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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Into the early afternoon, the smell of burnt plastic hung in the air at the San Leandro station as police cordoned off the area with yellow tape. Crews were working on removing burned insulation and cables from under the track when Jonathan Woods walked up to the station, only for members of BART’s Crisis Intervention Team to turn him away because the power was off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Woods was there to put money on his Clipper card ahead of a trip to San Francisco on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I only take Bart when I go to the city, and so I can leave my car parked here,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/SFBART/status/1924867958662431049\">said on social media\u003c/a> just before 10 a.m. that it could still take six to eight hours to restore normal service. It advised customers to seek alternate transportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hali Shannon of Oakland tugged on the Lake Merritt BART station doors only to discover they were locked. She was running late for a business appointment in San Francisco, so a KQED reporter gave her a ride to West Oakland BART, which was open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m working on getting a new car,” she said. “So recently, I have been depending on Bart and a few other means of transportation, like Uber and things like that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shannon said she primarily uses BART to avoid traffic when traveling to San Francisco, where she was headed to Powell Station. She’s experienced BART disruptions before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the past when I used to take it all the time, but normally I drive so I haven’t had any major issues since I’ve been taking BART,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency said \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/SFBART/status/1924867958662431049\">on social media\u003c/a> just before 10 a.m. that it could still take six to eight hours to restore normal service. It advised customers to seek alternate transportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>AC Transit is offering replacement service between the Lake Merritt and Fremont stations. VTA is running substitute service between the Milpitas and Berryessa stations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tuesday’s incident marked the second time in recent weeks that BART has suffered a service meltdown. On May 9, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12039472/bart-shuts-down-entire-train-service-due-to-computer-networking-problem\">a still-unexplained computer network failure\u003c/a> shut down the system for several hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/bkrans\">Brian Krans\u003c/a> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bart\">BART\u003c/a>’s fare enforcement efforts have neither led to significant revenue recovery nor made riders feel all that much safer, according to a new report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://policingequity.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/CPE-BART-Report.pdf?utm_source=press&utm_medium=release&utm_campaign=bart\">report\u003c/a> published last week by the Center for Policing Equity, an found that the transit agency’s efforts to curb fare evasion have also disproportionately affected marginalized groups of riders, including people of color, unhoused people and those experiencing mental health challenges. It also recommends that BART expand its non-police responses to public nuisances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“BART’s focus on fare evasion recovers minimal revenue, may be addressing an overstated problem, and is not effective at curbing incidents that make riders feel uneasy in the system,” the analysis concluded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Findings from the BART-funded report, conducted in partnership with the agency and its police department, the Office of the Independent Police Auditor and several local nonprofits, is based on a trove of public safety and financial data, as well as short interviews with commuters at eight stations with the highest rates of fare evasion stops by BART police — including El Cerrito Plaza, Lake Merritt, Civic Center and West Oakland stations. The study’s authors also held focus groups with 95 riders from the five counties the transit agency serves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most riders shared similar safety concerns, ranging from quality-of-life issues to fear of serious violence, with the most commonly reported complaints being related to nonviolent nuisances and the presence of people who are unhoused or are suffering from mental illness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most riders, however, said BART’s heightened efforts to crack down on fare evasion have done little to improve public safety. That is backed by available data, despite the agency’s assertions to the contrary, the report said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11958827\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11958827\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230822-BART-TRAIN-GETTY-PC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A train car pulls into an outdoor station with several passengers waiting on the platform.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230822-BART-TRAIN-GETTY-PC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230822-BART-TRAIN-GETTY-PC-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230822-BART-TRAIN-GETTY-PC-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230822-BART-TRAIN-GETTY-PC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230822-BART-TRAIN-GETTY-PC-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230822-BART-TRAIN-GETTY-PC-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A train destined for Warm Springs arrives at the West Oakland BART station in Oakland on Aug. 2, 2018. \u003ccite>(Paul Chinn/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“They suggest that their fare enforcement policies and practices will improve public safety,” said Price Nyland, CPE’s impact and engagement manager. “But within this report and the data we were given access to and did use, there was not a consistent or meaningful link between punitive fare enforcement and increased safety.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers were also unable to verify the accuracy of BART’s estimate that fare evasion costs the financially struggling agency an estimated $25 million a year, the report said, arguing that the figure is likely overstated. It also noted that BART denied researchers access to data that could have been used to support that estimate and accused the agency of failing to clearly explain how its efforts would reduce crime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report comes as BART faces significant financial challenges due, in large part, to significantly decreased ridership since the pandemic. The agency is grappling with ongoing structural deficits ranging from $350 million to $400 million per year beginning in fiscal year 2027, the agency \u003ca href=\"https://www.bart.gov/about/financials/crisis\">reported in a post\u003c/a> titled “BART is facing a fiscal cliff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BART said its leadership had not been given sufficient time to read the report or weigh in on the findings, but the agency touted its efforts to install taller fare gates at 30 stations and uphold its code of conduct, including fare enforcement and “an increase in the visible safety presence in the system.”[aside postID=news_11985965 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240313-BART-CRISIS-INTERVENTION-UNIT-MD-05-KQED-1020x680.jpg']“These strategies are improving the rider experience and are key to our 17% drop in crime last year,” BART spokesperson Christopher Filippi said in an email to KQED. He said BART riders are seeing “revitalized station environments,” better access for riders in wheelchairs, and a 1/3 drop in the number of riders who reported seeing fare evasion on their trip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These new gates serve as a powerful deterrent against fare evasion and as a result will reduce the number of interactions between BART PD and would-be fare evaders,” Filippi said, adding that BART plans to install the new gates at all 50 stations by the end of this year, at a cost of \u003ca href=\"https://www.bart.gov/about/projects/fare-gate\">roughly $90 million\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Filippi also noted that the $25 million annual fare evasion cost estimate is a pre-pandemic figure that BART has not used in at least six years, and said CPE’s analysis was completed when the old, easy-to-hurdle orange slice gates were still in place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We believe the findings are no longer valid as the BART station environment is now very different,” Filippi said, adding that fare inspectors are instructed to check every single person on a train to eliminate disparities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Filippi also said the agency has expanded the use of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11985965/we-approach-in-peace-are-barts-outreach-efforts-to-help-people-in-crisis-working\">ambassadors and crisis intervention specialists\u003c/a>, and is budgeting to add more crisis intervention positions next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He disputed the assertion that BART withheld some data from the report’s authors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We provided all available data,” Filippi said. “We don’t know what they are referencing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11997867\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11997867\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/007_KQED_PublicTransit_03102020_6511_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/007_KQED_PublicTransit_03102020_6511_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/007_KQED_PublicTransit_03102020_6511_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/007_KQED_PublicTransit_03102020_6511_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/007_KQED_PublicTransit_03102020_6511_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/007_KQED_PublicTransit_03102020_6511_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/007_KQED_PublicTransit_03102020_6511_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">BART’s new fare gates are up at Civic Center, the second station after West Oakland to get the gates. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the agency’s efforts to prevent fare evasion have furthered racial disparities, according to the report. Black people accounted for more than 43% of the nearly 21,000 fare evasion stops and nearly half of all citations issued from 2021 to 2023, despite making up only about 10% of BART’s ridership. And in the focus groups, many Black and brown participants said they felt racially profiled during fare checks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One study participant, a Black man in his late 30s, described two encounters that started as a “welfare check” because he had fallen asleep on BART after working a double shift, but quickly turned into a fare enforcement stop because he was asked to provide proof of payment and was subsequently searched, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report also found that BART police often used fare evasion checks to target unhoused people and escalated such stops into full ID checks and searches, frequently resulting in arrests for unrelated offenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authors recommended that BART expand efforts, such as its transit ambassador and crisis intervention teams, which are largely based on non-punitive approaches to helping people who appear to be in distress. It further advocates for separating those programs from the BART Police Department to maintain full independence.[aside postID=news_12040042 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/20241204-BART-JY-002_qed-1020x680.jpg']Additional recommendations for BART include working closely with community-based social service providers to address the needs of vulnerable populations, improving access to discounted fares for eligible riders, and implementing data auditing procedures to ensure accurate and comprehensive recording of incidents. It also urges the agency to clearly articulate the rationale for its enforcement strategies to the public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“BART riders and Bay Area community residents deserve to see an evidence-based and a metrics-based plan” for their enforcement strategies, Nyland said. “It’s one thing to just implement something because it worked in another city, but you should have research to back your plan in your own community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CPE’s report follows its \u003ca href=\"https://www.bart.gov/sites/default/files/docs/CPE%20Report.pdf\">2020 analysis\u003c/a> examining the impact of policing throughout the BART system, which found significant issues related to racial equity and use of force. BART leadership accepted 12 specific recommendations from the report, its authors said, while also committing to analyzing the root causes of those disparities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nyland emphasized that this new report found multiple examples of BART taking positive steps to address disparities in its system, but she said the evidence makes clear that BART should adopt additional community-informed strategies that rely less on punitive fare enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that their decision to participate in this evaluation reflects a willingness to engage with the issues at hand. But the process is not without its challenges,” she said. “This is really intended to be a starting point for BART as an agency to better understand the range of experiences that its riders are having on the system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report, Nyland said, is meant to support the idea that the diverse experience of riders should be central to the approach that BART is taking in its enforcement efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Especially when you’re talking about the racial impacts, I mean, the realities are that these practices and these policies are disproportionately impacting Black riders, and the community deserves to know that,” she said. “BART has indicated in the past and continues to indicate an investment in addressing those types of issues. So we’re very hopeful that this report and these recommendations can empower the community and the agency itself to improve in those ways.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The Bay Area transit agency’s fare enforcement efforts have recovered minimal revenue, furthered racial disparities and largely failed to make riders feel safer, the report found.",
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"title": "BART Fare Evasion Crackdown Is Largely Ineffective, New Report Suggests | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bart\">BART\u003c/a>’s fare enforcement efforts have neither led to significant revenue recovery nor made riders feel all that much safer, according to a new report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://policingequity.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/CPE-BART-Report.pdf?utm_source=press&utm_medium=release&utm_campaign=bart\">report\u003c/a> published last week by the Center for Policing Equity, an found that the transit agency’s efforts to curb fare evasion have also disproportionately affected marginalized groups of riders, including people of color, unhoused people and those experiencing mental health challenges. It also recommends that BART expand its non-police responses to public nuisances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“BART’s focus on fare evasion recovers minimal revenue, may be addressing an overstated problem, and is not effective at curbing incidents that make riders feel uneasy in the system,” the analysis concluded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Findings from the BART-funded report, conducted in partnership with the agency and its police department, the Office of the Independent Police Auditor and several local nonprofits, is based on a trove of public safety and financial data, as well as short interviews with commuters at eight stations with the highest rates of fare evasion stops by BART police — including El Cerrito Plaza, Lake Merritt, Civic Center and West Oakland stations. The study’s authors also held focus groups with 95 riders from the five counties the transit agency serves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most riders shared similar safety concerns, ranging from quality-of-life issues to fear of serious violence, with the most commonly reported complaints being related to nonviolent nuisances and the presence of people who are unhoused or are suffering from mental illness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most riders, however, said BART’s heightened efforts to crack down on fare evasion have done little to improve public safety. That is backed by available data, despite the agency’s assertions to the contrary, the report said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11958827\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11958827\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230822-BART-TRAIN-GETTY-PC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A train car pulls into an outdoor station with several passengers waiting on the platform.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230822-BART-TRAIN-GETTY-PC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230822-BART-TRAIN-GETTY-PC-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230822-BART-TRAIN-GETTY-PC-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230822-BART-TRAIN-GETTY-PC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230822-BART-TRAIN-GETTY-PC-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230822-BART-TRAIN-GETTY-PC-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A train destined for Warm Springs arrives at the West Oakland BART station in Oakland on Aug. 2, 2018. \u003ccite>(Paul Chinn/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“They suggest that their fare enforcement policies and practices will improve public safety,” said Price Nyland, CPE’s impact and engagement manager. “But within this report and the data we were given access to and did use, there was not a consistent or meaningful link between punitive fare enforcement and increased safety.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers were also unable to verify the accuracy of BART’s estimate that fare evasion costs the financially struggling agency an estimated $25 million a year, the report said, arguing that the figure is likely overstated. It also noted that BART denied researchers access to data that could have been used to support that estimate and accused the agency of failing to clearly explain how its efforts would reduce crime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report comes as BART faces significant financial challenges due, in large part, to significantly decreased ridership since the pandemic. The agency is grappling with ongoing structural deficits ranging from $350 million to $400 million per year beginning in fiscal year 2027, the agency \u003ca href=\"https://www.bart.gov/about/financials/crisis\">reported in a post\u003c/a> titled “BART is facing a fiscal cliff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BART said its leadership had not been given sufficient time to read the report or weigh in on the findings, but the agency touted its efforts to install taller fare gates at 30 stations and uphold its code of conduct, including fare enforcement and “an increase in the visible safety presence in the system.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“These strategies are improving the rider experience and are key to our 17% drop in crime last year,” BART spokesperson Christopher Filippi said in an email to KQED. He said BART riders are seeing “revitalized station environments,” better access for riders in wheelchairs, and a 1/3 drop in the number of riders who reported seeing fare evasion on their trip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These new gates serve as a powerful deterrent against fare evasion and as a result will reduce the number of interactions between BART PD and would-be fare evaders,” Filippi said, adding that BART plans to install the new gates at all 50 stations by the end of this year, at a cost of \u003ca href=\"https://www.bart.gov/about/projects/fare-gate\">roughly $90 million\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Filippi also noted that the $25 million annual fare evasion cost estimate is a pre-pandemic figure that BART has not used in at least six years, and said CPE’s analysis was completed when the old, easy-to-hurdle orange slice gates were still in place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We believe the findings are no longer valid as the BART station environment is now very different,” Filippi said, adding that fare inspectors are instructed to check every single person on a train to eliminate disparities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Filippi also said the agency has expanded the use of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11985965/we-approach-in-peace-are-barts-outreach-efforts-to-help-people-in-crisis-working\">ambassadors and crisis intervention specialists\u003c/a>, and is budgeting to add more crisis intervention positions next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He disputed the assertion that BART withheld some data from the report’s authors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We provided all available data,” Filippi said. “We don’t know what they are referencing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11997867\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11997867\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/007_KQED_PublicTransit_03102020_6511_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/007_KQED_PublicTransit_03102020_6511_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/007_KQED_PublicTransit_03102020_6511_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/007_KQED_PublicTransit_03102020_6511_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/007_KQED_PublicTransit_03102020_6511_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/007_KQED_PublicTransit_03102020_6511_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/007_KQED_PublicTransit_03102020_6511_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">BART’s new fare gates are up at Civic Center, the second station after West Oakland to get the gates. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the agency’s efforts to prevent fare evasion have furthered racial disparities, according to the report. Black people accounted for more than 43% of the nearly 21,000 fare evasion stops and nearly half of all citations issued from 2021 to 2023, despite making up only about 10% of BART’s ridership. And in the focus groups, many Black and brown participants said they felt racially profiled during fare checks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One study participant, a Black man in his late 30s, described two encounters that started as a “welfare check” because he had fallen asleep on BART after working a double shift, but quickly turned into a fare enforcement stop because he was asked to provide proof of payment and was subsequently searched, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report also found that BART police often used fare evasion checks to target unhoused people and escalated such stops into full ID checks and searches, frequently resulting in arrests for unrelated offenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authors recommended that BART expand efforts, such as its transit ambassador and crisis intervention teams, which are largely based on non-punitive approaches to helping people who appear to be in distress. It further advocates for separating those programs from the BART Police Department to maintain full independence.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Additional recommendations for BART include working closely with community-based social service providers to address the needs of vulnerable populations, improving access to discounted fares for eligible riders, and implementing data auditing procedures to ensure accurate and comprehensive recording of incidents. It also urges the agency to clearly articulate the rationale for its enforcement strategies to the public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“BART riders and Bay Area community residents deserve to see an evidence-based and a metrics-based plan” for their enforcement strategies, Nyland said. “It’s one thing to just implement something because it worked in another city, but you should have research to back your plan in your own community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CPE’s report follows its \u003ca href=\"https://www.bart.gov/sites/default/files/docs/CPE%20Report.pdf\">2020 analysis\u003c/a> examining the impact of policing throughout the BART system, which found significant issues related to racial equity and use of force. BART leadership accepted 12 specific recommendations from the report, its authors said, while also committing to analyzing the root causes of those disparities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nyland emphasized that this new report found multiple examples of BART taking positive steps to address disparities in its system, but she said the evidence makes clear that BART should adopt additional community-informed strategies that rely less on punitive fare enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that their decision to participate in this evaluation reflects a willingness to engage with the issues at hand. But the process is not without its challenges,” she said. “This is really intended to be a starting point for BART as an agency to better understand the range of experiences that its riders are having on the system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report, Nyland said, is meant to support the idea that the diverse experience of riders should be central to the approach that BART is taking in its enforcement efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Especially when you’re talking about the racial impacts, I mean, the realities are that these practices and these policies are disproportionately impacting Black riders, and the community deserves to know that,” she said. “BART has indicated in the past and continues to indicate an investment in addressing those types of issues. So we’re very hopeful that this report and these recommendations can empower the community and the agency itself to improve in those ways.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Transit Advocates Warn of Fiscal Crisis After Newsom Passes on Emergency Funding",
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"content": "\u003cp>As Bay Area transit systems ride on the edge of financial catastrophe, some state leaders and transit advocates were disappointed to see that Gov. Gavin Newsom did not include a funding boost in his \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12040025/newsom-blames-trump-california-budget-deficit-aims-cap-undocumented-health-care\">revised budget proposal\u003c/a> on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Sens. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and Jesse Arreguín, D-Berkeley, had asked for $2 billion in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12039394/last-ditch-effort-fund-bay-area-transit-tries-pick-up-support\">emergency funding\u003c/a> for transit agencies, a stopgap solution ahead of their proposed sales tax measure for the November 2026 ballot that would raise much-needed money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Area transit agencies, including BART, Muni, AC Transit and Caltrain, face a combined budget deficit of more than $800 million in the next fiscal year. Without immediate funding, some supporters are worried that the agencies may be forced to reduce operations before a sales tax measure can be voted on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s critical that we include in the adopted budget funding to keep transit agencies in operation in California,” Arreguín said. “We’re at the edge of a fiscal cliff, and the impact this will have on our state and particularly the Bay Area, will be significant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added, however, that Newsom’s decision not to include transit funds in the revised state budget was not surprising. California now faces a $12 billion budget deficit in the coming fiscal year, according to the governor’s revised proposal, and the Trump administration’s hostilities threaten to further exacerbate the state’s economic uncertainty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12040183\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1533px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12040183\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/IMAGE-6-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1533\" height=\"1154\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/IMAGE-6-KQED.jpg 1533w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/IMAGE-6-KQED-800x602.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/IMAGE-6-KQED-1020x768.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/IMAGE-6-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1533px) 100vw, 1533px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A banner reading “Gavin: Fund Transit” hangs from the pedestrian bridge over US-101 at Utah and 18th streets in San Francisco on Tuesday, May 13, 2025. Public transit advocates in 12 cities across California dropped banners over highway overpasses to demand that Gov. Newsom include $2 billion in the upcoming state budget revision to keep transit systems running over the next two years. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Fund California Public Transit.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We knew when we submitted our budget request that it would be challenging,” Arreguín said. “We’re not going to expect that the federal government’s going to save us here, so it’s up to the state. We’re going to work harder over the next few weeks to make our case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Newsom’s revised budget proposal does not include the emergency transit funding, the state Legislature may decide to add it before the budget is finalized in June, Arreguín noted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the money doesn’t come through, Arreguín warned that problems like last week’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12039472/bart-shuts-down-entire-train-service-due-to-computer-networking-problem\">hourslong BART outage\u003c/a> that resulted in massive traffic jams and frustrated commuters could become more common.[aside postID=news_12040025 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/GavinNewsom2025AP2-1020x680.jpg']Cyrus Hall, a transportation activist, urged state legislators to reconsider the emergency funding. Without the $2 billion requested by Wiener and Arreguín, transit agencies are going to struggle to survive, he said. Many of them, such as BART and Muni, will have to drastically reduce services, which could mean slashing weekend operations and running fewer trains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alternatively, transit agencies could also decide to sustain themselves by reallocating funds, Hall said, adding that money typically spent on upkeep may be moved around in order to keep buses running, which could lead to unexpected failures. It’s not sustainable, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Public transit is that linchpin that allows people to get to work, to get to school. Without it, particularly here in the Bay Area with our geography, transportation will collapse,” Hall said. “We need to find the money in order to keep the system running.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rebecca Long, director of legislation and public affairs at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, said that because state funding is unreliable, Bay Area residents should prioritize long-term solutions such as the tax measure proposed by Wiener and Arreguín.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Long, while funds resulting from the measure wouldn’t be available until 2027, transit agencies could take out loans against the anticipated funding to prevent service reductions in the meantime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/jlara\">\u003cem>Juan Carlos Lara\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Two Bay Area lawmakers had urged Gov. Gavin Newsom to include $2 billion in emergency transit funding in his revised budget proposal. He declined, but the Legislature could still add it.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As Bay Area transit systems ride on the edge of financial catastrophe, some state leaders and transit advocates were disappointed to see that Gov. Gavin Newsom did not include a funding boost in his \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12040025/newsom-blames-trump-california-budget-deficit-aims-cap-undocumented-health-care\">revised budget proposal\u003c/a> on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Sens. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and Jesse Arreguín, D-Berkeley, had asked for $2 billion in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12039394/last-ditch-effort-fund-bay-area-transit-tries-pick-up-support\">emergency funding\u003c/a> for transit agencies, a stopgap solution ahead of their proposed sales tax measure for the November 2026 ballot that would raise much-needed money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Area transit agencies, including BART, Muni, AC Transit and Caltrain, face a combined budget deficit of more than $800 million in the next fiscal year. Without immediate funding, some supporters are worried that the agencies may be forced to reduce operations before a sales tax measure can be voted on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s critical that we include in the adopted budget funding to keep transit agencies in operation in California,” Arreguín said. “We’re at the edge of a fiscal cliff, and the impact this will have on our state and particularly the Bay Area, will be significant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added, however, that Newsom’s decision not to include transit funds in the revised state budget was not surprising. California now faces a $12 billion budget deficit in the coming fiscal year, according to the governor’s revised proposal, and the Trump administration’s hostilities threaten to further exacerbate the state’s economic uncertainty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12040183\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1533px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12040183\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/IMAGE-6-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1533\" height=\"1154\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/IMAGE-6-KQED.jpg 1533w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/IMAGE-6-KQED-800x602.