Bay Area’s next 25 years: Remote work, sea level rise here to stay, planning forecast says

by Pete Young, Bay City News March 9, 2026March 9, 2026

The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and San Francisco skyline are seen during a harbor tour in Oakland, Calif., on May 10, 2024. A new regional planning forecast says remote work, sea-level rise and other long-term trends will shape the Bay Area over the next 25 years. (Ray Saint Germain/Bay City News)

A plan for the Bay Area’s next 25 years forecasts no end to the work-from-home wave, less demand for new office space, more autonomous vehicles and a two-foot increase in sea-level rise.

Plan Bay Area 2050+, released Friday by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments, sees the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to play out — underscored by the plunge in daily transit ridership from 2 million in 2020 to just 250,000 now.

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