Transportation is the lifeblood of any economy, but the COVID-19 pandemic ground the Bay Area to a halt and forever changed our travel patterns. Freeway congestion on the region’s highways and bridges has now surpassed pre-pandemic levels, while transit agencies are still struggling to draw riders back to their systems.
The Bay Area Council is working to make it faster, easier, and more comfortable to move around the Bay Area. This includes creating a more seamless, comfortable and safe transit experience, alleviating congestion on highways and bridges, expanding ferry routes, supporting new mobility solutions, improving goods movement operations, and decarbonizing transportation across the board.
As a legacy policy area of the Bay Area Council, with its role as a key player in the creation of the BART system in the 1960s as well as the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and the Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA), transportation policy and planning continues to be priority issue area for the Council.
2024 Priorities
- Lead effort to develop commuter-focused vision for the Bay Area’s future transportation system, and use this vision to guide the development of a 2026 regional transportation funding measure to create a more seamless, safe, comfortable, and reliable transit rider experience
- Lead coalition to expand water transit service on the bay by advocating for funding for public ferry terminals and services and promoting new service concepts to access new markets
- Lead advocacy to improve safety on BART and other transit systems to draw riders back to transit
- Improve mobility through private transportation modes by supporting the growth of employer-provided transportation systems, autonomous vehicles, and ride-hailing services
- Unite the region’s advocacy to improve the efficiency and sustainability of goods movement operations in the Bay Area by advocating for funding for projects and integrating new technologies
- Advocate for improvements that will alleviate congestion on the region’s highways, roads, and bridges
- Build coalition to maximize the Bay Area’s share of federal infrastructure funding to support regional priorities and work with state leadership to expedite the delivery of those projects
Transportation Committee Co-Chairs
Darlene Gee, Senior Vice President, HNTB
Arielle Fleisher, Policy Development and Research Manager, Waymo
Rich Robbins, President and CEO, Wareham Development
Waterfront Mobility Committee Co-Chairs
Emily Lesk, Development, Wilson Meany
Seamus Murphy, Executive Director, Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA)
Heather Salem, Commute Operations Lead, Genentech
Employer TDM Task Force Co-Chairs
Melody Lin, Transportation Program Manager, Genentech
Jonathan Schuppert, Manager of Transportation Planning & Optimization, Meta
Return to Work and Transit Survey
Since April 2021, the Bay Area Council has been regularly collecting data from employers around the region to track how attitudes about returning to offices and commuting on transit have shifted during and after the pandemic. These results have been critical to helping our region understand new commute patterns and design services to best meet the needs of commuters.
For more information or to participate in the Council’s bi-monthly Return to Work and Transit survey, please contact Policy Director Laura Hill at lhill@bayareacouncil.org.
Get Involved
The Transportation Committee and related subcommittees listed below are open to Bay Area Council members. For more information, contact Vice President Emily Loper (eloper@bayareacouncil.org) and check out our upcoming events.