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/IMAGE-6-KQED-1020x768.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/IMAGE-6-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1533px) 100vw, 1533px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A banner reading “Gavin: Fund Transit” hangs from the pedestrian bridge over US-101 at Utah and 18th streets in San Francisco on Tuesday, May 13, 2025. Public transit advocates in 12 cities across California dropped banners over highway overpasses to demand that Gov. Newsom include $2 billion in the upcoming state budget revision to keep transit systems running over the next two years. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Fund California Public Transit.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We knew when we submitted our budget request that it would be challenging,” Arreguín said. “We’re not going to expect that the federal government’s going to save us here, so it’s up to the state. We’re going to work harder over the next few weeks to make our case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Newsom’s revised budget proposal does not include the emergency transit funding, the state Legislature may decide to add it before the budget is finalized in June, Arreguín noted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the money doesn’t come through, Arreguín warned that problems like last week’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12039472/bart-shuts-down-entire-train-service-due-to-computer-networking-problem\">hourslong BART outage\u003c/a> that resulted in massive traffic jams and frustrated commuters could become more common.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Cyrus Hall, a transportation activist, urged state legislators to reconsider the emergency funding. Without the $2 billion requested by Wiener and Arreguín, transit agencies are going to struggle to survive, he said. Many of them, such as BART and Muni, will have to drastically reduce services, which could mean slashing weekend operations and running fewer trains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alternatively, transit agencies could also decide to sustain themselves by reallocating funds, Hall said, adding that money typically spent on upkeep may be moved around in order to keep buses running, which could lead to unexpected failures. It’s not sustainable, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Public transit is that linchpin that allows people to get to work, to get to school. Without it, particularly here in the Bay Area with our geography, transportation will collapse,” Hall said. “We need to find the money in order to keep the system running.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rebecca Long, director of legislation and public affairs at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, said that because state funding is unreliable, Bay Area residents should prioritize long-term solutions such as the tax measure proposed by Wiener and Arreguín.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Long, while funds resulting from the measure wouldn’t be available until 2027, transit agencies could take out loans against the anticipated funding to prevent service reductions in the meantime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/jlara\">\u003cem>Juan Carlos Lara\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Afternoon rush hour brought the sounds of hundreds, if not thousands, of people \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11997857/barts-new-evasion-resistant-gates-arrive-in-san-francisco-for-the-first-time\">tagging their Clipper cards\u003c/a> and pushing their way through turnstiles on a recent Thursday at Embarcadero station in downtown San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the crowds was Anna Kondolf, from the town of Fairfax in Marin County, who was on her way to a dinner date in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ I thought, why don’t we do this more? Because it was just so great to take the ferry here and then take BART,” Kondolf said. “It all kind of works.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It works, for now, but that interconnected network of transit could soon be severely reduced. Transit agencies across the Bay Area are forecasting \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12021178/sf-muni-reducing-bus-light-rail-service-amid-fiscal-crisis-more-cuts-loom\">drastic service cuts\u003c/a> if nothing is done to alleviate multimillion-dollar budget deficits set to begin in 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Sens. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and Jesse Arreguín, D-Berkeley, earlier this year \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032607/first-look-at-2026-tax-proposal-to-keep-bay-area-transit-running\">introduced a bill\u003c/a>, set to be heard Monday in the state Senate Appropriations Committee, that would put a sales tax on the ballot in some Bay Area counties next year in order to help fund these agencies and save the region’s public transit network as we know it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We all need to work together and lock arms and understand that if our transit systems collapse, if we see catastrophic service cuts at Muni, BART, AC Transit and Caltrain, that’s terrible for the entire region,” Wiener told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A slimmed-down tax proposal\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As it is currently written, Wiener and Arreguín’s \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB63\">SB 63\u003c/a> would put a measure on the November 2026 ballot to impose a 0.5% sales tax in Alameda and Contra counties, and a 0.5% to 1% sales tax in San Francisco County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Revenue from the tax would primarily go toward funding San Francisco’s Muni, BART, AC Transit and Caltrain. Smaller transit agencies in the East Bay would also be eligible to receive funds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11254007\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11254007\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/01/31909760916_d88814d339_o-e1483581327477.jpg\" alt=\"The side of a Caltrain train as it enters a station.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Caltrain cars at San José’s Diridon Station, December 2016. \u003ccite>(Dan Brekke/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>An analysis by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission found that the tax could generate between roughly $440 million and $550 million a year, depending on the tax rate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener pulled a similar but farther-reaching bill from consideration last year in the face of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11988365/a-bill-to-save-bay-area-transit-from-fiscal-disaster-is-dead-at-least-for-now\">widespread opposition\u003c/a>. That effort would have covered all nine Bay Area counties and aimed to raise $1.5 billion for a wide variety of transit, street and highway improvements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, the bill was narrowed down to just three counties, though it also includes a provision for San Mateo and Santa Clara counties to opt in by a July 31 deadline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ I’m cautiously optimistic about the bill’s prospects, but it ain’t over until it’s over,” Wiener said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Service cuts with deep implications\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Of all the Bay Area’s main transit agencies, BART has the biggest deficit and is forecasting the most severe cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beginning in fiscal year 2026, BART said its budget deficit will balloon to around $385 million. If SB 63 fails, the agency is considering cost-saving scenarios, including cutting two lines entirely, closing on weekends and shutting down the system at 9 p.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12039661\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1976px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12039661 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/bart-strike20130804_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1976\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/bart-strike20130804_qed.jpg 1976w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/bart-strike20130804_qed-800x540.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/bart-strike20130804_qed-1020x688.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/bart-strike20130804_qed-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/bart-strike20130804_qed-1536x1036.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/bart-strike20130804_qed-1920x1295.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1976px) 100vw, 1976px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train sits idle at the Millbrae station on July 3, 2013, in Millbrae, California. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re not talking about their ability to continue to sustain the service that they have today by any stretch,” said Rebecca Long, director of legislation and public affairs at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The effects of those cuts would not only be isolated to people who take public transit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If BART runs out of funding, drivers will sit in traffic for an extra 12 or more hours per week on average,” Laura Tolkoff, transportation policy director at the planning and urban research nonprofit SPUR, said at a media briefing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shades of that were seen Friday morning when a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12039472/bart-shuts-down-entire-train-service-due-to-computer-networking-problem\">computer networking problem\u003c/a> completely shut down BART for hours. Traffic on roads and bridges was snarled, with hundreds more Bay Bridge crossings recorded than the Friday before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A group of activists who support SB 63 took it as an opportunity to remind drivers what’s at stake if transit funding dries up, gathering at the backed-up Interstate 80 westbound off-ramp on Fremont Street in San Francisco with signs in support of BART and Muni.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Without sufficient funding, these kinds of problems are going to get worse,” transportation activist Cyrus Hall said. “BART’s been running on a shoestring for years, and we need to fix that now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12039665\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1695px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12039665\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/MUNI-with-GBUS.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1695\" height=\"1158\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/MUNI-with-GBUS.png 1695w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/MUNI-with-GBUS-800x547.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/MUNI-with-GBUS-1020x697.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/MUNI-with-GBUS-160x109.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/MUNI-with-GBUS-1536x1049.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1695px) 100vw, 1695px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bay Area lawmakers are pushing for a regional sales tax measure to stave off drastic transit service cuts, as agencies across the region face mounting budget shortfalls starting in 2026. \u003ccite>(Mark Wilson/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Muni, which is facing a deficit of around $320 million beginning July 2026, has discussed the need to cut up to 20 bus lines and reduce service on up to 28 bus and train routes if SB 63 fails, according to a Senate analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>AC Transit and Caltrain have smaller deficits (around $30 million and $80 million, respectively) but are still forecasting service cuts without help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Together, the four agencies represent around 80% of all Bay Area public transit trips, according to Long.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While most transit agencies, but BART and Caltrain in particular, have historically relied on fares to fund operations, these agencies saw ridership plummet by 70% to 98% due to the pandemic, Long said. And although ridership is \u003ca href=\"https://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2025/news20250421#:~:text=Larger%20systems%20also%20saw%20significant,while%20Muni%20increased%20by%204%25.\">slowly recovering\u003c/a>, it still hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Essentially, we need to rebuild the business model for transit,” Long said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Different needs, different desires’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Wiener said he is focused on “trying to build as much regional support as possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ It’s complicated because all the different counties have different needs, different desires,” Wiener said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Transit agencies’ boards have been meeting in recent weeks to discuss whether to back the measure. The Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board, which oversees Caltrain, voted May 1 to endorse it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12039671\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12039671\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250218-SFDowntown-03-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250218-SFDowntown-03-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250218-SFDowntown-03-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250218-SFDowntown-03-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250218-SFDowntown-03-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250218-SFDowntown-03-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250218-SFDowntown-03-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Scott Wiener speaks during a press conference in Union Square, San Francisco, on Feb. 18, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The board that oversees the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, or VTA, is still weighing whether to endorse Santa Clara County joining the regional sales tax measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a May 1 board meeting, some members expressed concern that Santa Clara County will not get a fair amount of revenue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, polling commissioned by AC Transit showed that 54% of voters surveyed support a possible future parcel tax, separate from SB 63, to fund operations in the East Bay agency’s district alone.[aside postID=news_12039472 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250509-BARTOUTAGE-03-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg']The bill must be approved by the Senate by June 6 to make it to the Assembly floor. If it survives the Legislature and makes it onto the November 2026 ballot, it would need a simple majority from voters to pass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://mtc.ca.gov/news/new-poll-indicates-majority-support-transit-revenue-and-reform-measure\">poll of voters\u003c/a> in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco and San Mateo counties, commissioned by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and released in February, found that 54% of voters would vote yes on a half-cent sales tax to avoid major transit cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener said he is working with other lawmakers on a budget request worth $2 billion to fund public transit statewide in the meantime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the regional measure is successful, the cash will start coming in in 2027,” Wiener said, “The idea is to make sure that we don’t have to have service cuts before then.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates are stressing the importance of public transit for the overall health of the Bay Area economy, as the region continues to struggle to recover from the economic devastation wrought by the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the scaffolding for our economy,” said Tolkoff of SPUR. “When we think of how many organizations are trying to mandate people coming back into the office four or five days a week, we’re hearing that just won’t be possible if people can’t get to work on transit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "A Last-Ditch Effort to Fund Bay Area Transit Tries to Pick Up Support | KQED",
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"headline": "A Last-Ditch Effort to Fund Bay Area Transit Tries to Pick Up Support",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Afternoon rush hour brought the sounds of hundreds, if not thousands, of people \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11997857/barts-new-evasion-resistant-gates-arrive-in-san-francisco-for-the-first-time\">tagging their Clipper cards\u003c/a> and pushing their way through turnstiles on a recent Thursday at Embarcadero station in downtown San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the crowds was Anna Kondolf, from the town of Fairfax in Marin County, who was on her way to a dinner date in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ I thought, why don’t we do this more? Because it was just so great to take the ferry here and then take BART,” Kondolf said. “It all kind of works.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It works, for now, but that interconnected network of transit could soon be severely reduced. Transit agencies across the Bay Area are forecasting \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12021178/sf-muni-reducing-bus-light-rail-service-amid-fiscal-crisis-more-cuts-loom\">drastic service cuts\u003c/a> if nothing is done to alleviate multimillion-dollar budget deficits set to begin in 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Sens. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and Jesse Arreguín, D-Berkeley, earlier this year \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032607/first-look-at-2026-tax-proposal-to-keep-bay-area-transit-running\">introduced a bill\u003c/a>, set to be heard Monday in the state Senate Appropriations Committee, that would put a sales tax on the ballot in some Bay Area counties next year in order to help fund these agencies and save the region’s public transit network as we know it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We all need to work together and lock arms and understand that if our transit systems collapse, if we see catastrophic service cuts at Muni, BART, AC Transit and Caltrain, that’s terrible for the entire region,” Wiener told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A slimmed-down tax proposal\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As it is currently written, Wiener and Arreguín’s \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB63\">SB 63\u003c/a> would put a measure on the November 2026 ballot to impose a 0.5% sales tax in Alameda and Contra counties, and a 0.5% to 1% sales tax in San Francisco County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Revenue from the tax would primarily go toward funding San Francisco’s Muni, BART, AC Transit and Caltrain. Smaller transit agencies in the East Bay would also be eligible to receive funds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11254007\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11254007\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/01/31909760916_d88814d339_o-e1483581327477.jpg\" alt=\"The side of a Caltrain train as it enters a station.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Caltrain cars at San José’s Diridon Station, December 2016. \u003ccite>(Dan Brekke/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>An analysis by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission found that the tax could generate between roughly $440 million and $550 million a year, depending on the tax rate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener pulled a similar but farther-reaching bill from consideration last year in the face of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11988365/a-bill-to-save-bay-area-transit-from-fiscal-disaster-is-dead-at-least-for-now\">widespread opposition\u003c/a>. That effort would have covered all nine Bay Area counties and aimed to raise $1.5 billion for a wide variety of transit, street and highway improvements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, the bill was narrowed down to just three counties, though it also includes a provision for San Mateo and Santa Clara counties to opt in by a July 31 deadline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ I’m cautiously optimistic about the bill’s prospects, but it ain’t over until it’s over,” Wiener said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Service cuts with deep implications\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Of all the Bay Area’s main transit agencies, BART has the biggest deficit and is forecasting the most severe cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beginning in fiscal year 2026, BART said its budget deficit will balloon to around $385 million. If SB 63 fails, the agency is considering cost-saving scenarios, including cutting two lines entirely, closing on weekends and shutting down the system at 9 p.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12039661\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1976px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12039661 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/bart-strike20130804_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1976\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/bart-strike20130804_qed.jpg 1976w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/bart-strike20130804_qed-800x540.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/bart-strike20130804_qed-1020x688.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/bart-strike20130804_qed-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/bart-strike20130804_qed-1536x1036.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/bart-strike20130804_qed-1920x1295.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1976px) 100vw, 1976px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train sits idle at the Millbrae station on July 3, 2013, in Millbrae, California. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re not talking about their ability to continue to sustain the service that they have today by any stretch,” said Rebecca Long, director of legislation and public affairs at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The effects of those cuts would not only be isolated to people who take public transit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If BART runs out of funding, drivers will sit in traffic for an extra 12 or more hours per week on average,” Laura Tolkoff, transportation policy director at the planning and urban research nonprofit SPUR, said at a media briefing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shades of that were seen Friday morning when a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12039472/bart-shuts-down-entire-train-service-due-to-computer-networking-problem\">computer networking problem\u003c/a> completely shut down BART for hours. Traffic on roads and bridges was snarled, with hundreds more Bay Bridge crossings recorded than the Friday before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A group of activists who support SB 63 took it as an opportunity to remind drivers what’s at stake if transit funding dries up, gathering at the backed-up Interstate 80 westbound off-ramp on Fremont Street in San Francisco with signs in support of BART and Muni.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Without sufficient funding, these kinds of problems are going to get worse,” transportation activist Cyrus Hall said. “BART’s been running on a shoestring for years, and we need to fix that now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12039665\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1695px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12039665\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/MUNI-with-GBUS.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1695\" height=\"1158\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/MUNI-with-GBUS.png 1695w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/MUNI-with-GBUS-800x547.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/MUNI-with-GBUS-1020x697.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/MUNI-with-GBUS-160x109.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/MUNI-with-GBUS-1536x1049.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1695px) 100vw, 1695px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bay Area lawmakers are pushing for a regional sales tax measure to stave off drastic transit service cuts, as agencies across the region face mounting budget shortfalls starting in 2026. \u003ccite>(Mark Wilson/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Muni, which is facing a deficit of around $320 million beginning July 2026, has discussed the need to cut up to 20 bus lines and reduce service on up to 28 bus and train routes if SB 63 fails, according to a Senate analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>AC Transit and Caltrain have smaller deficits (around $30 million and $80 million, respectively) but are still forecasting service cuts without help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Together, the four agencies represent around 80% of all Bay Area public transit trips, according to Long.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While most transit agencies, but BART and Caltrain in particular, have historically relied on fares to fund operations, these agencies saw ridership plummet by 70% to 98% due to the pandemic, Long said. And although ridership is \u003ca href=\"https://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2025/news20250421#:~:text=Larger%20systems%20also%20saw%20significant,while%20Muni%20increased%20by%204%25.\">slowly recovering\u003c/a>, it still hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Essentially, we need to rebuild the business model for transit,” Long said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Different needs, different desires’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Wiener said he is focused on “trying to build as much regional support as possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ It’s complicated because all the different counties have different needs, different desires,” Wiener said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Transit agencies’ boards have been meeting in recent weeks to discuss whether to back the measure. The Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board, which oversees Caltrain, voted May 1 to endorse it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12039671\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12039671\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250218-SFDowntown-03-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250218-SFDowntown-03-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250218-SFDowntown-03-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250218-SFDowntown-03-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250218-SFDowntown-03-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250218-SFDowntown-03-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250218-SFDowntown-03-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Scott Wiener speaks during a press conference in Union Square, San Francisco, on Feb. 18, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The board that oversees the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, or VTA, is still weighing whether to endorse Santa Clara County joining the regional sales tax measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a May 1 board meeting, some members expressed concern that Santa Clara County will not get a fair amount of revenue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, polling commissioned by AC Transit showed that 54% of voters surveyed support a possible future parcel tax, separate from SB 63, to fund operations in the East Bay agency’s district alone.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The bill must be approved by the Senate by June 6 to make it to the Assembly floor. If it survives the Legislature and makes it onto the November 2026 ballot, it would need a simple majority from voters to pass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://mtc.ca.gov/news/new-poll-indicates-majority-support-transit-revenue-and-reform-measure\">poll of voters\u003c/a> in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco and San Mateo counties, commissioned by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and released in February, found that 54% of voters would vote yes on a half-cent sales tax to avoid major transit cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener said he is working with other lawmakers on a budget request worth $2 billion to fund public transit statewide in the meantime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the regional measure is successful, the cash will start coming in in 2027,” Wiener said, “The idea is to make sure that we don’t have to have service cuts before then.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates are stressing the importance of public transit for the overall health of the Bay Area economy, as the region continues to struggle to recover from the economic devastation wrought by the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the scaffolding for our economy,” said Tolkoff of SPUR. “When we think of how many organizations are trying to mandate people coming back into the office four or five days a week, we’re hearing that just won’t be possible if people can’t get to work on transit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 3:10 p.m. Friday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An hourslong outage of the entire \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bart\">BART\u003c/a> system on Friday morning, which forced tens of thousands of riders to find other ways to get around the Bay Area, was not a result of aging equipment, the agency said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trains on the Bay Area’s largest transit system did not start running early Friday, suspended until about 9:30 a.m. because of what the agency called a computer networking problem. In an email midday, BART spokesperson Alicia Trost said the issue was caused by two network devices that were part of a system redundancy not having proper connectivity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once the crews isolated that exact section that had the devices that were not properly communicating to each other, they were able to just simply disconnect them,” she told KQED. “That is what allowed us to finally get service back up and running.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the largest systemwide BART outage \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11732217/bart-cisco-hunting-for-root-cause-of-network-trouble-that-shut-down-service\">since 2019\u003c/a>, when a weekend service meltdown highlighted the need to replace the agency’s decades-old central train control system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That shutdown, caused by a networking switch failure that made it impossible for BART to dispatch any trains, came as the agency was in the initial stages of a 10-year train control system replacement supported by funds from a 2016 bond measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project, contracted to railway company Hitachi, is ongoing, and implementation is underway, according to Trost. Still, she said the train control system was not a factor in Friday’s outage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12039604\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12039604 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/241213-PortFlood-59_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/241213-PortFlood-59_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/241213-PortFlood-59_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/241213-PortFlood-59_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/241213-PortFlood-59_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/241213-PortFlood-59_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/241213-PortFlood-59_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A San Francisco Bay Ferry pulls into the Golden Gate Ferry Terminal in San Francisco on Dec. 13, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The shutdown forced Muni and AC Transit to step in to help relieve pressure, and the San Francisco Bay Ferry \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/SFBayFerry/status/1920835232711733692\">ran larger boats\u003c/a> where it could. Traffic on the Bay Bridge backed up for miles during the morning commute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 800 more cars crossed the bridge between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. than during the same hour last week, and about 1,000 more made the trip across the bay in the following two commute hours, according to toll plaza data from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hundreds more people also used the San Mateo-Hayward and Dumbarton bridges during the same period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BART announced the shutdown shortly after 5 a.m., right as the agency was to set its service in motion for the day.