Creating More Seamless Regional Transportation

Better integrating fares among the region’s many transit providers. Creating more seamless transit connections between systems to better serve riders. And making more efficient use of public funding in providing services and delivering transportation infrastructure projects faster and less expensively. These were just a few of the recommendations Bay Area Council Senior Vice President Gwen Litvak conveyed this week during a workshop to determine 2022 priorities for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which controls billions of dollars in funding for regional transit and transportation programs.

The recommendations stemmed from an action plan developed by a regional Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF) on which Council CEO Jim Wunderman serves to address the severe impacts of the COVID pandemic on transit and transportation. Wunderman is also representing the Bay Area business community on the eight-member Network Business Case Advisory Board, which is working to implement one of the BRTF recommendations for creating a more consolidated approach to managing the region’s more than two dozen transit agencies.

As part of her MTC priorities workshop testimony, Litvak also presented findings from a monthly survey that the Council has been conducting for MTC since April to understand how businesses are planning for returning to workplaces and what that means for transit ridership. The Bay Area Council looks forward to working with MTC to implement the changes needed to achieve a more seamless transit system over the next few years. To engage in the Council’s transportation policy work, please contact Senior Vice President Gwen Litvak.