There is a new California Senate Bill: SB 63 to create a more permanent funding source for Bay Area regional transportation. It’s a half-cent sales tax to keep public transit alive, especially transit agencies that are having financial trouble, like Caltrain, BART, and SF Muni.
The bill currently just targets San Francisco, Alameda, and Contra Costa counties, but has the option to include San Mateo and Santa Clara if they sign on before July 31.
People use public transportation when it’s good. Good means safe, reliable, quick, accessible, and broad. Good takes funding. Supporting this bill means supporting people who choose not to drive everywhere. Those wonderful people are helping drivers every time they don’t drive. It reduces traffic by getting people out of their cars and into busses and trains.
The reason places like Paris and Amsterdam are so lovely is because there are multiple options for how people get around. San Francisco is doing pretty well for the US, but it’s not going to be improved by slashing funding for transit agencies.
Adina Levin (Green Caltrain) writes about it more here.