[aside postID=news_12037653 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20231128-Muni-013-JY_qed-1-1020x680.jpg']At the 16th Street–Mission station, a worker announcing the shutdown to riders said the computer failure had even disrupted communications from the agency and left employees unable to clock in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the Mission District, Ian Rice arrived at the 24th Street station shortly after 7 a.m. to take BART to his office downtown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the first I’m hearing about this,” he told a KQED reporter after finding the fare gates at the station’s underground entrance closed. Above ground, no signage warned that the trains below were halted. “I was planning on going upstairs and seeing if I could maybe take the 22 [Fillmore], take the bus. We’ll see what’s available, but this is going to be an issue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was among the throng of commuters shuffling in — and quickly out — of the station during the busy morning commute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luna Pantera arrived at the same station around 7:15 to catch a train to the car she was supposed to pick up before work. She said the closure meant a 20-minute delay and a more expensive commute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12023482\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12023482\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/PowellStationSanFranciscoGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/PowellStationSanFranciscoGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/PowellStationSanFranciscoGetty-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/PowellStationSanFranciscoGetty-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/PowellStationSanFranciscoGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/PowellStationSanFranciscoGetty-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/PowellStationSanFranciscoGetty-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two people wait for a train at BART Powell Street station in San Francisco, California, on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020. \u003ccite>(Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I’m going to have to take an Uber that I really can’t afford, so I’m not very happy right now,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pantera told KQED that this isn’t the first time BART has frustrated her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s either the escalators are out or the trains are filthy, and we’re still raising prices,” she said. “It would have been nice to get a systemwide alert. I didn’t get one, and I do have BART on my [phone], so I could have made other arrangements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is just not convenient, and I think BART needs to do a lot better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12016154/bart-fare-increase-january-second-year-in-a-row\">raised fares twice\u003c/a> in the last two years, increasing the price of an average ride by 11% since 2023, as it faces a “fiscal cliff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12008879\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12008879\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240111-TransitFile-19-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240111-TransitFile-19-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240111-TransitFile-19-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240111-TransitFile-19-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240111-TransitFile-19-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240111-TransitFile-19-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240111-TransitFile-19-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">BART fare gates at the 24th Street Mission station in San Francisco on Jan. 11, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Like other Bay Area transit systems, BART has struggled to bounce back after the COVID-19 pandemic as more commuters shifted to remote work. The agency recently announced $35 million in budget cuts and cost controls to balance its books for 2025, but its deficit is expected to balloon to $400 million by 2027.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Bay Area has the highest work-from-home rates in the nation and the slowest downtown recoveries,” the agency said in a statement on its website. “This has created an ongoing structural financial deficit, severely impacting BART’s long-term ability to deliver the high-quality transit service the Bay Area relies on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s warned that without changes in its funding, there could be dire consequences, like cutting lines, closing stations earlier at night, and even ending weekend service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March, state Sens. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and Jesse Arreguín, D-Berkeley, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032607/first-look-at-2026-tax-proposal-to-keep-bay-area-transit-running\">introduced a bill\u003c/a> that would put a sales tax measure on the 2026 ballot in some Bay Area counties meant to fund day-to-day transit operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Metropolitan Transportation Commission has estimated that the tax could raise about $440 million to $550 million a year, depending on the tax rate and which counties are included.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999606\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999606\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240313-BART-Train-arrives.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240313-BART-Train-arrives.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240313-BART-Train-arrives-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240313-BART-Train-arrives-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240313-BART-Train-arrives-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240313-BART-Train-arrives-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A BART train approaches a station on March 13, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Supporters of that measure took Friday’s major disruption as an opportunity to remind Bay Area residents what’s at stake if BART and other transit agencies buckle under the financial strain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Without sufficient funding, these kinds of problems are going to get worse,” transportation activist Cyrus Hall said, standing with a crowd holding pro-BART and Muni signs at the Interstate 80 westbound off-ramp on Fremont Street around 10:30 a.m. “BART’s been running on a shoestring for years, and we need to fix that now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hall said that even if lawmakers put the ballot measure to voters in 2026, BART will need funding to patch gaps until then. Arreguín has also asked Gov. Gavin Newsom to allocate $2 billion in state funds to transit systems across the state over the next two years. The governor’s revised budget proposal is expected this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without both a ballot measure and stopgap money, Hall said the system could be at risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re looking at service cuts before we even get to the ballot,” Hall told KQED. “And that would really be devastating from a public support perspective.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Slashing late-night or weekend hours and running fewer trains would mean longer commute times and more road traffic for drivers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Traffic was horrible,” one driver yelled out the window of his car, idling in the traffic crawling off the Bay Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is really our last moment where we can really save public transit and not see a decade of decline before we can start to rebuild,” Hall said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/bwatt\">Brian Watt\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/elindsey\">Ethan Toven-Lindsey\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/adahlstromeckman\">Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/jlara\">Juan Carlos Lara\u003c/a> contributed to this report. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 3:10 p.m. Friday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An hourslong outage of the entire \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bart\">BART\u003c/a> system on Friday morning, which forced tens of thousands of riders to find other ways to get around the Bay Area, was not a result of aging equipment, the agency said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trains on the Bay Area’s largest transit system did not start running early Friday, suspended until about 9:30 a.m. because of what the agency called a computer networking problem. In an email midday, BART spokesperson Alicia Trost said the issue was caused by two network devices that were part of a system redundancy not having proper connectivity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once the crews isolated that exact section that had the devices that were not properly communicating to each other, they were able to just simply disconnect them,” she told KQED. “That is what allowed us to finally get service back up and running.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the largest systemwide BART outage \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11732217/bart-cisco-hunting-for-root-cause-of-network-trouble-that-shut-down-service\">since 2019\u003c/a>, when a weekend service meltdown highlighted the need to replace the agency’s decades-old central train control system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That shutdown, caused by a networking switch failure that made it impossible for BART to dispatch any trains, came as the agency was in the initial stages of a 10-year train control system replacement supported by funds from a 2016 bond measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project, contracted to railway company Hitachi, is ongoing, and implementation is underway, according to Trost. Still, she said the train control system was not a factor in Friday’s outage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12039604\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12039604 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/241213-PortFlood-59_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/241213-PortFlood-59_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/241213-PortFlood-59_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/241213-PortFlood-59_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/241213-PortFlood-59_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/241213-PortFlood-59_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/241213-PortFlood-59_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A San Francisco Bay Ferry pulls into the Golden Gate Ferry Terminal in San Francisco on Dec. 13, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The shutdown forced Muni and AC Transit to step in to help relieve pressure, and the San Francisco Bay Ferry \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/SFBayFerry/status/1920835232711733692\">ran larger boats\u003c/a> where it could. Traffic on the Bay Bridge backed up for miles during the morning commute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 800 more cars crossed the bridge between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. than during the same hour last week, and about 1,000 more made the trip across the bay in the following two commute hours, according to toll plaza data from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hundreds more people also used the San Mateo-Hayward and Dumbarton bridges during the same period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BART announced the shutdown shortly after 5 a.m., right as the agency was to set its service in motion for the day.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>At the 16th Street–Mission station, a worker announcing the shutdown to riders said the computer failure had even disrupted communications from the agency and left employees unable to clock in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the Mission District, Ian Rice arrived at the 24th Street station shortly after 7 a.m. to take BART to his office downtown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the first I’m hearing about this,” he told a KQED reporter after finding the fare gates at the station’s underground entrance closed. Above ground, no signage warned that the trains below were halted. “I was planning on going upstairs and seeing if I could maybe take the 22 [Fillmore], take the bus. We’ll see what’s available, but this is going to be an issue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was among the throng of commuters shuffling in — and quickly out — of the station during the busy morning commute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luna Pantera arrived at the same station around 7:15 to catch a train to the car she was supposed to pick up before work. She said the closure meant a 20-minute delay and a more expensive commute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12023482\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12023482\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/PowellStationSanFranciscoGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/PowellStationSanFranciscoGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/PowellStationSanFranciscoGetty-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/PowellStationSanFranciscoGetty-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/PowellStationSanFranciscoGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/PowellStationSanFranciscoGetty-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/PowellStationSanFranciscoGetty-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two people wait for a train at BART Powell Street station in San Francisco, California, on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020. \u003ccite>(Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I’m going to have to take an Uber that I really can’t afford, so I’m not very happy right now,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pantera told KQED that this isn’t the first time BART has frustrated her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s either the escalators are out or the trains are filthy, and we’re still raising prices,” she said. “It would have been nice to get a systemwide alert. I didn’t get one, and I do have BART on my [phone], so I could have made other arrangements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is just not convenient, and I think BART needs to do a lot better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12016154/bart-fare-increase-january-second-year-in-a-row\">raised fares twice\u003c/a> in the last two years, increasing the price of an average ride by 11% since 2023, as it faces a “fiscal cliff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12008879\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12008879\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240111-TransitFile-19-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240111-TransitFile-19-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240111-TransitFile-19-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240111-TransitFile-19-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240111-TransitFile-19-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240111-TransitFile-19-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240111-TransitFile-19-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">BART fare gates at the 24th Street Mission station in San Francisco on Jan. 11, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Like other Bay Area transit systems, BART has struggled to bounce back after the COVID-19 pandemic as more commuters shifted to remote work. The agency recently announced $35 million in budget cuts and cost controls to balance its books for 2025, but its deficit is expected to balloon to $400 million by 2027.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Bay Area has the highest work-from-home rates in the nation and the slowest downtown recoveries,” the agency said in a statement on its website. “This has created an ongoing structural financial deficit, severely impacting BART’s long-term ability to deliver the high-quality transit service the Bay Area relies on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s warned that without changes in its funding, there could be dire consequences, like cutting lines, closing stations earlier at night, and even ending weekend service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March, state Sens. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and Jesse Arreguín, D-Berkeley, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032607/first-look-at-2026-tax-proposal-to-keep-bay-area-transit-running\">introduced a bill\u003c/a> that would put a sales tax measure on the 2026 ballot in some Bay Area counties meant to fund day-to-day transit operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Metropolitan Transportation Commission has estimated that the tax could raise about $440 million to $550 million a year, depending on the tax rate and which counties are included.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999606\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999606\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240313-BART-Train-arrives.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240313-BART-Train-arrives.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240313-BART-Train-arrives-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240313-BART-Train-arrives-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240313-BART-Train-arrives-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240313-BART-Train-arrives-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A BART train approaches a station on March 13, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Supporters of that measure took Friday’s major disruption as an opportunity to remind Bay Area residents what’s at stake if BART and other transit agencies buckle under the financial strain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Without sufficient funding, these kinds of problems are going to get worse,” transportation activist Cyrus Hall said, standing with a crowd holding pro-BART and Muni signs at the Interstate 80 westbound off-ramp on Fremont Street around 10:30 a.m. “BART’s been running on a shoestring for years, and we need to fix that now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hall said that even if lawmakers put the ballot measure to voters in 2026, BART will need funding to patch gaps until then. Arreguín has also asked Gov. Gavin Newsom to allocate $2 billion in state funds to transit systems across the state over the next two years. The governor’s revised budget proposal is expected this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without both a ballot measure and stopgap money, Hall said the system could be at risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re looking at service cuts before we even get to the ballot,” Hall told KQED. “And that would really be devastating from a public support perspective.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Slashing late-night or weekend hours and running fewer trains would mean longer commute times and more road traffic for drivers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Traffic was horrible,” one driver yelled out the window of his car, idling in the traffic crawling off the Bay Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is really our last moment where we can really save public transit and not see a decade of decline before we can start to rebuild,” Hall said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/bwatt\">Brian Watt\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/elindsey\">Ethan Toven-Lindsey\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/adahlstromeckman\">Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/jlara\">Juan Carlos Lara\u003c/a> contributed to this report. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Bay Area lawmakers are unveiling the first draft of a November 2026 regional sales tax measure designed to help the largest Bay Area transit agencies deal with a long-term financial crisis that could lead to deep, long-lasting service cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The measure is outlined in a bill, SB 63, by state Sens. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Jesse Arreguín (D-Berkeley), who released the first details of the proposal Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their bill would authorize a sales tax measure in San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. The legislation includes a provision that allows San Mateo and Santa Clara county officials to decide whether they want to participate by July 31.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sales tax, to be set at a half-cent in Alameda and Contra Costa counties and up to 1 cent in San Francisco, would help pay for day-to-day operations at BART, Muni, AC Transit and other agencies as well as for regional initiatives to make transit easier to use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We must do everything we can to strengthen our public transportation systems to prevent major service cuts, which would be devastating not only for transit riders, but for everyone in the Bay Area,” Wiener said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rebecca Long, director of legislation and public affairs for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, said the bill is promising.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This appears to move in the right direction to avert major transit service cuts, on BART in particular, and funding critical customer improvements that we know Bay Area residents want to see to make transit a more attractive option,” Long said in an interview.[aside postID=news_12026627 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/240111-TransitFile-11-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg']The measure announced Monday is a dramatically scaled-back version of an ambitious plan floated last year that would have covered all nine Bay Area counties and aimed to raise $1.5 billion for a wide variety of transit, street and highway improvements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that effort, embodied in Sen. Wiener’s SB 1031, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11988365/a-bill-to-save-bay-area-transit-from-fiscal-disaster-is-dead-at-least-for-now\">collapsed\u003c/a> amid a series of bitter disagreements, including what kind of tax should be imposed and how revenue would be distributed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If last year is any indication, SB 63, too, will be the subject of intensive negotiations before the details of the measure are finalized and can be placed on the November 2026 ballot. Even if it wins voter approval, the proposed tax measure will not be enough by itself to erase the deficits the Bay Area’s biggest transit agencies are facing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear how much money the proposed three-county sales tax would raise, but the Metropolitan Transportation Commission has estimated that a four-county tax including San Mateo County would raise $560 million a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BART is projecting deficits of more than $350 million a year starting in July 2026. Muni forecasts a yearly shortfall of more than $300 million. Deficits at AC Transit and Caltrain are smaller but erasing them would still require significant service cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To maintain transit operations at a level close to current levels, officials in San Francisco and at BART have discussed supplemental revenue measures that would also likely appear on ballots in 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Area transit agencies have received billions of dollars in federal and state emergency funding to make up for fare revenue lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. But with that funding running out, transit operators, elected officials and transportation advocates across the region have been looking to a regional tax to avoid deep cuts in bus, train and ferry services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A regional measure has also been seen as a vehicle to pay for making transit more frequent, reliable and affordable across the region. It would do that not only by helping agencies purchase more vehicles, but by integrating fares and schedules among agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Bay Area lawmakers are unveiling the first draft of a November 2026 regional sales tax measure designed to help the largest Bay Area transit agencies deal with a long-term financial crisis that could lead to deep, long-lasting service cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The measure is outlined in a bill, SB 63, by state Sens. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Jesse Arreguín (D-Berkeley), who released the first details of the proposal Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their bill would authorize a sales tax measure in San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. The legislation includes a provision that allows San Mateo and Santa Clara county officials to decide whether they want to participate by July 31.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sales tax, to be set at a half-cent in Alameda and Contra Costa counties and up to 1 cent in San Francisco, would help pay for day-to-day operations at BART, Muni, AC Transit and other agencies as well as for regional initiatives to make transit easier to use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We must do everything we can to strengthen our public transportation systems to prevent major service cuts, which would be devastating not only for transit riders, but for everyone in the Bay Area,” Wiener said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rebecca Long, director of legislation and public affairs for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, said the bill is promising.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This appears to move in the right direction to avert major transit service cuts, on BART in particular, and funding critical customer improvements that we know Bay Area residents want to see to make transit a more attractive option,” Long said in an interview.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The measure announced Monday is a dramatically scaled-back version of an ambitious plan floated last year that would have covered all nine Bay Area counties and aimed to raise $1.5 billion for a wide variety of transit, street and highway improvements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that effort, embodied in Sen. Wiener’s SB 1031, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11988365/a-bill-to-save-bay-area-transit-from-fiscal-disaster-is-dead-at-least-for-now\">collapsed\u003c/a> amid a series of bitter disagreements, including what kind of tax should be imposed and how revenue would be distributed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If last year is any indication, SB 63, too, will be the subject of intensive negotiations before the details of the measure are finalized and can be placed on the November 2026 ballot. Even if it wins voter approval, the proposed tax measure will not be enough by itself to erase the deficits the Bay Area’s biggest transit agencies are facing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear how much money the proposed three-county sales tax would raise, but the Metropolitan Transportation Commission has estimated that a four-county tax including San Mateo County would raise $560 million a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BART is projecting deficits of more than $350 million a year starting in July 2026. Muni forecasts a yearly shortfall of more than $300 million. Deficits at AC Transit and Caltrain are smaller but erasing them would still require significant service cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To maintain transit operations at a level close to current levels, officials in San Francisco and at BART have discussed supplemental revenue measures that would also likely appear on ballots in 2026.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Area transit agencies have received billions of dollars in federal and state emergency funding to make up for fare revenue lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. But with that funding running out, transit operators, elected officials and transportation advocates across the region have been looking to a regional tax to avoid deep cuts in bus, train and ferry services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A regional measure has also been seen as a vehicle to pay for making transit more frequent, reliable and affordable across the region. It would do that not only by helping agencies purchase more vehicles, but by integrating fares and schedules among agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 6:20 p.m. Friday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Striking transit workers in the South Bay will postpone a planned Saturday vote on a new contract offer from the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, after the agency asked union leaders to hold off until a special closed-session meeting could be held Sunday, according to union officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The VTA Board of Directors will meet Sunday at 10 a.m. to further discuss the ongoing negotiations with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, according to the union’s president, Raj Singh. The meeting was announced after ATU leaders encouraged their members to vote against the latest contract offer from VTA negotiators. It could signal an 11th-hour attempt from VTA leaders to avoid allowing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030951/vta-strike-underscores-silicon-valleys-widening-income-inequality\">the historic strike\u003c/a> by more than 1,500 bus drivers, train operators and maintenance workers to extend into a third week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The first two weeks now, essentially, the agency showed no urgency in trying to resolve the matter,” Singh said. “And so the fact that they’re [calling a special meeting] now, I hope it’s a step in the right direction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the VTA confirmed the planned meeting late Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier Friday, the VTA said that it had revised its previous offer to ATU, whose members have been off the job since March 10 over stalled contract negotiations, affecting tens of thousands of people who rely daily on transit in the South Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The VTA’s current offer to the union is a contract proposal that includes 10.5% raises over three years, with 4% in the first year, followed by 3%, and 3.5% in the subsequent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That proposal represents a 1.5% increase from the VTA’s previous offer of 9%, and comes a day after the VTA \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032271/vta-strike-stretches-into-11th-day-agency-says-progress-being-made-in-talks\">told KQED\u003c/a> progress was made in negotiations on Wednesday regarding other key sticking points, including tentative changes to arbitration when employees file grievances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030671\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030671\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Baypointe light rail platform in San José is vacant on Monday, March 10, 2025, the first day of a strike by the union representing VTA’s bus drivers and light rail train operators. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For several weeks, the union’s ask has been for an 18% raise over three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Friday afternoon, Singh said the union agreed to a compromise on arbitration, and feels the agency’s wage offer isn’t a fair one, pointing to the 4% annual raise that VTA General Manager Carolyn Gonot received in January. Singh indicated a 12% raise over three years would be something the union might accept.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it would be fair to give us essentially what they gave the general manager at least,” Singh said. “So at least seeing fours across the board would be fair.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singh said the union has also asked the VTA to guarantee that no union workers or leaders will face discipline or civil charges for their participation in the strike, and asked that all workers in the union be immediately reinstated when the strike ends, including those on probation or in training. Singh said the VTA in its previous offer rejected those asks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear what specifics the board members will discuss Sunday, or what revised offer, if any, they will make to the union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12031387 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/01062023-Newsom-Inauguration-RL-CM-03-copy-1536x1024.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier Friday, the agency said its latest offer “is highly competitive and fair,” and reiterated that VTA operators are the second-highest paid among Bay Area transit workers, and said its mechanics are the highest paid in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Throughout lengthy negotiations, VTA has gone above and beyond to accommodate union demands, including agreeing to the union’s proposed arbitration language and significantly enhancing dental coverage at the union’s request,” the agency said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter posted on its website earlier Friday, ATU’s leadership had notified members of the previously planned special membership meeting on Saturday, with voting also scheduled to take place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union leadership said it held two meetings with VTA officials on Thursday, and recommended that its members vote against the current contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Management made it clear they would not offer more than a total 10.5% increase, justifying their position by citing reasons such as ATU’s highest offer in the past decade, claims that we are ‘uneducated workers,’ budget constraints, and the potential need to cut services,” the letter said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Since we have once again hit a deadlock and the agency refuses to budge, we are putting the offer to a membership vote. However, let there be no misunderstanding – your leadership has NOT agreed to this proposal. Your Negotiations Team is strongly recommending a UNANIMOUS NO VOTE,” the letter concluded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tens of thousands of people use VTA buses and light rail trains every day, according to the agency, with roughly 100,000 riders on weekdays, including large proportions of students and low-income earners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union has said in previous statements that its members were on strike due to what it perceived as the agency wasting time in six months of negotiations that began in August, as well as concerns over arbitration, extended leave for injury or illness, and respect and fairness for its members’ work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stacey Hendler Ross, a spokesperson for VTA, said earlier on Friday that the agency hopes union members will approve the new offer and choose to end the strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“VTA is trying to make incremental movement over the wage proposal just to get people back to work even though the agency is headed into a $40 million deficit for next year,” Hendler Ross said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can only hope that workers will see this as the fair and competitive offer that it is and come back to work so we can get our passengers back on the road,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singh, on Friday afternoon, seemed unconvinced about the agency’s inability to up its offer. “There is plenty of cushion in the budget for them to offer something more,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030673\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030673\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Striking VTA workers picket acknowledge a passing honking car outside the agency’s headquarters on North First Street in San José on March 10, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The agency and the union have traded sharp rhetoric during the now 12-day strike, including blaming one another for the work stoppage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ATU leadership has held its members and the riders who depend on public transportation for their livelihood hostage for two weeks,” the VTA said in its statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union can choose to end the strike and allow employees back to work at any time, including before a new contract is made official.