Regional Ballot Measure is a $14 Billion Bet on Bay Area Transit
A train approaches the station at the San Leandro BART station on March 13, 2024. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)
Airdate: Thursday, September 24, 2026 at 9 am
Years after the pandemic emptied trains and buses, Bay Area transit agencies still face anemic
ridership and rising costs. A new regional transit measure that voters put on the November ballot aims to shift the tides. It would add a 0.5% sales tax in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties and 1% in San Francisco, to raise an estimated $14 billion over 14 years. Supporters hope it will fund BART, Muni, Caltrain, SamTrans, VTA and AC Transit and better connect the systems, while critics call it a regressive tax that hits lower-income residents hardest. We’ll talk about how we got here and the future of public transit with – or without – these funds.
Guest:
- Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman, reporter, KQED News
- Libby Schaaf, president and CEO, Bay Area Council, served as the mayor of Oakland from 2015 to 2023
- Laura Tolkoff, transportation policy directro, SPUR
- Murphy McCalley, board member and vice president, AC Transit Board of Director