Transit News

Oakland – State legislators are currently negotiating the state budget, deciding whether to accept or reject Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposal to cut more than $1.3 billion from public transit funding.

In response, local citizen groups held a bake sale to highlight the importance of adequate funding for public transit systems including BART, AC Transit, Amtrak Capitol Corridor and SF Muni. Activists alerted transit riders to the Governor’s proposal, and asked them to call their state legislators to prevent the cuts.

“We shouldn’t have to sell brownies for buses or baked goods for BART to raise money for our public transit systems,” said Emily Rusch, Advocate with CALPIRG, the statewide public interest group. “We urge the Legislature to fund public transit in this year’s budget, and protect more funding for transit in future years.”

Hungry passersby who stopped for a treat were also asked to call Senator Don Perata’s office and urge him to fully fund public transit in the budget.

“At a time when we need to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create alternatives to sitting in traffic congestion, cutting public transit is the last proposal the Governor should be suggesting,” said Carli Paine, Transportation Program Director for the Transportation and Land Use Coalition. “Cutting public transit funding goes against California’s priorities of preventing global warming and easing traffic congestion.”

Funding cuts to public transit would reduce services throughout the Bay Area, discouraging ridership. The Governor's proposed cuts would mean that BART would not have the funds to operate the increased night and weekend service that BART officials recently approved. AC Transit estimates that the budget cuts would result in 80,000 fewer hours of service on their routes. Capitol Corridor officials are worried about funding long-awaited track improvements to keep Amtrak trains on time.

Why Should Public Transit be a Priority in the State Budget?

The Bay Area is Has Some of the Worst Traffic Congestion in the Country: The most recent Urban Mobility Study by the Texas Transportation Institute found that Bay Area Commuters spend an additional 72 hours a year behind the wheel because of traffic congestion.[1]

Public Transit Provides Critical Relief to Traffic Congestion in the Bay Area: 51 percent of commuters from Alameda to San Francisco and 48 percent of commuters from Contra Costa to San Francisco ride transit for their commute.[2] Transit provides 30 percent of the weekday trips across the Bay Bridge.[3]

As Our Population Grows, We Need to Give Commuters Options to Avoid Gridlock: More than 37 million people currently call California home, and that number will grow to 50 million people by 2030.

Increasing and Improving Public Transit Services in the Bay Area Would Increase Ridership: As just one example, a MTC study found that Bay Area residents are 40 percent likely to use public transit to commute when transit stops are within a half-mile of home and work. However, if their home and work are both more than a half-mile from transit stops, residents are only 4 percent likely to use transit.

We Need Transit to Reduce Global Warming: More than 40 percent of California’s global warming pollution comes from transportation. To meet the state’s goals to reduce global warming pollution, the Governor’s Climate Action Team has identified the need to reduce 18 million metric tons of carbon dioxide through smart growth and intelligent transportation.[4]

Voters Want Transit to be a Funding Priority: The Bay Area Council’s most recent annual poll found that traffic congestion once again ranks as the #1 issue of concern in the Bay Area. A PPIC poll from September 2006 found that 50% of Californians believe mass transit options should be the top funding priority for transportation, while 40% of Californians prefer roads and highways as the top funding priority.