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "An expected Saturday vote by striking South Bay transit workers on a new contract offer is now postponed while the VTA’s leaders plan to hold a special meeting Sunday.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 6:20 p.m. Friday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Striking transit workers in the South Bay will postpone a planned Saturday vote on a new contract offer from the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, after the agency asked union leaders to hold off until a special closed-session meeting could be held Sunday, according to union officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The VTA Board of Directors will meet Sunday at 10 a.m. to further discuss the ongoing negotiations with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, according to the union’s president, Raj Singh. The meeting was announced after ATU leaders encouraged their members to vote against the latest contract offer from VTA negotiators. It could signal an 11th-hour attempt from VTA leaders to avoid allowing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030951/vta-strike-underscores-silicon-valleys-widening-income-inequality\">the historic strike\u003c/a> by more than 1,500 bus drivers, train operators and maintenance workers to extend into a third week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The first two weeks now, essentially, the agency showed no urgency in trying to resolve the matter,” Singh said. “And so the fact that they’re [calling a special meeting] now, I hope it’s a step in the right direction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the VTA confirmed the planned meeting late Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier Friday, the VTA said that it had revised its previous offer to ATU, whose members have been off the job since March 10 over stalled contract negotiations, affecting tens of thousands of people who rely daily on transit in the South Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The VTA’s current offer to the union is a contract proposal that includes 10.5% raises over three years, with 4% in the first year, followed by 3%, and 3.5% in the subsequent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That proposal represents a 1.5% increase from the VTA’s previous offer of 9%, and comes a day after the VTA \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032271/vta-strike-stretches-into-11th-day-agency-says-progress-being-made-in-talks\">told KQED\u003c/a> progress was made in negotiations on Wednesday regarding other key sticking points, including tentative changes to arbitration when employees file grievances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030671\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030671\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-3-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Baypointe light rail platform in San José is vacant on Monday, March 10, 2025, the first day of a strike by the union representing VTA’s bus drivers and light rail train operators. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For several weeks, the union’s ask has been for an 18% raise over three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Friday afternoon, Singh said the union agreed to a compromise on arbitration, and feels the agency’s wage offer isn’t a fair one, pointing to the 4% annual raise that VTA General Manager Carolyn Gonot received in January. Singh indicated a 12% raise over three years would be something the union might accept.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it would be fair to give us essentially what they gave the general manager at least,” Singh said. “So at least seeing fours across the board would be fair.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singh said the union has also asked the VTA to guarantee that no union workers or leaders will face discipline or civil charges for their participation in the strike, and asked that all workers in the union be immediately reinstated when the strike ends, including those on probation or in training. Singh said the VTA in its previous offer rejected those asks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear what specifics the board members will discuss Sunday, or what revised offer, if any, they will make to the union.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier Friday, the agency said its latest offer “is highly competitive and fair,” and reiterated that VTA operators are the second-highest paid among Bay Area transit workers, and said its mechanics are the highest paid in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Throughout lengthy negotiations, VTA has gone above and beyond to accommodate union demands, including agreeing to the union’s proposed arbitration language and significantly enhancing dental coverage at the union’s request,” the agency said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter posted on its website earlier Friday, ATU’s leadership had notified members of the previously planned special membership meeting on Saturday, with voting also scheduled to take place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union leadership said it held two meetings with VTA officials on Thursday, and recommended that its members vote against the current contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Management made it clear they would not offer more than a total 10.5% increase, justifying their position by citing reasons such as ATU’s highest offer in the past decade, claims that we are ‘uneducated workers,’ budget constraints, and the potential need to cut services,” the letter said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Since we have once again hit a deadlock and the agency refuses to budge, we are putting the offer to a membership vote. However, let there be no misunderstanding – your leadership has NOT agreed to this proposal. Your Negotiations Team is strongly recommending a UNANIMOUS NO VOTE,” the letter concluded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tens of thousands of people use VTA buses and light rail trains every day, according to the agency, with roughly 100,000 riders on weekdays, including large proportions of students and low-income earners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union has said in previous statements that its members were on strike due to what it perceived as the agency wasting time in six months of negotiations that began in August, as well as concerns over arbitration, extended leave for injury or illness, and respect and fairness for its members’ work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stacey Hendler Ross, a spokesperson for VTA, said earlier on Friday that the agency hopes union members will approve the new offer and choose to end the strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“VTA is trying to make incremental movement over the wage proposal just to get people back to work even though the agency is headed into a $40 million deficit for next year,” Hendler Ross said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can only hope that workers will see this as the fair and competitive offer that it is and come back to work so we can get our passengers back on the road,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singh, on Friday afternoon, seemed unconvinced about the agency’s inability to up its offer. “There is plenty of cushion in the budget for them to offer something more,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030673\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030673\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Striking VTA workers picket acknowledge a passing honking car outside the agency’s headquarters on North First Street in San José on March 10, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The agency and the union have traded sharp rhetoric during the now 12-day strike, including blaming one another for the work stoppage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ATU leadership has held its members and the riders who depend on public transportation for their livelihood hostage for two weeks,” the VTA said in its statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union can choose to end the strike and allow employees back to work at any time, including before a new contract is made official.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>As the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030951/vta-strike-underscores-silicon-valleys-widening-income-inequality\">historic strike\u003c/a> by Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority workers stretches into its 11th day, the transit agency said progress is being made at the negotiating table on key sticking points, and talks were continuing Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 1,500 bus drivers and train operators, as well as maintenance workers and dispatchers represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, have been off the job since March 10 over contract talks that stalled early this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The strike has halted bus and light rail service throughout Santa Clara County, forcing tens of thousands of daily riders to find alternate transportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, a VTA official said talks went well on Wednesday after negotiators for the agency and the union met for more than seven hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We feel like we made some progress,” Stacey Hendler Ross, an agency spokesperson, said Thursday morning. “There was a compromise on what the union said was their biggest issue, and that was the arbitration issue. So that hopefully has been settled, and they’re moving on to other issues.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Union President Raj Singh did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout the strike, Singh and other union members have said that one of the major issues for the labor group is the way arbitration is handled with the agency when a worker files a grievance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union alleged the agency held too much power to unilaterally avoid or delay going to an arbitrator to decide how some of those cases would be resolved and had proposed changes to shift the balance of power, which the agency had resisted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hendler Ross declined to share specifics on the compromise that was reached, noting that it’s all tentative until both parties sign a new contract.[aside postID=news_12031387 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-23-KQED-1020x680.jpg']The union also previously bristled at proposed changes from VTA to reduce long-term injury or illness leave from two years to one, and the two sides have consistently remained far apart on wages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency’s last publicized offer to the union was for 9% raises over three years, with 4% granted in the first year of the contract, followed by 3% and 2% subsequently. The union’s most recent publicized ask was for 18% raises over the same time period, with 6% in each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While some of the talks last week between the agency and the union included a mediator, Hendler Ross said the talks on Wednesday and talks that were scheduled to begin at noon on Thursday are standard negotiations without mediators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union held a rally on Monday afternoon with other labor groups, urging VTA to come back to the negotiating table after written proposals were exchanged over the weekend. Singh said the union waited for a call from the agency all day Monday and Tuesday but didn’t receive one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singh said Tuesday afternoon he was concerned about the agency’s apparent “lack of urgency” while the strike continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monday evening, the agency issued a statement saying it “is committed to moving beyond the rhetoric to focus on constructive actions to finalize a contract.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency also alleged the strike violated the no-strike clause in the bargaining agreement between the union and VTA and filed a lawsuit on March 10 asking a judge to issue a temporary restraining order to force workers back to their jobs while negotiations continued. A county judge \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12031632/vtas-legal-challenge-ongoing-transit-strike-hits-snag\">shot that request down on Monday\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hendler Ross said Thursday that the VTA always has hope that when the agency and union meet to negotiate, it will result in something good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We continue to hold out that hope because we want to get our workers back to work, back on the road, so we can get our passengers where they need to go,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The VTA and its largest labor union resumed negotiations Wednesday, and a spokesperson for the South Bay transit agency said progress was made during the talks, with more scheduled for Thursday. ",
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"title": "VTA Strike Stretches Into 11th Day, Agency Says Progress Being Made in Talks | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030951/vta-strike-underscores-silicon-valleys-widening-income-inequality\">historic strike\u003c/a> by Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority workers stretches into its 11th day, the transit agency said progress is being made at the negotiating table on key sticking points, and talks were continuing Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 1,500 bus drivers and train operators, as well as maintenance workers and dispatchers represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, have been off the job since March 10 over contract talks that stalled early this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The strike has halted bus and light rail service throughout Santa Clara County, forcing tens of thousands of daily riders to find alternate transportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, a VTA official said talks went well on Wednesday after negotiators for the agency and the union met for more than seven hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We feel like we made some progress,” Stacey Hendler Ross, an agency spokesperson, said Thursday morning. “There was a compromise on what the union said was their biggest issue, and that was the arbitration issue. So that hopefully has been settled, and they’re moving on to other issues.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Union President Raj Singh did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout the strike, Singh and other union members have said that one of the major issues for the labor group is the way arbitration is handled with the agency when a worker files a grievance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union alleged the agency held too much power to unilaterally avoid or delay going to an arbitrator to decide how some of those cases would be resolved and had proposed changes to shift the balance of power, which the agency had resisted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hendler Ross declined to share specifics on the compromise that was reached, noting that it’s all tentative until both parties sign a new contract.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The union also previously bristled at proposed changes from VTA to reduce long-term injury or illness leave from two years to one, and the two sides have consistently remained far apart on wages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency’s last publicized offer to the union was for 9% raises over three years, with 4% granted in the first year of the contract, followed by 3% and 2% subsequently. The union’s most recent publicized ask was for 18% raises over the same time period, with 6% in each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While some of the talks last week between the agency and the union included a mediator, Hendler Ross said the talks on Wednesday and talks that were scheduled to begin at noon on Thursday are standard negotiations without mediators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union held a rally on Monday afternoon with other labor groups, urging VTA to come back to the negotiating table after written proposals were exchanged over the weekend. Singh said the union waited for a call from the agency all day Monday and Tuesday but didn’t receive one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singh said Tuesday afternoon he was concerned about the agency’s apparent “lack of urgency” while the strike continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monday evening, the agency issued a statement saying it “is committed to moving beyond the rhetoric to focus on constructive actions to finalize a contract.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency also alleged the strike violated the no-strike clause in the bargaining agreement between the union and VTA and filed a lawsuit on March 10 asking a judge to issue a temporary restraining order to force workers back to their jobs while negotiations continued. A county judge \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12031632/vtas-legal-challenge-ongoing-transit-strike-hits-snag\">shot that request down on Monday\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hendler Ross said Thursday that the VTA always has hope that when the agency and union meet to negotiate, it will result in something good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We continue to hold out that hope because we want to get our workers back to work, back on the road, so we can get our passengers where they need to go,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "bridge-tolls-lane-closures-and-vanity-plates-your-bay-area-transit-questions-answered",
"title": "Bridge Tolls, Lane Closures and Vanity Plates: Your Bay Area Transit Questions Answered",
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"headTitle": "Bridge Tolls, Lane Closures and Vanity Plates: Your Bay Area Transit Questions Answered | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#Transcript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One thing we know for sure about the Bay Curious audience is that you have lots of questions about how we get around the Bay Area. From the very start of the podcast 10 years ago next month, transportation has been one of the topics that surface again and again and again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ve received a lot of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11798346/why-are-bart-escalators-nearly-always-broken-and-how-did-they-build-those-tunnels\">questions\u003c/a> about BART, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11932690/why-doesnt-bart-go-more-places\">why it doesn’t go more places\u003c/a> and how the process of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11986396/when-bart-was-built-people-and-houses-had-to-go\">clearing businesses and homes from its route\u003c/a> worked when the system was built.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousbug]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ve received questions about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11892152/the-tale-of-the-bay-bridge-troll\">the Bay Bridge troll(s)\u003c/a>. And about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11864205/is-that-a-ghost-freeway-on-the-peninsula-and-are-our-highways-filthier-than-ever\">why there’s so much trash\u003c/a> on Bay Area freeways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So now, after 10 years and a total of 10,000 questions from you, our loyal audience, we’re returning to the transportation theme by answering a bunch of bridge-related questions and one inquiry that touches on how Bay Area residents express their personalities on our license plates. Here goes:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#A\">Where does the toll money from Bay Area Bridges go?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#B\">Why is there a closed toll lane on the Bay Bridge?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#C\">Is the \u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"#C\">westbound\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"#C\"> right carpool lane onto the Bay Bridge really ‘buses only’?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#D\">Why do so many Bay Area freeway names end in ‘80’?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#E\">What’s with the third lanes on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#F\">Why are there so many vanity license plates?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>\u003ca id=\"A\">\u003c/a>Where does all that toll money from Bay Area bridges go?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11958608\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11958608\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/GettyImages-1528848239-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Aerial shot of cars at a series of toll booths on a bridge, with a $7 toll fee in a digital sign above the booths.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1634\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/GettyImages-1528848239-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/GettyImages-1528848239-800x511.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/GettyImages-1528848239-1020x651.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/GettyImages-1528848239-160x102.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/GettyImages-1528848239-1536x980.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/GettyImages-1528848239-2048x1307.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/GettyImages-1528848239-1920x1225.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vehicles cross the toll plaza on the Bay Bridge during the afternoon commute in Oakland on June 26, 2023. \u003ccite>(Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>First up, Dani Robillard has this question about the money we shell out when we drive across bridges in our region: \u003cem>Where does all that toll money from Bay Area bridges go? It’s got to be over $20 million a week, right?\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nYour guess of $20 million a week isn’t too far off, Dani. The tolls across the seven state-owned bridges in the Bay Area will bring in about $880 million in the current fiscal year, and that comes out to about $17 million a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think the natural inclination is to think that the money collected when you drive through a toll plaza is going to be spent on the bridge you’re crossing, end of story. But the reality is more complicated and involves decisions transportation officials and Bay Area voters have made over the last half-century or so. The tolls we pay go to operating and maintaining the bridges — and to lots of other transportation-related things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seven of the eight toll bridges in the Bay Area — the Bay Bridge, Antioch, Benicia, Carquinez, Richmond-San Rafael, San Mateo and Dumbarton spans — are owned by the state of California. The money drivers pay is collected by an agency called \u003ca href=\"https://mtc.ca.gov/about-mtc/authorities/bay-area-toll-authority-bata\">the Bay Area Toll Authority\u003c/a>, or BATA, which also makes decisions about how to spend the revenue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In making its spending decisions, BATA has numerous obligations. Those include paying for ongoing maintenance and upkeep of the bridges, long-term rehabilitation projects, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.fitchratings.com/research/infrastructure-project-finance/fitch-rates-bata-series-2025-sr-toll-revs-aa-subrevs-aa-affirms-outstanding-rev-bonds-07-02-2025#:~:text=Fitch%20has%20affirmed%20BATA's%20%246.3,and%20all%20bonds%20is%20Stable.https://www.fitchratings.com/research/infrastructure-project-finance/fitch-rates-bata-series-2025-sr-toll-revs-aa-subrevs-aa-affirms-outstanding-rev-bonds-07-02-2025#:~:text=Fitch%20has%20affirmed%20BATA's%20%246.3,and%20all%20bonds%20is%20Stable.\">paying off bonds\u003c/a> floated to finance past projects like the $6.4 billion eastern span of the Bay Bridge. Last year, when tolls on the state-owned bridges were $7, BATA estimated that $4 of that charge was being spent in one way or another on the bridges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But how about the other $3? That portion of your toll payment is going in all sorts of different directions due to a series of ballot measures that transportation officials and the Legislature have put before voters since the late 1980s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://mtc.ca.gov/funding/regional-funding/regional-measure-1-rm-1\">Regional Measure 1\u003c/a>, passed in 1988, created a uniform $1 toll for all seven state-owned bridges. (Before Measure 1, tolls on the bridges ranged from 40 cents to $1.) The new funding was used for several bridge improvements but also for several major street and highway improvements, including the Richmond Parkway in Contra Costa County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://mtc.ca.gov/funding/regional-funding/regional-measure-2\">Regional Measure 2\u003c/a>, passed in 2004, raised tolls again by $1 (bringing them to $3 because of a 1998 increase imposed to help pay for the eastern span of the Bay Bridge). The proceeds from RM2 helped pay for the fourth bore of the Caldecott Tunnel, the new Transbay (now Salesforce) Transit Center and other big capital projects. The measure continues to provide day-to-day operating funds for AC Transit’s 1T bus rapid transit line on International Boulevard and San Francisco Muni’s T-Third light rail line and other services. Some RM2 funds also help pay for pedestrian and bike projects near the bridges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11671240/10-things-to-know-regional-measure-3-the-proposed-bay-area-bridge-toll-increase\">Regional Measure 3\u003c/a>, passed in 2018, included $3 in toll increases that, as of Jan. 1 this year, brings the basic charge for crossing the state bridges to $8. RM3 is helping fund nearly three dozen projects and services around the region, including BART’s extension through downtown San José (coming in 2037, by current estimates), some of BART’s new train cars, improved ferry service, and freeway express lanes (toll lanes) in six different counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ll mention in closing that the Golden Gate Bridge is owned and operated by a separate agency that has its own toll and budget policies and priorities, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.goldengate.org/\">Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District\u003c/a>. According to the district’s fiscal 2024–25 budget, tolls make up about half of its $320 million of its revenue this year. It’s spending about one-third of that — $108 million — on bridge operations. Most of the rest of the budget, $166 million, is going to pay for the district’s bus and ferry service.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>\u003ca id=\"B\">\u003c/a>That closed toll lane on the Bay Bridge\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11635414\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11635414\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/12/RS28347_IMG_1202-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/12/RS28347_IMG_1202-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/12/RS28347_IMG_1202-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/12/RS28347_IMG_1202-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/12/RS28347_IMG_1202-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/12/RS28347_IMG_1202-qut-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/12/RS28347_IMG_1202-qut-960x640.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/12/RS28347_IMG_1202-qut-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/12/RS28347_IMG_1202-qut-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/12/RS28347_IMG_1202-qut-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vehicles approach the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza in Oakland on Dec. 5, 2017. Days before, a truck crashed into toll booth number 14 and killed worker Si Si Han. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The next question comes from Andres Barraza: \u003cem>Why has that single lane at the toll plaza for the Bay Bridge been closed for years, and why won’t they reopen it again? Every time I’m passing, somebody’s always making a last second swerve to avoid the closed lane. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The closure of that lane at the Bay Bridge toll plaza — Lane 14, to be exact — is a tragic story that goes back more than seven years. In the early morning of Dec. 2, 2017, a box truck slammed into the toll booth and killed \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11635239/tollbooth-worker-killed-in-bay-bridge-crash-remembered-as-kind-generous\">the veteran toll taker there, 46-year-old Si Si Han\u003c/a>. The fact that the toll booth has never been rebuilt or the lane opened is due to a combination of circumstances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Area bridge officials and Caltrans reportedly determined that the loss of the lane did not have a major impact on traffic flow through the toll plaza. That was especially true after the onset of the pandemic and the dramatic drop in traffic on the bridge. More recently, the rationale for leaving the lane as it is has shifted: The entire toll plaza will be phased out at some point in the next few years with the introduction of “\u003ca href=\"https://mtc.ca.gov/operations/programs-projects/bridges/open-road-tolling\">open-road tolling\u003c/a>.” That’s a system that uses an overhead structure, called a gantry, equipped with cameras and tag-reading equipment that can record vehicles passing at highway speeds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can get a little preview of how the system works on the two high-occupancy vehicle lanes on the north side of the Bay Area toll plaza, where carpool (and other) drivers currently zip beneath an overhead gantry equipped with cameras and tag readers.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>\u003ca id=\"C\">\u003c/a>And speaking of that high-occupancy vehicle lane… How legit is ‘buses only’?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12032187\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12032187\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-1408768939.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"656\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-1408768939.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-1408768939-800x513.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-1408768939-1020x653.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-1408768939-160x103.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">AC Transit buses roll toward the Bay Bridge in the carpool lane of the Eastshore Freeway in Berkeley on Thursday, May 10, 2018. \u003ccite>(Paul Chinn/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Listener Sam wrote this: \u003cem>Outside rush hour, the right carpool lane westbound onto the Bay Bridge is labeled buses only, but there’s always a constant stream of cars. Do they not enforce that at all, even with photo tolls? Can I use it too? \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ve wondered what’s going on with this lane, too, and when we got Sam’s question, we asked John Goodwin from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) what the story is: The brief answer is that during weekday commute hours — between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. — buses, carpools with three or more people, motorcycles and, for now, cars with valid DMV clean-air stickers — are all permitted to use the lane. Outside of those hours, \u003cem>only buses can lawfully use that lane.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for enforcement, the MTC contracts with the California Highway Patrol to enforce high-occupancy vehicle lanes. If you’re caught using that Bay Bridge lane outside the legal hours, you’ll be subject to a fine of $490 or more. (The same goes for violating carpool hours or passenger and decal requirements on any California HOV lane.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sam also mentions the photo toll equipment on that Bay Bridge carpool lane. Two things about that:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, drivers using the HOV lanes are supposed to have FasTrak tags, which are necessary to get the 50% discount that carpoolers get during weekday commute hours. Outside the designated carpool hours, when you’re violating the law by using the carpool lane, FasTrak will charge you a non-discounted toll for passing through the toll plaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Second, the photo equipment Sam mentions is used for toll collection, not carpool enforcement. The cameras, which are deployed on all the toll lanes at the Bay Bridge, serve as a sort of backup system for Fastrak. They capture license plate images for each passing vehicle and ensure that drivers who don’t have toll tags are charged for crossing the bridges like everyone else.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>\u003ca id=\"D\">\u003c/a>Eighty! Eighty! Eighty!\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12003260\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12003260\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1938578486.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1298\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1938578486.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1938578486-800x541.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1938578486-1020x690.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1938578486-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1938578486-1536x1038.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aerial view, cars travel along Interstate 80 on Jan. 16, 2024, in Berkeley. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Our next question comes from Martin Aguilera, and he wants to know: \u003cem>Why do so many Bay Area freeways end with “80”? For instance, 880, 680, 280, 580. