Solving Local Transit Barriers through Public Private Partnerships

The Bay Area Council brought together top employers in the Peninsula with local government elected leaders to openly engage on first and last mile transportation challenges, in partnership with Joint Venture Silicon Valley. The meeting on April 18 was the first in a series of five, aptly named the Manzanita Talks, which seek to explore the logic and desirability of cross-sector collaboration on regional transit solutions, and a possible sub-regional Transportation Management Association (TMA) on the mid-Peninsula.

The talks are scheduled to occur between April and October of this year. Transportation leads from Facebook, Genentech, Google, Intuit, LinkedIn, Palantir, Salesforce, Tesla, and Los Altos Property Owners Downtown met with elected officials from Redwood City, Menlo Park, East Palo Alto, Atherton, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale and Los Altos to discuss the increasing transit challenges from both the public and private views.

As the Manzanita Talks continue, the Bay Area Council hopes to see public and private stakeholders align on specific issues and solutions, which will be used to produce a guiding document on lessons learned and best practices for subregional transportation management associations. The Council’s hope is that the guiding documents can be used as the groundwork to help cities and employers across the Bay Area found TMAs or subregional TMAs that work for their transit needs, reduce congestion, and improve daily commutes. To engage in the Council’s transportation policy work, please contact Senior Vice President Gwen Litvak.