.
Those emergency dollars are set to expire in June, and many agencies have yet to find a stable source of funding that covers operating costs.
In a report last year, the MTC found the five largest public transit operators will have an average annual deficit of $914.8 million starting in fiscal year 2027 and every year onward.
Senate Bill 63, sponsored by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, was approved by the Legislature last year and placed a measure on the November 2026 ballot. If approved, it would establish a sales tax on retail transactions that would be used to fund transit operators in the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara.
The future for public transit in the Bay Area, according to the experts on the panel, will be forged through the collaborative efforts from public transit agencies, advocacy groups, and riders with the hope it will become easier and more attractive.