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The simple explanation for this numbering system is that all those three-digit routes are considered to be branches of Interstate 80 in the Bay Area. I-80 stretches from the George Washington Bridge in New York City to San Francisco, where it connects to U.S. 101 and heads south.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the federal government’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/programadmin/interstate.cfm\">Interstate highway numbering system\u003c/a>, there are two kinds of these branch routes, each designated with the three-digit numbers Martin mentions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The routes that begin with even numbers. like 280, 680, and 880 in the Bay Area, are rather arbitrarily considered to be full or partial belt routes. Those are highways that traditionally run around the circumference of a region. The best example I know of, a true belt route, is Interstate 495 around Washington, D.C. Arguably, Interstates 680 and 280 in our region are peripheral routes, but there’s no way in the world you could put Interstate 880, from Oakland to San José, in that category. At least in our learned opinion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The routes that begin with odd numbers are considered to be spur or radial routes and they connect other major routes. And so we have 380, 580, 780 and 980. Most of these routes are very short. I-980, just west of downtown Oakland, is just 2 miles long; 380, which connects 280 with U.S. 101 at San Francisco International Airport, measures a little over 3 miles, and 780, between 80 and 680 in Solano County, is 6.5 miles. But sometimes these routes are really, really long: Interstate 580 runs 75 miles from Interstate 5 in San Joaquin County all the way to U.S. 101 in Marin.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>\u003ca id=\"E\">\u003c/a>The saga of the third lanes on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11971910\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11971910\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240108-RSR-BIKE-LANE-MD-08-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240108-RSR-BIKE-LANE-MD-08-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240108-RSR-BIKE-LANE-MD-08-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240108-RSR-BIKE-LANE-MD-08-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240108-RSR-BIKE-LANE-MD-08-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240108-RSR-BIKE-LANE-MD-08-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240108-RSR-BIKE-LANE-MD-08-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Traffic on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge on Jan. 8, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Listener Phil Narodick asks: \u003cem>There’s a third lane on the lower deck of the Richmond Bridge that’s seemingly opened and closed based on the vibes. No rhyme or reason provided. What’s going on and why do they sometimes not want you to drive in it?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To answer that, maybe a little bridge history is in order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge opened in 1956, both its upper, westbound deck and lower, eastbound deck were configured with three lanes of traffic. Twenty years later, nature intervened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California suffered through one of its worst droughts in 1976 and 1977. It was so dry for so long that Marin County’s reservoirs threatened to dry up. To respond to that crisis, water officials worked out an agreement to build a water pipeline across the upper deck of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge to help relieve Marin’s shortage. That arrangement took the right lane on the westbound desk out of service. As it turned out, the pipeline was used for less than a year because the rains returned in the fall of 1977. A few years later, the pipeline was removed. But the space it occupied was turned into a lane for breakdowns and maintenance crews.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OK — that was the upper deck, and we’ll have more to say about that in a moment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the lower deck that Phil is asking about, something similar happened, only without the pipeline. In 1980, Caltrans decided to reduce traffic from three lanes to two and use the right lane for motorist emergencies and bridge maintenance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And there things stood until about a decade ago when Caltrans and other agencies came up with a proposal to restore that third lane of traffic on the lower, eastbound deck. The reason: Afternoon commute congestion had grown so acute that traffic was backing up not only across the bridge but back along Interstate 580 to U.S. 101 and to surface streets in San Rafael. By \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11648255/san-rafael-richmond-bridge-eastbound-lane\">opening up a third lane\u003c/a>, traffic engineers reasoned, congestion could be reduced. The plan was adopted, and the restored third lane opened in 2018. It turned out the traffic engineers were right: Opening that lane during the afternoon commute resulted in a dramatic reduction in congestion for the corridor, one that continues today in part because of reduced traffic in the wake of the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As to the operating hours for that third lane: The Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s John Goodwin said Caltrans opens the lane from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week. He adds that Caltrans can adjust third-lane operations based on real-time conditions, but said that has seldom happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now let’s revisit the upper deck: As part of the same four-year pilot project proposal that restored the eastbound third lane, transportation agencies \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11786768/richmond-san-rafael-bridge-bike-walking-path\">installed a bike and pedestrian pathway\u003c/a> on the old right lane of the westbound upper deck. The upper deck path opened in 2019. With the exception of the Golden Gate Bridge, which is extremely popular with bike riders, the Richmond-San Rafael path has become the most used bridge crossing for cyclists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s also become \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11971935/richmond-bridge-bike-path-has-an-amazing-view-and-an-uncertain-future\">an object of controversy\u003c/a>. Critics of the lane contend that it’s the main culprit in the long backups that form most weekday mornings as westbound traffic makes its way through Richmond to the bridge. At the same time, \u003ca href=\"https://www.bcdc.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2024/12/2025-03-20-Richmond-San-Rafael-Bridge-PATH-Study-Phase-II-Attachment-A.pdf\">a study by UC Berkeley researchers (PDF)\u003c/a> hired to analyze the path’s effect on traffic found it hasn’t had a major impact on congestion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The critics, including the Bay Area Council business group and the Marin County Board of Supervisors, have urged Caltrans and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to take action to relieve the congestion. The resulting MTC plan would close the path four days a week and use it as a breakdown lane. Bike riders and pedestrians would get to use it from Friday through Sunday, the path’s most popular days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ultimate decision on whether that plan will go forward rests with the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, which will consider the issue on April 3.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>\u003ca id=\"F\">\u003c/a>Why so many vanity license plates?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12032191\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12032191\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240128-49ersFans-07-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240128-49ersFans-07-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240128-49ersFans-07-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240128-49ersFans-07-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240128-49ersFans-07-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240128-49ersFans-07-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240128-49ersFans-07-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">49ers fan Bobbie Lince holds her license plate at a tailgate party outside Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara on Jan. 28, 2024, before an NFC Championship Game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Detroit Lions. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>And one final question for this episode, from Marissa in Oakland. She asks: Why are there so many vanity license plates in the Bay Area? I grew up in Connecticut and remember going on road trips hoping to find some on our route and never really saw any. But now that I’ve been in California for about 8 years, they’re literally everywhere I look.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To our surprise, someone actually did a national survey on this. That’s very helpful in terms of giving Marissa what looks and feels like a solid answer. However, the study, carried out by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators and a vanity license plate site called LCNS2ROM.com, was done in 2007. So does it reflect \u003cem>current\u003c/em> reality? We can’t swear that it does.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what we can say is back then, one state stood out above all others for the popularity of personalized license plates: Virginia. \u003ca href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20080727002335/http:/www.lcns2rom.com/vanityplatesurvey.htm\">The survey\u003c/a>, which we tracked down on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, found that 16.19% of all plates issued there, one in six, were personalized. Virginia was followed by New Hampshire, Illinois, Nevada, Montana, Maine, Connecticut, New Jersey, North Dakota and Vermont. That’s your top ten for vanity license plates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Where did California come in? Twenty-second, with about 3.5% of all plates issued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We can offer at least a partial update for those California numbers. As of 2007, the old survey said, the state had issued about 1.1 million personalized license plates. The Department of Motor Vehicles said that number is now 1,650,184, a 50% increase over the last 18 years. With about 32 million vehicles on the road, that would mean about 5% are carrying personalized plates. What we don’t know is where California ranks now among the other 49 states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Transcript\">\u003c/a>Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Hey everyone, Olivia Allen-Price here. And I want to take you back for a moment to April 2015, when you could have been scanning the radio …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>(sounds of switching through the radio dial)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>And settled on 88.5 KQED to hear the very first airing of a Bay Curious story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Archival Tape of KQED’s Joshua Johnson: \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cem>OK, time for something fun. Today, we’re launching a special series about local oddities, mysterious and curiosities. We’re calling it Bay Curious.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>It was about this old wrecked car that hikers pass often on Mount Tamalpais. Reporter/Producer, Katrina Schwartz, and I hiked out to the wreck to check it out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Olivia and Katrina in archival tape: \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cem>Holy cow that’s it! What a piece of junk. That is really unexpected…\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>In some ways, that was the perfect story to kick off what is now nearly a 10-year-old journalism experiment. It took us through some Bay Area history. We learned about car manufacturing in the 1940s. We talked to some fascinating people. It was a story that had all the elements that I hope Bay Curious has come to be known for. And … it was about a \u003cem>car\u003c/em>. Which, really, isn’t that surprising. Because, over the years, more than 10,000 questions have poured in from you, our dear audience, and \u003cem>transportation\u003c/em> is one of the topics that we get the most questions about. Maybe it’s because getting around our region … has some pain points? I dunno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Today, as we barrel toward our 10-year anniversary, we thought we’d answer a bunch of your transit questions that have been lingering in the Bay Curious inbox. Like “how much toll money gets collected on our bridges, and where does it go?” “Why has one toll booth been closed on the Bay Bridge for years?” And “Are there more vanity license plates in California than in other places?” It’s a transit lighting round, so hold on tight, and we will get going to pick up some answers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>(Start and rev engine in background)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>When a transit question strikes, KQED editor and reporter Dan Brekke is the person that I always go to to ask. He’s been covering transportation in the Bay Area for more than 20 years, and he’s, I think it’s fair to say, an OG transit nerd. Welcome, Dan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>Hi Olivia\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>So we have a pile of questions to get through this morning, but more than half of them have to do with our bridges. So I want to start there. Now, every time you cross one of our major bridges, you should probably hear a little ka-ching sound go off because they all come with a toll, usually somewhere in the vicinity of $8 to $10 … less if you’ve been smart enough to carpool. Now, multiply that by thousands of motorists crossing those bridges every hour, and a listener and longtime San Francisco resident, named Dani Robillard, has been seeing dollar signs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dani Robillard: \u003c/strong>Where does all that toll money from Bay Area bridges go? It’s got to be over $20 million a week, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>What do you know, Dan?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>So that money goes to maintaining the bridges and to lots of other things. Your guess of $20 million a week isn’t too far off. There’s an organization called the Bay Area Toll Authority. And that’s an agency that was created to collect all the revenue from all the bridges — the seven state-owned bridges — and then to allocate it for various projects that we’ve agreed to as a region over the years. So they say that they bring in about $880 million in the current fiscal year, and that comes out to about $17 million a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Can we dig in a little bit deeper because Dani wants us to break it down further…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dani Robillard: \u003c/strong>We have so many bridges and prices are increasing at an alarming rate. And I just really question, when I see the roads, and at times the conditions of our cities, where does all that money go?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>I always thought the toll was to pay for the bridge. And once the bridge was paid off, the toll maybe go away. But that’s clearly not the case because some of these bridges have been around for decades and I imagine some of these bridges are paid off by now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>Well, the bridges themselves might be paid off. You know, the Bay Bridge opened nearly 90 years ago. Next year will be the 90th anniversary. But, you know, there are ongoing costs, right? You build something that big and complex, and you have many needs over the years just to keep it up, to pave it, to reconfigure it if you need to. And so when you look at the toll dollars we spend going into this fiscal year, the Bay Area Toll Authority said about 60% of the toll funds were going into bridge stuff, right, all the things that I was just talking about, but the other 40% goes to a bunch of things that have, on the surface may be little to do with the bridges themselves but are all very important to the Bay Area’s transportation network. And those are things that range from BART’s brand new fleet of cars, to bike and pedestrian paths around the Bay Area and everything in between. So how did we decide to apportion 40% of those funds that we’re paying at the toll booth for these other things that you don’t see on the bridge? Well, there have been a series of regional measures called, cleverly enough, regional measures one, two, and three that we passed in 1988, 2004, and 2018. Those measures did two things. They raised tolls over time, and they apportioned the money from the new tolls to all these other projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>All right, so let’s move on to our next question. And we have a few about the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge specifically, which, again, not surprising, because, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Bridge carries more than a third of all the state-owned bridge traffic, something like 42 million cars or so crossed in 2022–2023 fiscal year. Let’s hear our first question about it!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Andrés: \u003c/strong>Hi my name is Andrés and I live in San Francisco. My question is why has that single lane at the toll plaza for the Bay Bridge been closed for years, and why won’t they open it again? Every time I’m passing, somebody’s always making a last second swerve to avoid the closed lane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>Well, that’s a tragic story, actually. But first, I want to say I know exactly what he’s talking about. When you’re approaching the Bay Bridge toll plaza, especially if it’s not super crowded, right? You’re approaching at some speed, and you’re kind of lining up what lane you’re in. And then all of a sudden, there’s this one lane that’s closed, and you might have to change out of that lane to get into one of the other ones. So what happened there was that toll booth was wrecked, and the toll taker inside was killed when a truck smashed into it in December 2017. And Caltrans afterward decided not to rebuild immediately. The damage was really extreme. And a construction project in the toll plaza brings a lot of complications with it. The toll booth was still not fixed at the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020. And there was a big change in how tolls were collected at that point. All the toll takers were removed from the plaza, as well as all the other toll bridges around the region, and toll collection became automated. So there was little need to replace that lane at that point, right? You still have 16 plus other lanes that drivers can use. And, you know, the pandemic started five years ago, and you would think, well, maybe there’s time to go in and do that work. Well, there’s actually a plan to replace the entire toll plaza. So that’s why it’s not getting done now. And what’s going to replace the toll plaza? Something called open road tolling. You can see how that’s going to work if you go to the north side of the toll plaza, where there are a couple of carpool lanes. They’re actually called high occupancy vehicle lanes for buses and carpools. And they’ve got overhead toll tag readers that you can drive through going 60 miles an hour, and your toll tags will be read automatically. And so this technology is going to come to the Bay Bridge and other Bay Area bridges in the next two or three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>All right, let’s move on to our next question, which also has to do with a lane on the Bay Bridge, not too far away from the one we’ve been talking about. Listener Sam wrote in with this: “Outside rush hour, the right carpool lane westbound onto the Bay Bridge is labeled busses only, but there’s always a constant stream of cars. Do they not enforce that at all, even with photo tolls? Can I use it too?” Dan, what have you got on this?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>So there are a couple parts to this question. I asked John Goodwin from the MTC what the story is with this lane, and he answered with a delightful email. I’m going to read from that. “Outside of weekday commute hours, that right-hand carpool lane can be lawfully used only by buses.” So, let’s stop there. Only by busses. Everybody else is not legal. So if you see cars over there, they’re actually breaking the law. He goes on to say, “Every one of the drivers in that constant stream of cars you cite is a scofflaw, a miscreant, and a scoundrel.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>OK burn, exactly. So it’s a little judgmental, but it is very clear. You can only use that lane during carpool hours. That’s part one of the answer. But Sam is also asking, is there any enforcement there? And the answer is yes. The CHP is under contract with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to pull drivers over when they’re violating the toll pool regulations. If the CHP is there and they pull you over, yes, you’re gonna get a ticket and you’re gonna get hit with a several hundred dollar fine. So essentially you’re taking your chances if you do that. Sam asked about the photo enforcement that’s there. Well, the photo equipment that’s there is not there for any kind of enforcement. It’s there to collect your toll. So if you drive through there in a non-carpool hour, that equipment will see you, it will record your license plate and you will be charged a toll. That’s all that will happen there. But remember, once you get through that point, sure, you’ve paid your $8 toll on the Bay Bridge, watch out for the CHP just waiting for you down the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music transition\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>This next question takes us across the bridge to the San Francisco side of things now, still on the Bay Bridge, though, and still in the westbound direction. On the upper deck, there are structures on both sides of the roadway, and they kind of look like shelters of some sort. They have sort of openings the size of garage doors. And we’ve had a few listeners write in asking what they were. Now, I actually dug into this question a few years ago and Caltrans told me that they were once bus stops back from the era when buses could stop on the bridge, and they haven’t been used since probably about the 1960s. Dan, I was hoping you could kind of take us back to this era of bus stops on the bridge and even commuter trains on the Bay Bridge. Just what did the Bay Bridge look like in the ’60s?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>So to begin with, the bridge was configured to have two-way traffic on the top deck, three lanes going in each direction. You also had to pay a toll each way. So you’d pay a toll coming into San Francisco and you’d pay a toll when you got back to the East Bay. That sounds like a treat, doesn’t it? And on the lower deck, there were train tracks for commuter train: The Key System, the Sacramento Northern, and the interurban electric railways all ran into the old Transbay Terminal across those tracks. There were also lanes set aside for truck traffic. No truck traffic was allowed on the upper deck. When the Key System abandoned service in the late 1950s, 1958 to be exact, a big project was undertaken to reconfigure how the bridge worked. So those train tracks were removed from the lower deck, and the two decks were made one way. Westbound traffic on the upper deck, eastbound traffic on the lower deck, just the way we see it today. And there were all sorts of little differences to the way the bridge worked. So as you said, yes, there were bus stops at the beginning of the bridge, on both sides actually and those were done away with when the bridge was reconfigured in October 1963.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music transition\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Our next question comes from Martin Aguilera, and he wants to know: “Why do so many Bay Area freeways end with 80, i.e., 880, 680, 280, 580?” And I have to admit, as somebody who, you know, gets around our region by car quite a bit, all those 80s can be sort of confusing. It makes me think of how Olympian boxer George Foreman famously named all five of his sons George, and I’ve always wondered what it’s like to live in a house with five Georges, six Georges. So Dan, why all these 80s?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>So, you know, we actually have encountered this topic before in the Bay Curious newsletter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Which I’ll gently remind listeners they can subscribe to at BayCurious.org. Halfway down the page, just look for the big pink box!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>The simple explanation for this numbering system, all those three-digit routes are considered to be branches of Interstate 80 in the Bay Area. So Interstate 80 is the main drag, right? That’s the one that goes all the way across the country to the George Washington Bridge in New York City. And it ends right there in San Francisco where U.S. 101 comes in and heads south. And all these other 80s, the 580, the 680, the 280, 780 in the North Bay, those are all considered to be branches of one type or another of Interstate 80. There are two kinds of these branch routes. The ones that begin with even numbers, like 280, 680, and 880, are considered to be loop routes that provide a way around the periphery of the region. And I’ll observe while I say those numbers that none of those are really loop routes in and of themselves. Although 280 and 680 kind of make a loop. 880 is really a straight shot from Oakland down to State Highway 17 and San José.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ones that begin with odd numbers are considered to be spur or radial routes and they’re basically to connect busy routes. And so we have 380, 580, 780 and 980.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>OK, so we’re moving a bit north of the Bay Bridge now, on 580 I will add, to answer this question about the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Phil Narodick: \u003c/strong>Hi my name is Phil Narodick. I live in Berkeley and here’s my question: There’s a third lane on the eastbound span of the Richmond Bridge that’s seemingly opened and closed based on the vibes. No rhyme or reason provided. What’s going on and why do they sometimes not want you to drive in it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Now Dan, the answer for this one might benefit from a little bridge history first — because the third lane in both directions on that bridge has had a number of uses over the years. Can you take us back?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>This bridge opened in 1956 with three lanes in each direction, right? Upper deck, westbound, lower deck, eastbound. We had a really bad drought in 1976 and 1977. Marin was out of water. So where was it going to get water? An agreement was made for East Bay MUD to build a pipeline across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. Where did they put it? They put it in the right-hand lane of the upper deck. So, that lane was taken away, and it went from a three-lane to a two-lane bridge right there. Now, the pipeline was sort of a desperation measure and was very useful, but it was only needed for less than a year. And then it was taken out five years later, but traffic was never restored to that right-hand lane on the upper deck. It just became kind of a breakdown lane. And then a few years after that, on the lower deck, for no reason that I can actually determine, Caltrans decided to close the right-hand lane on the lower deck as well. There’s no reason given for it, except for the fact there wasn’t enough traffic to justify it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That changed a few years ago when Caltrans and other agencies started a pilot project to restore a third lane of traffic on the lower deck, the eastbound deck that Phil is talking about. And the reasons for doing that were that there’s enough congestion in the afternoon commute headed back to Contra Costa County from the North Bay, that something had to be done about it and restoring that lane seemed to be a possible answer. So, there is a project to get that done. The lane opened, as I say, a few years ago. And the simple answer from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission is Caltrans operates that lane and they open it from 2 to 7 every day, including weekends. Those are the operational hours, period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Why would you have a lane closed at other times of the day?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>Oh yeah, well, the reason you would see the lane closed at some times of day is because that third lane could still be used for construction activities, right? There’s lots of maintenance that happens on the Richmond-San Rafael bridge, and so there are other things that that lane can be used for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Now while we’re talking about this, the third lane on the upper deck has been in the news a lot lately, can you give us a quick update on what’s going on up there?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>The upper deck is a focus of attention right now because there’s a bike and pedestrian path in that right-hand lane now that went into service in 2019 as part of a pilot project. And it’s proven to be, I mean, it depends on who you ask. Cyclists absolutely love it. It’s gotten more use than any of the other bridge bike paths in the Bay Area. But there are questions about whether it’s making congestion worse in the morning hours going from Contra Costa County into Marin. There’s a proposal that would actually remove that bike lane four days of the week and restore it as a breakdown lane so that if somebody has a problem up there they get flat tire, run out of gas, have a little collision, they can pull over to the side, and they don’t impede traffic in the other two lanes. That’s been a big problem up there. And I want to say, this is a hugely fraught topic. I mean, there have been studies done about whether that bike lane has affected traffic and the delay getting onto the bridge in the morning. And the conclusion is, it hasn’t made a lot of difference. But there are people who feel passionately that it is really screwing with their lives and they wanna see it change. So that’s what’s going on up there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music Cue\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>And we’ve reached the final question of this transit lightning round, and it’s about license plates. Now I’ve always had sort of the boring numbers and letters assembly that is randomly assigned, but all over our state, you will find vanity plates where people have paid a little extra to be able to choose what their license plate says. And one listener feels like they’re seeing more of these plates in California…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marissa: \u003c/strong>This is Marissa from Oakland, and I’m wondering why there are so many vanity license plates in the Bay Area? I grew up in Connecticut and remember going on road trips hoping to find some on our route and never really saw any. Living in Massachusetts for years after that, I didn’t see very many either. But now that I’ve been in California for about 8 years, they’re literally everywhere I look. If I’m walking down the street, if I’m in a car, and I was just wondering why that is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>Well there was actually a study about this. Done a while ago. It’s the only study I can find — a survey actually, let’s call it a survey. And it was done in 2007 and what it found was California at that time ranked 22nd of the 50 states in the number of personalized or vanity plates. The number one state was Virginia. 16% of the plates in Virginia were personalized plates. And then given Marissa’s question and her regional roots, this is kind of interesting because the top 10 includes several states in the Northeast. Including New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut, I think she said that’s her home state. And New Jersey. So, they’re out there somewhere. Maybe they were all parked up when you were looking. Of course, this was a survey done a long time ago and we did reach out to the Department of Motor Vehicles to see if there were some updated statistics. And one thing they could tell us for sure is that there are more personalized plates on the road than there used to be. So, in 2007, California had 1.1 million personalized plates, it now has about 1.6 million, so that’s quite a bit more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> But it’s interesting if California’s vanity license plate incidence has grown since the study was done, that’s kind of a trend happening across the country. So it could just be that as time has gone on, more people are choosing to do vanity plates, maybe they’re just more fun. There’s more interest in customizing your vehicle or something along those lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>Well I think that’s possible. I think something that you and I were talking about in casual conversation is how much people have to pay. Virginia is famous for charging very little for a personalized plate, I think they charge only $10. And in California to get one of those basic plates, it costs $53 to have it personalized. And then you have to pay $43 each year on an ongoing basis. If you want to get one of those specialized plates, like the ones for Yosemite National Park, it costs $103 and $83 on an ongoing basis, so you know that’s kind of steep for a lot people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Have you thought about what your vanity plate would be if you were to get one?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>Um…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>TRNSIT NRD\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>TRNSIT NRD!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>TRNSIT NRD!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>I think that’s too many letters, actually.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Well, Dan Brekke, thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate you sharing all your knowledge with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>Well, thanks for having me, you know, I really love being here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Two reminders on the way out — first, we have a Bay Curious Trivia night coming up on April 1, so be sure to round up a date or a few friends, and grab your tickets for that. That can be done at \u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/live\">KQED.org/live\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, we are working on an episode about the best places to take kids in the Bay Area and we would love your help! Do you have a favorite playground? Or a restaurant that’s sneakily kid-friendly? Or maybe that business where you can take your kiddos to burn off some energy? If so, share the knowledge! Send a voice memo to \u003ca href=\"mailto:baycurious@kqed.org\">baycurious@kqed.org\u003c/a> and tell us — your name, the city where you live, and your tip! You can also call our hotline and leave a message… how retro! … the number is 415-553-3334.