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Towards a Seamless Bay Area

https://transitcenter.org/towards-a-seamless-bay-area/

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- The introduction of the Clipper Card in 2002 was intended to help. For the first time, riders could use the same payment card for rides across the region. But the technology alone wasn’t enough to solve the problem. To this day, riders whose trips require them to use multiple agencies still face a penalty – interagency transfers are only sparingly accepted, and most agencies don’t coordinate their schedules, creating long waits between transfers. And each system uses its own maps, intimidating all but the most intrepid commuters. — The advocacy group Seamless Bay Area has been working diligently to change this. In 2019, it released a Vision Map, which depicted what a fully integrated system could look like. In this dream scenario, a rider could pay one fare to zip all the way from San Jose to San Francisco to Santa Rosa, never needing to think about which “brand” of transit they were using.

- After several years of advocacy from Seamless and their allies, that vision is inching closer to reality. A bill now moving through the California State Legislature, SB917 (2022) aka the “Seamless Transit Transformation Act,” directs the Bay Area transit agencies to develop an integrated transit fare structure by 2024, create a plan to coordinate schedule and service standards, and develop a single regional transit map and standardized way-finding system. ​​SB917 stipulates that these policies would become mandatory in order for agencies to receive state transit funds. — By presenting integrated transit as something both irresistible and achievable, and building a broad coalition in support of the vision, Seamless was able to break through a longstanding bureaucratic morass. With the Bay Area’s infamous housing costs continuing to push people further from employment centers and ridership slow to recover from the pandemic, the initiative could be the key to bringing back riders, and making transit a viable option for tens of thousands more people.

- “Our goal is a world-class, integrated, higher ridership, public transit network that expands people’s access to opportunity, and makes transit the most convenient and competitive way of getting around and that brings many more people to our region,” says Ian Griffiths, Seamless Bay Area’s policy director and co-founder. --- Seamless developed a multi-pronged strategy that involved building a broad, diverse, grasstops and grassroots coalition. “What we’ve tried to do is bridge the worlds of research and thought leadership and like action [with] community groups. And I think there’s a need for that type of advocacy,” said Griffiths. — Seamless worked with organizations like LUNA, Latinos United for a New America and Bayview-Hunters Point Community Advocates to learn about barriers to transit access in the region. They found that the lack of coordination between agencies and costly fares for multi-agency trips were a barrier to transit for many Bay Area residents.

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