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Andrés:\u003c/strong> Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marissa: \u003c/strong>The show is produced by …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christopher Beale:\u003c/strong> Christopher Beale\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Katrina Schwartz\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> and me, Olivia Allen-Price. Additional support from\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> Maha Sanad\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie Sprenger: \u003c/strong>Katie Sprenger\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jen Chien: \u003c/strong>Jen Chien\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alana Walker:\u003c/strong> Alana Walker\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Holly Kernan: \u003c/strong>Holly Kernan\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Phil: \u003c/strong>And everyone at Team KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I’m your host Olivia Allen-Price. Be well, my friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#Transcript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One thing we know for sure about the Bay Curious audience is that you have lots of questions about how we get around the Bay Area. From the very start of the podcast 10 years ago next month, transportation has been one of the topics that surface again and again and again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ve received a lot of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11798346/why-are-bart-escalators-nearly-always-broken-and-how-did-they-build-those-tunnels\">questions\u003c/a> about BART, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11932690/why-doesnt-bart-go-more-places\">why it doesn’t go more places\u003c/a> and how the process of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11986396/when-bart-was-built-people-and-houses-had-to-go\">clearing businesses and homes from its route\u003c/a> worked when the system was built.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"alignleft utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__bayCuriousPodcastShortcode__bayCurious\">\u003cimg src=https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bayCuriousLogo.png alt=\"Bay Curious Podcast\" loading=\"lazy\" />\n What do you wonder about the Bay Area, its culture or people that you want KQED to investigate?\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Ask Bay Curious.\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ve received questions about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11892152/the-tale-of-the-bay-bridge-troll\">the Bay Bridge troll(s)\u003c/a>. And about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11864205/is-that-a-ghost-freeway-on-the-peninsula-and-are-our-highways-filthier-than-ever\">why there’s so much trash\u003c/a> on Bay Area freeways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So now, after 10 years and a total of 10,000 questions from you, our loyal audience, we’re returning to the transportation theme by answering a bunch of bridge-related questions and one inquiry that touches on how Bay Area residents express their personalities on our license plates. Here goes:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#A\">Where does the toll money from Bay Area Bridges go?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#B\">Why is there a closed toll lane on the Bay Bridge?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#C\">Is the \u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"#C\">westbound\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"#C\"> right carpool lane onto the Bay Bridge really ‘buses only’?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#D\">Why do so many Bay Area freeway names end in ‘80’?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#E\">What’s with the third lanes on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#F\">Why are there so many vanity license plates?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>\u003ca id=\"A\">\u003c/a>Where does all that toll money from Bay Area bridges go?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11958608\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11958608\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/GettyImages-1528848239-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Aerial shot of cars at a series of toll booths on a bridge, with a $7 toll fee in a digital sign above the booths.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1634\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/GettyImages-1528848239-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/GettyImages-1528848239-800x511.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/GettyImages-1528848239-1020x651.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/GettyImages-1528848239-160x102.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/GettyImages-1528848239-1536x980.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/GettyImages-1528848239-2048x1307.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/GettyImages-1528848239-1920x1225.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vehicles cross the toll plaza on the Bay Bridge during the afternoon commute in Oakland on June 26, 2023. \u003ccite>(Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>First up, Dani Robillard has this question about the money we shell out when we drive across bridges in our region: \u003cem>Where does all that toll money from Bay Area bridges go? It’s got to be over $20 million a week, right?\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nYour guess of $20 million a week isn’t too far off, Dani. The tolls across the seven state-owned bridges in the Bay Area will bring in about $880 million in the current fiscal year, and that comes out to about $17 million a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think the natural inclination is to think that the money collected when you drive through a toll plaza is going to be spent on the bridge you’re crossing, end of story. But the reality is more complicated and involves decisions transportation officials and Bay Area voters have made over the last half-century or so. The tolls we pay go to operating and maintaining the bridges — and to lots of other transportation-related things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seven of the eight toll bridges in the Bay Area — the Bay Bridge, Antioch, Benicia, Carquinez, Richmond-San Rafael, San Mateo and Dumbarton spans — are owned by the state of California. The money drivers pay is collected by an agency called \u003ca href=\"https://mtc.ca.gov/about-mtc/authorities/bay-area-toll-authority-bata\">the Bay Area Toll Authority\u003c/a>, or BATA, which also makes decisions about how to spend the revenue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In making its spending decisions, BATA has numerous obligations. Those include paying for ongoing maintenance and upkeep of the bridges, long-term rehabilitation projects, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.fitchratings.com/research/infrastructure-project-finance/fitch-rates-bata-series-2025-sr-toll-revs-aa-subrevs-aa-affirms-outstanding-rev-bonds-07-02-2025#:~:text=Fitch%20has%20affirmed%20BATA's%20%246.3,and%20all%20bonds%20is%20Stable.https://www.fitchratings.com/research/infrastructure-project-finance/fitch-rates-bata-series-2025-sr-toll-revs-aa-subrevs-aa-affirms-outstanding-rev-bonds-07-02-2025#:~:text=Fitch%20has%20affirmed%20BATA's%20%246.3,and%20all%20bonds%20is%20Stable.\">paying off bonds\u003c/a> floated to finance past projects like the $6.4 billion eastern span of the Bay Bridge. Last year, when tolls on the state-owned bridges were $7, BATA estimated that $4 of that charge was being spent in one way or another on the bridges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But how about the other $3? That portion of your toll payment is going in all sorts of different directions due to a series of ballot measures that transportation officials and the Legislature have put before voters since the late 1980s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://mtc.ca.gov/funding/regional-funding/regional-measure-1-rm-1\">Regional Measure 1\u003c/a>, passed in 1988, created a uniform $1 toll for all seven state-owned bridges. (Before Measure 1, tolls on the bridges ranged from 40 cents to $1.) The new funding was used for several bridge improvements but also for several major street and highway improvements, including the Richmond Parkway in Contra Costa County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://mtc.ca.gov/funding/regional-funding/regional-measure-2\">Regional Measure 2\u003c/a>, passed in 2004, raised tolls again by $1 (bringing them to $3 because of a 1998 increase imposed to help pay for the eastern span of the Bay Bridge). The proceeds from RM2 helped pay for the fourth bore of the Caldecott Tunnel, the new Transbay (now Salesforce) Transit Center and other big capital projects. The measure continues to provide day-to-day operating funds for AC Transit’s 1T bus rapid transit line on International Boulevard and San Francisco Muni’s T-Third light rail line and other services. Some RM2 funds also help pay for pedestrian and bike projects near the bridges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11671240/10-things-to-know-regional-measure-3-the-proposed-bay-area-bridge-toll-increase\">Regional Measure 3\u003c/a>, passed in 2018, included $3 in toll increases that, as of Jan. 1 this year, brings the basic charge for crossing the state bridges to $8. RM3 is helping fund nearly three dozen projects and services around the region, including BART’s extension through downtown San José (coming in 2037, by current estimates), some of BART’s new train cars, improved ferry service, and freeway express lanes (toll lanes) in six different counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ll mention in closing that the Golden Gate Bridge is owned and operated by a separate agency that has its own toll and budget policies and priorities, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.goldengate.org/\">Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District\u003c/a>. According to the district’s fiscal 2024–25 budget, tolls make up about half of its $320 million of its revenue this year. It’s spending about one-third of that — $108 million — on bridge operations. Most of the rest of the budget, $166 million, is going to pay for the district’s bus and ferry service.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>\u003ca id=\"B\">\u003c/a>That closed toll lane on the Bay Bridge\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11635414\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11635414\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/12/RS28347_IMG_1202-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/12/RS28347_IMG_1202-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/12/RS28347_IMG_1202-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/12/RS28347_IMG_1202-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/12/RS28347_IMG_1202-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/12/RS28347_IMG_1202-qut-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/12/RS28347_IMG_1202-qut-960x640.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/12/RS28347_IMG_1202-qut-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/12/RS28347_IMG_1202-qut-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/12/RS28347_IMG_1202-qut-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vehicles approach the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza in Oakland on Dec. 5, 2017. Days before, a truck crashed into toll booth number 14 and killed worker Si Si Han. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The next question comes from Andres Barraza: \u003cem>Why has that single lane at the toll plaza for the Bay Bridge been closed for years, and why won’t they reopen it again? Every time I’m passing, somebody’s always making a last second swerve to avoid the closed lane. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The closure of that lane at the Bay Bridge toll plaza — Lane 14, to be exact — is a tragic story that goes back more than seven years. In the early morning of Dec. 2, 2017, a box truck slammed into the toll booth and killed \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11635239/tollbooth-worker-killed-in-bay-bridge-crash-remembered-as-kind-generous\">the veteran toll taker there, 46-year-old Si Si Han\u003c/a>. The fact that the toll booth has never been rebuilt or the lane opened is due to a combination of circumstances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Area bridge officials and Caltrans reportedly determined that the loss of the lane did not have a major impact on traffic flow through the toll plaza. That was especially true after the onset of the pandemic and the dramatic drop in traffic on the bridge. More recently, the rationale for leaving the lane as it is has shifted: The entire toll plaza will be phased out at some point in the next few years with the introduction of “\u003ca href=\"https://mtc.ca.gov/operations/programs-projects/bridges/open-road-tolling\">open-road tolling\u003c/a>.” That’s a system that uses an overhead structure, called a gantry, equipped with cameras and tag-reading equipment that can record vehicles passing at highway speeds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can get a little preview of how the system works on the two high-occupancy vehicle lanes on the north side of the Bay Area toll plaza, where carpool (and other) drivers currently zip beneath an overhead gantry equipped with cameras and tag readers.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>\u003ca id=\"C\">\u003c/a>And speaking of that high-occupancy vehicle lane… How legit is ‘buses only’?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12032187\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12032187\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-1408768939.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"656\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-1408768939.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-1408768939-800x513.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-1408768939-1020x653.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-1408768939-160x103.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">AC Transit buses roll toward the Bay Bridge in the carpool lane of the Eastshore Freeway in Berkeley on Thursday, May 10, 2018. \u003ccite>(Paul Chinn/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Listener Sam wrote this: \u003cem>Outside rush hour, the right carpool lane westbound onto the Bay Bridge is labeled buses only, but there’s always a constant stream of cars. Do they not enforce that at all, even with photo tolls? Can I use it too? \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ve wondered what’s going on with this lane, too, and when we got Sam’s question, we asked John Goodwin from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) what the story is: The brief answer is that during weekday commute hours — between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. — buses, carpools with three or more people, motorcycles and, for now, cars with valid DMV clean-air stickers — are all permitted to use the lane. Outside of those hours, \u003cem>only buses can lawfully use that lane.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for enforcement, the MTC contracts with the California Highway Patrol to enforce high-occupancy vehicle lanes. If you’re caught using that Bay Bridge lane outside the legal hours, you’ll be subject to a fine of $490 or more. (The same goes for violating carpool hours or passenger and decal requirements on any California HOV lane.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sam also mentions the photo toll equipment on that Bay Bridge carpool lane. Two things about that:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, drivers using the HOV lanes are supposed to have FasTrak tags, which are necessary to get the 50% discount that carpoolers get during weekday commute hours. Outside the designated carpool hours, when you’re violating the law by using the carpool lane, FasTrak will charge you a non-discounted toll for passing through the toll plaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Second, the photo equipment Sam mentions is used for toll collection, not carpool enforcement. The cameras, which are deployed on all the toll lanes at the Bay Bridge, serve as a sort of backup system for Fastrak. They capture license plate images for each passing vehicle and ensure that drivers who don’t have toll tags are charged for crossing the bridges like everyone else.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>\u003ca id=\"D\">\u003c/a>Eighty! Eighty! Eighty!\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12003260\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12003260\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1938578486.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1298\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1938578486.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1938578486-800x541.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1938578486-1020x690.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1938578486-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1938578486-1536x1038.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aerial view, cars travel along Interstate 80 on Jan. 16, 2024, in Berkeley. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Our next question comes from Martin Aguilera, and he wants to know: \u003cem>Why do so many Bay Area freeways end with “80”? For instance, 880, 680, 280, 580. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The simple explanation for this numbering system is that all those three-digit routes are considered to be branches of Interstate 80 in the Bay Area. I-80 stretches from the George Washington Bridge in New York City to San Francisco, where it connects to U.S. 101 and heads south.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the federal government’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/programadmin/interstate.cfm\">Interstate highway numbering system\u003c/a>, there are two kinds of these branch routes, each designated with the three-digit numbers Martin mentions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The routes that begin with even numbers. like 280, 680, and 880 in the Bay Area, are rather arbitrarily considered to be full or partial belt routes. Those are highways that traditionally run around the circumference of a region. The best example I know of, a true belt route, is Interstate 495 around Washington, D.C. Arguably, Interstates 680 and 280 in our region are peripheral routes, but there’s no way in the world you could put Interstate 880, from Oakland to San José, in that category. At least in our learned opinion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The routes that begin with odd numbers are considered to be spur or radial routes and they connect other major routes. And so we have 380, 580, 780 and 980. Most of these routes are very short. I-980, just west of downtown Oakland, is just 2 miles long; 380, which connects 280 with U.S. 101 at San Francisco International Airport, measures a little over 3 miles, and 780, between 80 and 680 in Solano County, is 6.5 miles. But sometimes these routes are really, really long: Interstate 580 runs 75 miles from Interstate 5 in San Joaquin County all the way to U.S. 101 in Marin.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>\u003ca id=\"E\">\u003c/a>The saga of the third lanes on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11971910\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11971910\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240108-RSR-BIKE-LANE-MD-08-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240108-RSR-BIKE-LANE-MD-08-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240108-RSR-BIKE-LANE-MD-08-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240108-RSR-BIKE-LANE-MD-08-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240108-RSR-BIKE-LANE-MD-08-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240108-RSR-BIKE-LANE-MD-08-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240108-RSR-BIKE-LANE-MD-08-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Traffic on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge on Jan. 8, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Listener Phil Narodick asks: \u003cem>There’s a third lane on the lower deck of the Richmond Bridge that’s seemingly opened and closed based on the vibes. No rhyme or reason provided. What’s going on and why do they sometimes not want you to drive in it?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To answer that, maybe a little bridge history is in order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge opened in 1956, both its upper, westbound deck and lower, eastbound deck were configured with three lanes of traffic. Twenty years later, nature intervened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California suffered through one of its worst droughts in 1976 and 1977. It was so dry for so long that Marin County’s reservoirs threatened to dry up. To respond to that crisis, water officials worked out an agreement to build a water pipeline across the upper deck of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge to help relieve Marin’s shortage. That arrangement took the right lane on the westbound desk out of service. As it turned out, the pipeline was used for less than a year because the rains returned in the fall of 1977. A few years later, the pipeline was removed. But the space it occupied was turned into a lane for breakdowns and maintenance crews.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OK — that was the upper deck, and we’ll have more to say about that in a moment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the lower deck that Phil is asking about, something similar happened, only without the pipeline. In 1980, Caltrans decided to reduce traffic from three lanes to two and use the right lane for motorist emergencies and bridge maintenance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And there things stood until about a decade ago when Caltrans and other agencies came up with a proposal to restore that third lane of traffic on the lower, eastbound deck. The reason: Afternoon commute congestion had grown so acute that traffic was backing up not only across the bridge but back along Interstate 580 to U.S. 101 and to surface streets in San Rafael. By \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11648255/san-rafael-richmond-bridge-eastbound-lane\">opening up a third lane\u003c/a>, traffic engineers reasoned, congestion could be reduced. The plan was adopted, and the restored third lane opened in 2018. It turned out the traffic engineers were right: Opening that lane during the afternoon commute resulted in a dramatic reduction in congestion for the corridor, one that continues today in part because of reduced traffic in the wake of the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As to the operating hours for that third lane: The Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s John Goodwin said Caltrans opens the lane from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week. He adds that Caltrans can adjust third-lane operations based on real-time conditions, but said that has seldom happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now let’s revisit the upper deck: As part of the same four-year pilot project proposal that restored the eastbound third lane, transportation agencies \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11786768/richmond-san-rafael-bridge-bike-walking-path\">installed a bike and pedestrian pathway\u003c/a> on the old right lane of the westbound upper deck. The upper deck path opened in 2019. With the exception of the Golden Gate Bridge, which is extremely popular with bike riders, the Richmond-San Rafael path has become the most used bridge crossing for cyclists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s also become \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11971935/richmond-bridge-bike-path-has-an-amazing-view-and-an-uncertain-future\">an object of controversy\u003c/a>. Critics of the lane contend that it’s the main culprit in the long backups that form most weekday mornings as westbound traffic makes its way through Richmond to the bridge. At the same time, \u003ca href=\"https://www.bcdc.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/354/2024/12/2025-03-20-Richmond-San-Rafael-Bridge-PATH-Study-Phase-II-Attachment-A.pdf\">a study by UC Berkeley researchers (PDF)\u003c/a> hired to analyze the path’s effect on traffic found it hasn’t had a major impact on congestion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The critics, including the Bay Area Council business group and the Marin County Board of Supervisors, have urged Caltrans and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to take action to relieve the congestion. The resulting MTC plan would close the path four days a week and use it as a breakdown lane. Bike riders and pedestrians would get to use it from Friday through Sunday, the path’s most popular days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ultimate decision on whether that plan will go forward rests with the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, which will consider the issue on April 3.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>\u003ca id=\"F\">\u003c/a>Why so many vanity license plates?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12032191\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12032191\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240128-49ersFans-07-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240128-49ersFans-07-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240128-49ersFans-07-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240128-49ersFans-07-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240128-49ersFans-07-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240128-49ersFans-07-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240128-49ersFans-07-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">49ers fan Bobbie Lince holds her license plate at a tailgate party outside Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara on Jan. 28, 2024, before an NFC Championship Game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Detroit Lions. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>And one final question for this episode, from Marissa in Oakland. She asks: Why are there so many vanity license plates in the Bay Area? I grew up in Connecticut and remember going on road trips hoping to find some on our route and never really saw any. But now that I’ve been in California for about 8 years, they’re literally everywhere I look.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To our surprise, someone actually did a national survey on this. That’s very helpful in terms of giving Marissa what looks and feels like a solid answer. However, the study, carried out by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators and a vanity license plate site called LCNS2ROM.com, was done in 2007. So does it reflect \u003cem>current\u003c/em> reality? We can’t swear that it does.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what we can say is back then, one state stood out above all others for the popularity of personalized license plates: Virginia. \u003ca href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20080727002335/http:/www.lcns2rom.com/vanityplatesurvey.htm\">The survey\u003c/a>, which we tracked down on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, found that 16.19% of all plates issued there, one in six, were personalized. Virginia was followed by New Hampshire, Illinois, Nevada, Montana, Maine, Connecticut, New Jersey, North Dakota and Vermont. That’s your top ten for vanity license plates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Where did California come in? Twenty-second, with about 3.5% of all plates issued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We can offer at least a partial update for those California numbers. As of 2007, the old survey said, the state had issued about 1.1 million personalized license plates. The Department of Motor Vehicles said that number is now 1,650,184, a 50% increase over the last 18 years. With about 32 million vehicles on the road, that would mean about 5% are carrying personalized plates. What we don’t know is where California ranks now among the other 49 states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Transcript\">\u003c/a>Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Hey everyone, Olivia Allen-Price here. And I want to take you back for a moment to April 2015, when you could have been scanning the radio …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>(sounds of switching through the radio dial)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>And settled on 88.5 KQED to hear the very first airing of a Bay Curious story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Archival Tape of KQED’s Joshua Johnson: \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cem>OK, time for something fun. Today, we’re launching a special series about local oddities, mysterious and curiosities. We’re calling it Bay Curious.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>It was about this old wrecked car that hikers pass often on Mount Tamalpais. Reporter/Producer, Katrina Schwartz, and I hiked out to the wreck to check it out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Olivia and Katrina in archival tape: \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cem>Holy cow that’s it! What a piece of junk. That is really unexpected…\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>In some ways, that was the perfect story to kick off what is now nearly a 10-year-old journalism experiment. It took us through some Bay Area history. We learned about car manufacturing in the 1940s. We talked to some fascinating people. It was a story that had all the elements that I hope Bay Curious has come to be known for. And … it was about a \u003cem>car\u003c/em>. Which, really, isn’t that surprising. Because, over the years, more than 10,000 questions have poured in from you, our dear audience, and \u003cem>transportation\u003c/em> is one of the topics that we get the most questions about. Maybe it’s because getting around our region … has some pain points? I dunno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Today, as we barrel toward our 10-year anniversary, we thought we’d answer a bunch of your transit questions that have been lingering in the Bay Curious inbox. Like “how much toll money gets collected on our bridges, and where does it go?” “Why has one toll booth been closed on the Bay Bridge for years?” And “Are there more vanity license plates in California than in other places?” It’s a transit lighting round, so hold on tight, and we will get going to pick up some answers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>(Start and rev engine in background)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>When a transit question strikes, KQED editor and reporter Dan Brekke is the person that I always go to to ask. He’s been covering transportation in the Bay Area for more than 20 years, and he’s, I think it’s fair to say, an OG transit nerd. Welcome, Dan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>Hi Olivia\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>So we have a pile of questions to get through this morning, but more than half of them have to do with our bridges. So I want to start there. Now, every time you cross one of our major bridges, you should probably hear a little ka-ching sound go off because they all come with a toll, usually somewhere in the vicinity of $8 to $10 … less if you’ve been smart enough to carpool. Now, multiply that by thousands of motorists crossing those bridges every hour, and a listener and longtime San Francisco resident, named Dani Robillard, has been seeing dollar signs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dani Robillard: \u003c/strong>Where does all that toll money from Bay Area bridges go? It’s got to be over $20 million a week, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>What do you know, Dan?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>So that money goes to maintaining the bridges and to lots of other things. Your guess of $20 million a week isn’t too far off. There’s an organization called the Bay Area Toll Authority. And that’s an agency that was created to collect all the revenue from all the bridges — the seven state-owned bridges — and then to allocate it for various projects that we’ve agreed to as a region over the years. So they say that they bring in about $880 million in the current fiscal year, and that comes out to about $17 million a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Can we dig in a little bit deeper because Dani wants us to break it down further…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dani Robillard: \u003c/strong>We have so many bridges and prices are increasing at an alarming rate. And I just really question, when I see the roads, and at times the conditions of our cities, where does all that money go?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>I always thought the toll was to pay for the bridge. And once the bridge was paid off, the toll maybe go away. But that’s clearly not the case because some of these bridges have been around for decades and I imagine some of these bridges are paid off by now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>Well, the bridges themselves might be paid off. You know, the Bay Bridge opened nearly 90 years ago. Next year will be the 90th anniversary. But, you know, there are ongoing costs, right? You build something that big and complex, and you have many needs over the years just to keep it up, to pave it, to reconfigure it if you need to. And so when you look at the toll dollars we spend going into this fiscal year, the Bay Area Toll Authority said about 60% of the toll funds were going into bridge stuff, right, all the things that I was just talking about, but the other 40% goes to a bunch of things that have, on the surface may be little to do with the bridges themselves but are all very important to the Bay Area’s transportation network. And those are things that range from BART’s brand new fleet of cars, to bike and pedestrian paths around the Bay Area and everything in between. So how did we decide to apportion 40% of those funds that we’re paying at the toll booth for these other things that you don’t see on the bridge? Well, there have been a series of regional measures called, cleverly enough, regional measures one, two, and three that we passed in 1988, 2004, and 2018. Those measures did two things. They raised tolls over time, and they apportioned the money from the new tolls to all these other projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>All right, so let’s move on to our next question. And we have a few about the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge specifically, which, again, not surprising, because, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Bridge carries more than a third of all the state-owned bridge traffic, something like 42 million cars or so crossed in 2022–2023 fiscal year. Let’s hear our first question about it!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Andrés: \u003c/strong>Hi my name is Andrés and I live in San Francisco. My question is why has that single lane at the toll plaza for the Bay Bridge been closed for years, and why won’t they open it again? Every time I’m passing, somebody’s always making a last second swerve to avoid the closed lane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>Well, that’s a tragic story, actually. But first, I want to say I know exactly what he’s talking about. When you’re approaching the Bay Bridge toll plaza, especially if it’s not super crowded, right? You’re approaching at some speed, and you’re kind of lining up what lane you’re in. And then all of a sudden, there’s this one lane that’s closed, and you might have to change out of that lane to get into one of the other ones. So what happened there was that toll booth was wrecked, and the toll taker inside was killed when a truck smashed into it in December 2017. And Caltrans afterward decided not to rebuild immediately. The damage was really extreme. And a construction project in the toll plaza brings a lot of complications with it. The toll booth was still not fixed at the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020. And there was a big change in how tolls were collected at that point. All the toll takers were removed from the plaza, as well as all the other toll bridges around the region, and toll collection became automated. So there was little need to replace that lane at that point, right? You still have 16 plus other lanes that drivers can use. And, you know, the pandemic started five years ago, and you would think, well, maybe there’s time to go in and do that work. Well, there’s actually a plan to replace the entire toll plaza. So that’s why it’s not getting done now. And what’s going to replace the toll plaza? Something called open road tolling. You can see how that’s going to work if you go to the north side of the toll plaza, where there are a couple of carpool lanes. They’re actually called high occupancy vehicle lanes for buses and carpools. And they’ve got overhead toll tag readers that you can drive through going 60 miles an hour, and your toll tags will be read automatically. And so this technology is going to come to the Bay Bridge and other Bay Area bridges in the next two or three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>All right, let’s move on to our next question, which also has to do with a lane on the Bay Bridge, not too far away from the one we’ve been talking about. Listener Sam wrote in with this: “Outside rush hour, the right carpool lane westbound onto the Bay Bridge is labeled busses only, but there’s always a constant stream of cars. Do they not enforce that at all, even with photo tolls? Can I use it too?” Dan, what have you got on this?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>So there are a couple parts to this question. I asked John Goodwin from the MTC what the story is with this lane, and he answered with a delightful email. I’m going to read from that. “Outside of weekday commute hours, that right-hand carpool lane can be lawfully used only by buses.” So, let’s stop there. Only by busses. Everybody else is not legal. So if you see cars over there, they’re actually breaking the law. He goes on to say, “Every one of the drivers in that constant stream of cars you cite is a scofflaw, a miscreant, and a scoundrel.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>OK burn, exactly. So it’s a little judgmental, but it is very clear. You can only use that lane during carpool hours. That’s part one of the answer. But Sam is also asking, is there any enforcement there? And the answer is yes. The CHP is under contract with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to pull drivers over when they’re violating the toll pool regulations. If the CHP is there and they pull you over, yes, you’re gonna get a ticket and you’re gonna get hit with a several hundred dollar fine. So essentially you’re taking your chances if you do that. Sam asked about the photo enforcement that’s there. Well, the photo equipment that’s there is not there for any kind of enforcement. It’s there to collect your toll. So if you drive through there in a non-carpool hour, that equipment will see you, it will record your license plate and you will be charged a toll. That’s all that will happen there. But remember, once you get through that point, sure, you’ve paid your $8 toll on the Bay Bridge, watch out for the CHP just waiting for you down the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music transition\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>This next question takes us across the bridge to the San Francisco side of things now, still on the Bay Bridge, though, and still in the westbound direction. On the upper deck, there are structures on both sides of the roadway, and they kind of look like shelters of some sort. They have sort of openings the size of garage doors. And we’ve had a few listeners write in asking what they were. Now, I actually dug into this question a few years ago and Caltrans told me that they were once bus stops back from the era when buses could stop on the bridge, and they haven’t been used since probably about the 1960s. Dan, I was hoping you could kind of take us back to this era of bus stops on the bridge and even commuter trains on the Bay Bridge. Just what did the Bay Bridge look like in the ’60s?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>So to begin with, the bridge was configured to have two-way traffic on the top deck, three lanes going in each direction. You also had to pay a toll each way. So you’d pay a toll coming into San Francisco and you’d pay a toll when you got back to the East Bay. That sounds like a treat, doesn’t it? And on the lower deck, there were train tracks for commuter train: The Key System, the Sacramento Northern, and the interurban electric railways all ran into the old Transbay Terminal across those tracks. There were also lanes set aside for truck traffic. No truck traffic was allowed on the upper deck. When the Key System abandoned service in the late 1950s, 1958 to be exact, a big project was undertaken to reconfigure how the bridge worked. So those train tracks were removed from the lower deck, and the two decks were made one way. Westbound traffic on the upper deck, eastbound traffic on the lower deck, just the way we see it today. And there were all sorts of little differences to the way the bridge worked. So as you said, yes, there were bus stops at the beginning of the bridge, on both sides actually and those were done away with when the bridge was reconfigured in October 1963.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music transition\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Our next question comes from Martin Aguilera, and he wants to know: “Why do so many Bay Area freeways end with 80, i.e., 880, 680, 280, 580?” And I have to admit, as somebody who, you know, gets around our region by car quite a bit, all those 80s can be sort of confusing. It makes me think of how Olympian boxer George Foreman famously named all five of his sons George, and I’ve always wondered what it’s like to live in a house with five Georges, six Georges. So Dan, why all these 80s?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>So, you know, we actually have encountered this topic before in the Bay Curious newsletter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Which I’ll gently remind listeners they can subscribe to at BayCurious.org. Halfway down the page, just look for the big pink box!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>The simple explanation for this numbering system, all those three-digit routes are considered to be branches of Interstate 80 in the Bay Area. So Interstate 80 is the main drag, right? That’s the one that goes all the way across the country to the George Washington Bridge in New York City. And it ends right there in San Francisco where U.S. 101 comes in and heads south. And all these other 80s, the 580, the 680, the 280, 780 in the North Bay, those are all considered to be branches of one type or another of Interstate 80. There are two kinds of these branch routes. The ones that begin with even numbers, like 280, 680, and 880, are considered to be loop routes that provide a way around the periphery of the region. And I’ll observe while I say those numbers that none of those are really loop routes in and of themselves. Although 280 and 680 kind of make a loop. 880 is really a straight shot from Oakland down to State Highway 17 and San José.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ones that begin with odd numbers are considered to be spur or radial routes and they’re basically to connect busy routes. And so we have 380, 580, 780 and 980.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>OK, so we’re moving a bit north of the Bay Bridge now, on 580 I will add, to answer this question about the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Phil Narodick: \u003c/strong>Hi my name is Phil Narodick. I live in Berkeley and here’s my question: There’s a third lane on the eastbound span of the Richmond Bridge that’s seemingly opened and closed based on the vibes. No rhyme or reason provided. What’s going on and why do they sometimes not want you to drive in it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Now Dan, the answer for this one might benefit from a little bridge history first — because the third lane in both directions on that bridge has had a number of uses over the years. Can you take us back?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>This bridge opened in 1956 with three lanes in each direction, right? Upper deck, westbound, lower deck, eastbound. We had a really bad drought in 1976 and 1977. Marin was out of water. So where was it going to get water? An agreement was made for East Bay MUD to build a pipeline across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. Where did they put it? They put it in the right-hand lane of the upper deck. So, that lane was taken away, and it went from a three-lane to a two-lane bridge right there. Now, the pipeline was sort of a desperation measure and was very useful, but it was only needed for less than a year. And then it was taken out five years later, but traffic was never restored to that right-hand lane on the upper deck. It just became kind of a breakdown lane. And then a few years after that, on the lower deck, for no reason that I can actually determine, Caltrans decided to close the right-hand lane on the lower deck as well. There’s no reason given for it, except for the fact there wasn’t enough traffic to justify it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That changed a few years ago when Caltrans and other agencies started a pilot project to restore a third lane of traffic on the lower deck, the eastbound deck that Phil is talking about. And the reasons for doing that were that there’s enough congestion in the afternoon commute headed back to Contra Costa County from the North Bay, that something had to be done about it and restoring that lane seemed to be a possible answer. So, there is a project to get that done. The lane opened, as I say, a few years ago. And the simple answer from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission is Caltrans operates that lane and they open it from 2 to 7 every day, including weekends. Those are the operational hours, period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Why would you have a lane closed at other times of the day?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>Oh yeah, well, the reason you would see the lane closed at some times of day is because that third lane could still be used for construction activities, right? There’s lots of maintenance that happens on the Richmond-San Rafael bridge, and so there are other things that that lane can be used for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Now while we’re talking about this, the third lane on the upper deck has been in the news a lot lately, can you give us a quick update on what’s going on up there?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>The upper deck is a focus of attention right now because there’s a bike and pedestrian path in that right-hand lane now that went into service in 2019 as part of a pilot project. And it’s proven to be, I mean, it depends on who you ask. Cyclists absolutely love it. It’s gotten more use than any of the other bridge bike paths in the Bay Area. But there are questions about whether it’s making congestion worse in the morning hours going from Contra Costa County into Marin. There’s a proposal that would actually remove that bike lane four days of the week and restore it as a breakdown lane so that if somebody has a problem up there they get flat tire, run out of gas, have a little collision, they can pull over to the side, and they don’t impede traffic in the other two lanes. That’s been a big problem up there. And I want to say, this is a hugely fraught topic. I mean, there have been studies done about whether that bike lane has affected traffic and the delay getting onto the bridge in the morning. And the conclusion is, it hasn’t made a lot of difference. But there are people who feel passionately that it is really screwing with their lives and they wanna see it change. So that’s what’s going on up there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music Cue\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>And we’ve reached the final question of this transit lightning round, and it’s about license plates. Now I’ve always had sort of the boring numbers and letters assembly that is randomly assigned, but all over our state, you will find vanity plates where people have paid a little extra to be able to choose what their license plate says. And one listener feels like they’re seeing more of these plates in California…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marissa: \u003c/strong>This is Marissa from Oakland, and I’m wondering why there are so many vanity license plates in the Bay Area? I grew up in Connecticut and remember going on road trips hoping to find some on our route and never really saw any. Living in Massachusetts for years after that, I didn’t see very many either. But now that I’ve been in California for about 8 years, they’re literally everywhere I look. If I’m walking down the street, if I’m in a car, and I was just wondering why that is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>Well there was actually a study about this. Done a while ago. It’s the only study I can find — a survey actually, let’s call it a survey. And it was done in 2007 and what it found was California at that time ranked 22nd of the 50 states in the number of personalized or vanity plates. The number one state was Virginia. 16% of the plates in Virginia were personalized plates. And then given Marissa’s question and her regional roots, this is kind of interesting because the top 10 includes several states in the Northeast. Including New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut, I think she said that’s her home state. And New Jersey. So, they’re out there somewhere. Maybe they were all parked up when you were looking. Of course, this was a survey done a long time ago and we did reach out to the Department of Motor Vehicles to see if there were some updated statistics. And one thing they could tell us for sure is that there are more personalized plates on the road than there used to be. So, in 2007, California had 1.1 million personalized plates, it now has about 1.6 million, so that’s quite a bit more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> But it’s interesting if California’s vanity license plate incidence has grown since the study was done, that’s kind of a trend happening across the country. So it could just be that as time has gone on, more people are choosing to do vanity plates, maybe they’re just more fun. There’s more interest in customizing your vehicle or something along those lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>Well I think that’s possible. I think something that you and I were talking about in casual conversation is how much people have to pay. Virginia is famous for charging very little for a personalized plate, I think they charge only $10. And in California to get one of those basic plates, it costs $53 to have it personalized. And then you have to pay $43 each year on an ongoing basis. If you want to get one of those specialized plates, like the ones for Yosemite National Park, it costs $103 and $83 on an ongoing basis, so you know that’s kind of steep for a lot people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Have you thought about what your vanity plate would be if you were to get one?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>Um…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>TRNSIT NRD\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>TRNSIT NRD!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>TRNSIT NRD!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>I think that’s too many letters, actually.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Well, Dan Brekke, thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate you sharing all your knowledge with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dan Brekke: \u003c/strong>Well, thanks for having me, you know, I really love being here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Two reminders on the way out — first, we have a Bay Curious Trivia night coming up on April 1, so be sure to round up a date or a few friends, and grab your tickets for that. That can be done at \u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/live\">KQED.org/live\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, we are working on an episode about the best places to take kids in the Bay Area and we would love your help! Do you have a favorite playground? Or a restaurant that’s sneakily kid-friendly? Or maybe that business where you can take your kiddos to burn off some energy? If so, share the knowledge! Send a voice memo to \u003ca href=\"mailto:baycurious@kqed.org\">baycurious@kqed.org\u003c/a> and tell us — your name, the city where you live, and your tip! You can also call our hotline and leave a message… how retro! … the number is 415-553-3334.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Andrés:\u003c/strong> Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marissa: \u003c/strong>The show is produced by …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christopher Beale:\u003c/strong> Christopher Beale\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Katrina Schwartz\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> and me, Olivia Allen-Price. Additional support from\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> Maha Sanad\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie Sprenger: \u003c/strong>Katie Sprenger\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jen Chien: \u003c/strong>Jen Chien\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alana Walker:\u003c/strong> Alana Walker\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Holly Kernan: \u003c/strong>Holly Kernan\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Phil: \u003c/strong>And everyone at Team KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I’m your host Olivia Allen-Price. Be well, my friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 7:50 p.m. Monday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authotrity’s legal challenge aiming to put a stop to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030951/vta-strike-underscores-silicon-valleys-widening-income-inequality\">ongoing strike by transit workers\u003c/a> in the South Bay has been dealt a major blow by a judge, according to newly filed court documents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an order filed with the Santa Clara County Superior Court Monday, Judge Daniel T. Nishigaya rejected VTA’s request for a temporary restraining order to immediately halt the historic strike by more than 1,500 bus drivers and train operators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The judge allowed the case to proceed and set a court date for March 26, when the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, whose workers have been on strike since March 10, must argue why the court should not issue an injunction to halt the strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the denial of the temporary restraining order means the courts are unlikely to intervene in the labor dispute before March 26, by which time the union and the VTA may have reached a new contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030759/vta-sues-to-end-historic-south-bay-transit-workers-strike\">filed its complaint\u003c/a> a week ago, seeking to force workers back to their jobs while negotiations over a new labor contract continue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The VTA has since submitted other supporting filings that helped reveal some of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12031387/newsom-should-intervene-in-vta-strike-expert-says\">apparent bad blood\u003c/a> between the agency and its largest labor group, the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Sunday, Nishigaya rejected the VTA’s initial filing on technical grounds, stating it did not comply with state court rules. He then allowed the VTA to resubmit its request for a restraining order, which he denied Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So unfortunately for our passengers, that does not allow for the workers to come back and therefore service to be reinstated,” Greg Richardson, VTA deputy general manager, said Monday night during a news conference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richardson said he’s hopeful that a resolution to the contract dispute could be settled before the March 26 court date, though he acknowledged the potential for the strike to drag on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030770\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030770\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dafina Cozine, a bus operator, joins a strike with hundreds of Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority workers, represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, on N. First Street, in San José, demanding a better contract and an increase in wages on March 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Raj Singh, the union’s president, said members are frustrated VTA appears more focused on trying to win a court fight instead of working out a deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They really haven’t made any efforts to resolve this issue,” he said. “They keep either going back to court or they’re hoping that the governor’s office is going to intervene.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency and the ATU have been negotiating since August over a new contract, with the most recent contract expiring on March 3. The union \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030584/santa-clara-county-transit-grinds-to-a-halt-as-vta-workers-strike\">began striking\u003c/a> on March 10, grinding the agency’s main services to a halt and forcing tens of thousands of riders to find other ways to get around, including walking or \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030951/vta-strike-underscores-silicon-valleys-widening-income-inequality\">paying more\u003c/a> money for rideshares like Lyft and Uber.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Union leaders say their biggest aims are changing how arbitration is used when worker grievances are filed with the agency, as well as opposing proposed changes from VTA to reduce long-term injury or illness leave from two years to one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12031268 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_MUNI-OPERATOR-DAY_DMB_00008-KQED-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency and the union also remain very far apart on wages, with VTA offering the union members 9% raises over three years, and the union asking for 18% raises over the same period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After striking with no talks for several days last week, the union and VTA met with mediators on Thursday and Friday, as well as over the weekend, but no resolution was reached, according to both ATU and the agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the talks over the weekend were “productive and promising, but unfortunately at the end there was really no resolution to any of the issues that are still outstanding,” Richardson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I do think things are closer than most people want to believe, we’ve just got to get it across the finish line,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Saturday, VTA’s General Manager Carolyn Gonot wrote to Gov. Gavin Newsom, asking him to intervene by appointing a board of investigation to look into the issues in the negotiations. A labor expert interviewed by KQED recommended \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12031387/newsom-should-intervene-in-vta-strike-expert-says\">Newsom’s involvement\u003c/a> last week to help break the logjam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Governor’s intervention is clearly warranted here,” Gonot wrote to Newsom. “The abrupt disruption in service has created substantial uncertainty for VTA’s tens of thousands of daily riders and other members of the public who rely on VTA to transport their employees, students, and loved ones throughout the County and beyond.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment. Richardson said the response from Newsom’s office was to encourage both the agency and the union to continue to negotiate in good faith.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under state law, the governor can appoint a board to investigate during a public transit strike or threat of a strike and have the board make a written report of the facts of the dispute within a week. The report would not contain recommendations and would be made public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story has been updated to clarify when the judge’s initial order was filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 7:50 p.m. Monday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authotrity’s legal challenge aiming to put a stop to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030951/vta-strike-underscores-silicon-valleys-widening-income-inequality\">ongoing strike by transit workers\u003c/a> in the South Bay has been dealt a major blow by a judge, according to newly filed court documents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an order filed with the Santa Clara County Superior Court Monday, Judge Daniel T. Nishigaya rejected VTA’s request for a temporary restraining order to immediately halt the historic strike by more than 1,500 bus drivers and train operators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The judge allowed the case to proceed and set a court date for March 26, when the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, whose workers have been on strike since March 10, must argue why the court should not issue an injunction to halt the strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the denial of the temporary restraining order means the courts are unlikely to intervene in the labor dispute before March 26, by which time the union and the VTA may have reached a new contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030759/vta-sues-to-end-historic-south-bay-transit-workers-strike\">filed its complaint\u003c/a> a week ago, seeking to force workers back to their jobs while negotiations over a new labor contract continue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The VTA has since submitted other supporting filings that helped reveal some of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12031387/newsom-should-intervene-in-vta-strike-expert-says\">apparent bad blood\u003c/a> between the agency and its largest labor group, the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Sunday, Nishigaya rejected the VTA’s initial filing on technical grounds, stating it did not comply with state court rules. He then allowed the VTA to resubmit its request for a restraining order, which he denied Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So unfortunately for our passengers, that does not allow for the workers to come back and therefore service to be reinstated,” Greg Richardson, VTA deputy general manager, said Monday night during a news conference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richardson said he’s hopeful that a resolution to the contract dispute could be settled before the March 26 court date, though he acknowledged the potential for the strike to drag on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030770\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030770\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dafina Cozine, a bus operator, joins a strike with hundreds of Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority workers, represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, on N. First Street, in San José, demanding a better contract and an increase in wages on March 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Raj Singh, the union’s president, said members are frustrated VTA appears more focused on trying to win a court fight instead of working out a deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They really haven’t made any efforts to resolve this issue,” he said. “They keep either going back to court or they’re hoping that the governor’s office is going to intervene.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency and the ATU have been negotiating since August over a new contract, with the most recent contract expiring on March 3. The union \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030584/santa-clara-county-transit-grinds-to-a-halt-as-vta-workers-strike\">began striking\u003c/a> on March 10, grinding the agency’s main services to a halt and forcing tens of thousands of riders to find other ways to get around, including walking or \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030951/vta-strike-underscores-silicon-valleys-widening-income-inequality\">paying more\u003c/a> money for rideshares like Lyft and Uber.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Union leaders say their biggest aims are changing how arbitration is used when worker grievances are filed with the agency, as well as opposing proposed changes from VTA to reduce long-term injury or illness leave from two years to one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency and the union also remain very far apart on wages, with VTA offering the union members 9% raises over three years, and the union asking for 18% raises over the same period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After striking with no talks for several days last week, the union and VTA met with mediators on Thursday and Friday, as well as over the weekend, but no resolution was reached, according to both ATU and the agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the talks over the weekend were “productive and promising, but unfortunately at the end there was really no resolution to any of the issues that are still outstanding,” Richardson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I do think things are closer than most people want to believe, we’ve just got to get it across the finish line,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Saturday, VTA’s General Manager Carolyn Gonot wrote to Gov. Gavin Newsom, asking him to intervene by appointing a board of investigation to look into the issues in the negotiations. A labor expert interviewed by KQED recommended \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12031387/newsom-should-intervene-in-vta-strike-expert-says\">Newsom’s involvement\u003c/a> last week to help break the logjam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Governor’s intervention is clearly warranted here,” Gonot wrote to Newsom. “The abrupt disruption in service has created substantial uncertainty for VTA’s tens of thousands of daily riders and other members of the public who rely on VTA to transport their employees, students, and loved ones throughout the County and beyond.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment. Richardson said the response from Newsom’s office was to encourage both the agency and the union to continue to negotiate in good faith.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under state law, the governor can appoint a board to investigate during a public transit strike or threat of a strike and have the board make a written report of the facts of the dispute within a week. The report would not contain recommendations and would be made public.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story has been updated to clarify when the judge’s initial order was filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "sf-muni-is-struggling-to-help-this-driver-wants-you-to-ride-the-bus-and-say-thanks",
"title": "SF Muni Is Struggling. To Help, This Driver Wants You to Ride the Bus — and Say Thanks",
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"headTitle": "SF Muni Is Struggling. To Help, This Driver Wants You to Ride the Bus — and Say Thanks | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Many San Francisco drivers are familiar with the precipitous paved cliffs that double as the city’s roads. In a 40-foot-long vehicle that holds dozens of passengers, this hilly terrain is all the more difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On certain \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-muni\">Muni\u003c/a> lines like the 37 Corbett, the road is so narrow that the mirrors of the bus pass over the mirrors of parked cars on either side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s in its own league. Turning the wheel is the least of it,” said Mc Allen, a transit operator for Muni, as he prepared to start a recent shift driving the 44 O’Shaughnessy in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/sfmta\">San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency\u003c/a> faces a severe budget deficit and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025781/sf-muni-board-says-not-so-fast-proposed-service-cuts\">possibility of service cuts\u003c/a> to several lines, Allen is on a mission to highlight his job and raise awareness of the importance of public transit. He wants people to make a point of riding Muni on Tuesday, with a goal to increase ridership by 10%\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025781/sf-muni-board-says-not-so-fast-proposed-service-cuts\">.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What Allen calls \u003ca href=\"https://www.sftransitoperator.day/\">San Francisco Transit Operator Day\u003c/a> comes the same day that the SFMTA board will discuss those proposed cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12031479\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_Muni-Operator-Day_DMB_00043_qed.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12031479 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_Muni-Operator-Day_DMB_00043_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_Muni-Operator-Day_DMB_00043_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_Muni-Operator-Day_DMB_00043_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_Muni-Operator-Day_DMB_00043_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_Muni-Operator-Day_DMB_00043_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_Muni-Operator-Day_DMB_00043_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_Muni-Operator-Day_DMB_00043_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The SF Muni 44 O’Shaughnessy line crosses San Francisco on March 13, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He got the idea after he heard of a fellow transit operator who had never received a commendation, a kind of formal compliment to operators that members of the public can submit to SFMTA. Allen said his colleague had 14 years of service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea is one big day for Muni operators to celebrate transit in San Francisco and encourage people to recognize our efforts and our labor,” Allen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s also asking members of the public to submit a total of 500 \u003ca href=\"https://sfmta.tfaforms.net/312\">commendations\u003c/a> to drivers and added that the day is not just about recognizing the operators but also the car cleaners, mechanics, schedulers, dispatchers, station agents and other people who help make Muni run.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, meanwhile, has introduced a resolution to officially mark March 18 as Transit Operator Day, which the board will vote on that day. (For years, SFMTA has held its own Transit Operator Appreciation Day for staff on March 18.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAHZp3usV4g\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think resolutions have an importance of raising awareness for our ‘invisible warriors’ in the city,” Mahmood said. “ Unless the public has awareness of the important role that the Muni operators have, they wouldn’t know that they’re an important part of the line item of the budget that we need to be advocating for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfmta.com/projects/summer-2025-muni-service-cuts\">Tuesday’s meeting\u003c/a>, the SFMTA board will consider reduced service on the 5 Fulton, 9 San Bruno and 31 Balboa lines — and to combine the 21 Hayes and the 6 Haight-Parnassus lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to SFMTA, the cuts are needed to rein in an approximately $50 million \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12027759/sf-transit-board-says-no-cutting-school-crossing-guards-save-money\">budget deficit\u003c/a> for fiscal year 2025–26, which is set to begin in July — due to lower-than-expected transit and parking revenue and lower-than-expected operating transfers from the city’s general fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SFMTA officials have said these service reductions of about 4% will save the agency $15 million and that it plans to make up the remainder of next fiscal year’s deficit through improvements to fare compliance and its parking program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12031472\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12031472\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_MUNI-OPERATOR-DAY_DMB_00037-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_MUNI-OPERATOR-DAY_DMB_00037-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_MUNI-OPERATOR-DAY_DMB_00037-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_MUNI-OPERATOR-DAY_DMB_00037-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_MUNI-OPERATOR-DAY_DMB_00037-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_MUNI-OPERATOR-DAY_DMB_00037-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_MUNI-OPERATOR-DAY_DMB_00037-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">SF Muni Transit Operator Mc Allen waives at another SF Muni bus as he drives the inbound 44 O’Shaughnessy in San Francisco on March 13, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Regardless, the deficit is set to balloon to over $300 million in fiscal year 2026–27, when one-time state and federal funding related to the COVID-19 pandemic is exhausted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reductions are a pared-down version of service cuts that SFMTA staff \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12014573/sf-muni-dire-need-funding-without-cuts-could-be-devastating\">proposed earlier\u003c/a>. Still, transit advocates like Jaime Viloria, the outreach and organizing manager for the nonprofit transit advocacy group San Francisco Transit Riders, said the agency should consider dipping into its financial reserves before cutting service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everybody loves Muni, but I feel like it’s not being shown a lot of love fiscally,” he said.[aside postID=news_12031387 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-23-KQED-1020x680.jpg']Viloria is worried that with SFMTA’s budget deficit set to grow in the future, any cuts to service made now could become permanent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If people aren’t using transit, then you don’t have revenue from those fares, and then you won’t have the ridership to justify running those lines,” Viloria said. “And it just spirals out of control.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco Transit Riders is among the groups organizing a protest against service cuts outside San Francisco City Hall on Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahmood said he also advocated for SFMTA to dip into its reserves to tame the deficit, rather than reduce service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Allen, it’s just a coincidence that his Transit Operator Appreciation Day falls on the same day SFMTA’s board is expected to discuss the ongoing financial challenges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said service reductions would be “enormously impactful” to operators, meaning fewer buses on the road would strain operators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even if you only get around in San Francisco by car, public transit is enormously valuable to you because it’s what keeps congestion in check,” Allen said. “Our street network can’t work if public transit is not there serving the hundreds of thousands of San Franciscans every day, and so whether you ride Muni or not, you benefit from it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The push for San Francisco Transit Operator Day aims to encourage ridership and appreciation for staff on Tuesday, as Muni service cuts are on the table. ",
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"title": "SF Muni Is Struggling. To Help, This Driver Wants You to Ride the Bus — and Say Thanks | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Many San Francisco drivers are familiar with the precipitous paved cliffs that double as the city’s roads. In a 40-foot-long vehicle that holds dozens of passengers, this hilly terrain is all the more difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On certain \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-muni\">Muni\u003c/a> lines like the 37 Corbett, the road is so narrow that the mirrors of the bus pass over the mirrors of parked cars on either side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s in its own league. Turning the wheel is the least of it,” said Mc Allen, a transit operator for Muni, as he prepared to start a recent shift driving the 44 O’Shaughnessy in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/sfmta\">San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency\u003c/a> faces a severe budget deficit and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025781/sf-muni-board-says-not-so-fast-proposed-service-cuts\">possibility of service cuts\u003c/a> to several lines, Allen is on a mission to highlight his job and raise awareness of the importance of public transit. He wants people to make a point of riding Muni on Tuesday, with a goal to increase ridership by 10%\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025781/sf-muni-board-says-not-so-fast-proposed-service-cuts\">.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What Allen calls \u003ca href=\"https://www.sftransitoperator.day/\">San Francisco Transit Operator Day\u003c/a> comes the same day that the SFMTA board will discuss those proposed cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12031479\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_Muni-Operator-Day_DMB_00043_qed.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12031479 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_Muni-Operator-Day_DMB_00043_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_Muni-Operator-Day_DMB_00043_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_Muni-Operator-Day_DMB_00043_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_Muni-Operator-Day_DMB_00043_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_Muni-Operator-Day_DMB_00043_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_Muni-Operator-Day_DMB_00043_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_Muni-Operator-Day_DMB_00043_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The SF Muni 44 O’Shaughnessy line crosses San Francisco on March 13, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He got the idea after he heard of a fellow transit operator who had never received a commendation, a kind of formal compliment to operators that members of the public can submit to SFMTA. Allen said his colleague had 14 years of service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea is one big day for Muni operators to celebrate transit in San Francisco and encourage people to recognize our efforts and our labor,” Allen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s also asking members of the public to submit a total of 500 \u003ca href=\"https://sfmta.tfaforms.net/312\">commendations\u003c/a> to drivers and added that the day is not just about recognizing the operators but also the car cleaners, mechanics, schedulers, dispatchers, station agents and other people who help make Muni run.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, meanwhile, has introduced a resolution to officially mark March 18 as Transit Operator Day, which the board will vote on that day. (For years, SFMTA has held its own Transit Operator Appreciation Day for staff on March 18.)\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/fAHZp3usV4g'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/fAHZp3usV4g'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>“I think resolutions have an importance of raising awareness for our ‘invisible warriors’ in the city,” Mahmood said. “ Unless the public has awareness of the important role that the Muni operators have, they wouldn’t know that they’re an important part of the line item of the budget that we need to be advocating for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfmta.com/projects/summer-2025-muni-service-cuts\">Tuesday’s meeting\u003c/a>, the SFMTA board will consider reduced service on the 5 Fulton, 9 San Bruno and 31 Balboa lines — and to combine the 21 Hayes and the 6 Haight-Parnassus lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to SFMTA, the cuts are needed to rein in an approximately $50 million \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12027759/sf-transit-board-says-no-cutting-school-crossing-guards-save-money\">budget deficit\u003c/a> for fiscal year 2025–26, which is set to begin in July — due to lower-than-expected transit and parking revenue and lower-than-expected operating transfers from the city’s general fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SFMTA officials have said these service reductions of about 4% will save the agency $15 million and that it plans to make up the remainder of next fiscal year’s deficit through improvements to fare compliance and its parking program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12031472\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12031472\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_MUNI-OPERATOR-DAY_DMB_00037-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_MUNI-OPERATOR-DAY_DMB_00037-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_MUNI-OPERATOR-DAY_DMB_00037-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_MUNI-OPERATOR-DAY_DMB_00037-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_MUNI-OPERATOR-DAY_DMB_00037-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_MUNI-OPERATOR-DAY_DMB_00037-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250313_MUNI-OPERATOR-DAY_DMB_00037-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">SF Muni Transit Operator Mc Allen waives at another SF Muni bus as he drives the inbound 44 O’Shaughnessy in San Francisco on March 13, 2025. \u003ccite>(David M. Barreda/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Regardless, the deficit is set to balloon to over $300 million in fiscal year 2026–27, when one-time state and federal funding related to the COVID-19 pandemic is exhausted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reductions are a pared-down version of service cuts that SFMTA staff \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12014573/sf-muni-dire-need-funding-without-cuts-could-be-devastating\">proposed earlier\u003c/a>. Still, transit advocates like Jaime Viloria, the outreach and organizing manager for the nonprofit transit advocacy group San Francisco Transit Riders, said the agency should consider dipping into its financial reserves before cutting service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everybody loves Muni, but I feel like it’s not being shown a lot of love fiscally,” he said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Viloria is worried that with SFMTA’s budget deficit set to grow in the future, any cuts to service made now could become permanent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If people aren’t using transit, then you don’t have revenue from those fares, and then you won’t have the ridership to justify running those lines,” Viloria said. “And it just spirals out of control.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco Transit Riders is among the groups organizing a protest against service cuts outside San Francisco City Hall on Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahmood said he also advocated for SFMTA to dip into its reserves to tame the deficit, rather than reduce service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Allen, it’s just a coincidence that his Transit Operator Appreciation Day falls on the same day SFMTA’s board is expected to discuss the ongoing financial challenges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said service reductions would be “enormously impactful” to operators, meaning fewer buses on the road would strain operators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even if you only get around in San Francisco by car, public transit is enormously valuable to you because it’s what keeps congestion in check,” Allen said. “Our street network can’t work if public transit is not there serving the hundreds of thousands of San Franciscans every day, and so whether you ride Muni or not, you benefit from it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "vta-strike-underscores-silicon-valleys-widening-income-inequality",
"title": "How the VTA Strike Underscores Silicon Valley’s Widening Income Inequality",
"publishDate": 1741813992,
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"headTitle": "How the VTA Strike Underscores Silicon Valley’s Widening Income Inequality | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>While higher wages are a key sticking point for the more than 1,500 \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030780/bus-drivers-light-rail-operators-on-strike-in-the-south-bay\">bus drivers and train operators on strike\u003c/a> in the pricey Silicon Valley, tens of thousands of riders could also face increased costs as they figure out how else to get around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a problem that underscores the growing income inequality and cost of living in the South Bay, both for transit operators and the riders who depend on their service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s definitely very inconvenient, and it’s going to affect my plans on going to work,” Chris Zin of Union City said of the strike, which ground \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/santa-clara-valley-transportation-authority\">Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority\u003c/a> service to a halt this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zin took BART from Union City to Milpitas, where he was waiting Monday afternoon at a VTA bus stop near the station when he saw an electronic signboard notifying him about the lack of bus and light rail service. Because of that, he said he’ll need to pay to travel one stop farther on BART to Berryessa and then for a service like Uber or Lyft to take him the rest of the way to work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going to affect my income as well,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sudden loss of transit service is especially a burden on those with limited incomes, who often have few other options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030771\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12030771 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-16-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-16-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-16-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-16-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-16-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-16-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-16-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hundreds of Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority workers, represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, strike for the second day on North First Street in San José, demanding a better contract and an increase in wages on March 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a lawsuit the VTA filed to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030759/vta-sues-to-end-historic-south-bay-transit-workers-strike\">try to halt the strike\u003c/a>, the agency said a shutdown in services “especially impacts certain sectors of the population including seniors, people with disabilities and low-income riders.” Nearly 21% of weekday VTA riders earn less than $15,000 a year, the agency said. More than 27% are going to or from school or college, and about 40% are going to or from work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We calculate that regular folks are spending $10,000 at least minimally on their transportation costs in our region. These are all really difficult things, especially when most people are now spending more than 50% of their income on housing alone,” said Russell Hancock, the president and CEO of think tank Joint Venture Silicon Valley. “So we’re a deeply burdened region.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During a strike, the added costs to transit riders can be one more hit to their checking accounts or even drive people away from using transit in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Very often it’s the people that are in the service professions that are reliant on transit, so this can hurt,” Hancock said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12030759 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-2-KQED-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Raj Singh, the president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, the union representing the striking VTA workers, said he empathizes with riders, but he blamed the transit agency for what he called “bad faith” negotiations that ran for more than six months before \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030584/santa-clara-county-transit-grinds-to-a-halt-as-vta-workers-strike\">the strike was called\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel for those people. The best part of our job, being an operator, is getting someone from A to B, whether it’s their doctor’s appointment, grocery shopping, or even the school trips. We take pride in the work that we do,” Singh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s unfortunate that the agency has pushed us to this point,” he said. “I hope people understand that this wasn’t something that we intended on doing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The VTA’s latest offer to ATU workers includes a 9% pay increase spread over three years, with 4% coming in the first year, followed by 3% and 2%, respectively. The offer represents half of what the union is seeking — an 18% raise over the same time period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>VTA officials have said the agency can’t afford the union’s ask without cutting service and possibly cutting jobs, and believe their current offer is competitive, as it would ensure ATU members remain the second-highest paid transit workers in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hancock and some transit riders, meanwhile, said they understand that striking transit workers are also having trouble in an expensive place to live and work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030773\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030773\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-22-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-22-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-22-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-22-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-22-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-22-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-22-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A blacked-out sign at a railroad track stop on North First Street in San José on March 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sheila Mirrielees, who takes public transit from Mountain View to work in downtown Oakland, was planning on using a VTA light rail train to get home on Monday afternoon from Milpitas BART.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I didn’t listen to the news this morning. So now I have to take an Uber out to Mountain View,” Mirrielees said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As long as the strike continues, Mirrielees said she’ll stick to using Caltrain and BART for her commute. Despite the inconvenience, she said she’s on the side of the striking workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is such an expensive area to live that the wages just don’t keep up in most professions,” she said. “People just don’t go on strike for the fun of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Silicon Valley was once known for its wealth as a middle-class region, that has shifted dramatically in the last few decades, Hancock said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030673\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030673\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Striking VTA workers picket acknowledge a passing honking car outside the agency’s headquarters on North First Street in San José on March 10, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Now, we have the nation’s highest wealth and income gaps where the bulk of the wealth is held by a small number of people and a large number of people are barely getting by,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Joint Venture’s recently published annual report, \u003ca href=\"https://jointventure.org/publications/silicon-valley-index\">the Silicon Valley Index\u003c/a>, Hancock noted that while the region remains an “economic superpower,” it is simultaneously struggling to address critical issues like homelessness, stagnating wages and higher costs for just about everything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most people will tell you that those are the conditions for instability and that those are the conditions where you start seeing blood in the streets,” Hancock said. “It’s just a very difficult place to live.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Waiting for a ride on Monday afternoon, Preeti Sharma of Milpitas described her day as “not a good one” because she was tired from the daylight saving time shift and wanted to get home quickly, but was caught off guard by the strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sharma was catching a ride that day with her friend Helly Tanna, who takes an AC Transit bus into Milpitas BART, but due to the strike on Monday, the signboard Tanna usually checks to confirm her bus is coming was blank, even though the AC Transit is running.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The confusion added some stress to her day, and she had to coordinate with her husband and their baby’s sleeping schedule to arrange a last-minute pickup.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear how long the strike will last, union and agency officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it will be long-lasting, then it might cause trouble,” Tanna said. “We’ll see.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "South Bay bus drivers and train operators are striking in part for higher wages in a costly place to live. The shutdown is also hitting riders who depend on their service. ",
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"title": "How the VTA Strike Underscores Silicon Valley’s Widening Income Inequality | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>While higher wages are a key sticking point for the more than 1,500 \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030780/bus-drivers-light-rail-operators-on-strike-in-the-south-bay\">bus drivers and train operators on strike\u003c/a> in the pricey Silicon Valley, tens of thousands of riders could also face increased costs as they figure out how else to get around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a problem that underscores the growing income inequality and cost of living in the South Bay, both for transit operators and the riders who depend on their service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s definitely very inconvenient, and it’s going to affect my plans on going to work,” Chris Zin of Union City said of the strike, which ground \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/santa-clara-valley-transportation-authority\">Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority\u003c/a> service to a halt this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zin took BART from Union City to Milpitas, where he was waiting Monday afternoon at a VTA bus stop near the station when he saw an electronic signboard notifying him about the lack of bus and light rail service. Because of that, he said he’ll need to pay to travel one stop farther on BART to Berryessa and then for a service like Uber or Lyft to take him the rest of the way to work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going to affect my income as well,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sudden loss of transit service is especially a burden on those with limited incomes, who often have few other options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030771\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12030771 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-16-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-16-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-16-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-16-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-16-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-16-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-16-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hundreds of Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority workers, represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, strike for the second day on North First Street in San José, demanding a better contract and an increase in wages on March 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a lawsuit the VTA filed to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030759/vta-sues-to-end-historic-south-bay-transit-workers-strike\">try to halt the strike\u003c/a>, the agency said a shutdown in services “especially impacts certain sectors of the population including seniors, people with disabilities and low-income riders.” Nearly 21% of weekday VTA riders earn less than $15,000 a year, the agency said. More than 27% are going to or from school or college, and about 40% are going to or from work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We calculate that regular folks are spending $10,000 at least minimally on their transportation costs in our region. These are all really difficult things, especially when most people are now spending more than 50% of their income on housing alone,” said Russell Hancock, the president and CEO of think tank Joint Venture Silicon Valley. “So we’re a deeply burdened region.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During a strike, the added costs to transit riders can be one more hit to their checking accounts or even drive people away from using transit in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Very often it’s the people that are in the service professions that are reliant on transit, so this can hurt,” Hancock said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Raj Singh, the president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, the union representing the striking VTA workers, said he empathizes with riders, but he blamed the transit agency for what he called “bad faith” negotiations that ran for more than six months before \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12030584/santa-clara-county-transit-grinds-to-a-halt-as-vta-workers-strike\">the strike was called\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel for those people. The best part of our job, being an operator, is getting someone from A to B, whether it’s their doctor’s appointment, grocery shopping, or even the school trips. We take pride in the work that we do,” Singh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s unfortunate that the agency has pushed us to this point,” he said. “I hope people understand that this wasn’t something that we intended on doing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The VTA’s latest offer to ATU workers includes a 9% pay increase spread over three years, with 4% coming in the first year, followed by 3% and 2%, respectively. The offer represents half of what the union is seeking — an 18% raise over the same time period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>VTA officials have said the agency can’t afford the union’s ask without cutting service and possibly cutting jobs, and believe their current offer is competitive, as it would ensure ATU members remain the second-highest paid transit workers in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hancock and some transit riders, meanwhile, said they understand that striking transit workers are also having trouble in an expensive place to live and work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030773\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030773\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-22-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-22-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-22-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-22-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-22-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-22-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/20250311_VTASTRIKEDAY2_GC-22-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A blacked-out sign at a railroad track stop on North First Street in San José on March 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sheila Mirrielees, who takes public transit from Mountain View to work in downtown Oakland, was planning on using a VTA light rail train to get home on Monday afternoon from Milpitas BART.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I didn’t listen to the news this morning. So now I have to take an Uber out to Mountain View,” Mirrielees said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As long as the strike continues, Mirrielees said she’ll stick to using Caltrain and BART for her commute. Despite the inconvenience, she said she’s on the side of the striking workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is such an expensive area to live that the wages just don’t keep up in most professions,” she said. “People just don’t go on strike for the fun of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Silicon Valley was once known for its wealth as a middle-class region, that has shifted dramatically in the last few decades, Hancock said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030673\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030673\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250220-VTASTRIKED1.-JG-8-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Striking VTA workers picket acknowledge a passing honking car outside the agency’s headquarters on North First Street in San José on March 10, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Now, we have the nation’s highest wealth and income gaps where the bulk of the wealth is held by a small number of people and a large number of people are barely getting by,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Joint Venture’s recently published annual report, \u003ca href=\"https://jointventure.org/publications/silicon-valley-index\">the Silicon Valley Index\u003c/a>, Hancock noted that while the region remains an “economic superpower,” it is simultaneously struggling to address critical issues like homelessness, stagnating wages and higher costs for just about everything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most people will tell you that those are the conditions for instability and that those are the conditions where you start seeing blood in the streets,” Hancock said. “It’s just a very difficult place to live.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Waiting for a ride on Monday afternoon, Preeti Sharma of Milpitas described her day as “not a good one” because she was tired from the daylight saving time shift and wanted to get home quickly, but was caught off guard by the strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sharma was catching a ride that day with her friend Helly Tanna, who takes an AC Transit bus into Milpitas BART, but due to the strike on Monday, the signboard Tanna usually checks to confirm her bus is coming was blank, even though the AC Transit is running.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The confusion added some stress to her day, and she had to coordinate with her husband and their baby’s sleeping schedule to arrange a last-minute pickup.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear how long the strike will last, union and agency officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it will be long-lasting, then it might cause trouble,” Tanna said. “We’ll see.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"soldout": {
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