Transform and Allies Call Out Plan to Streamline Highway 37 Widening

In late August, Transform joined with 24 environmental, transportation, and other advocacy organizations to send a letter to California Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire opposing a plan to amend a 2023 law. The law provided special streamlining privileges under California’s endangered species laws to certain clean energy and water infrastructure projects. This year’s amendment would have extended those special streamlining privileges to a project to widen State Route 37 between Vallejo and State Route 121 in Sonoma County, which will have significant impacts on a sensitive salt marsh habitat. 

SR 37 does often experience traffic congestion, but decades of research and lived experience have proven that adding lanes does not solve congestion. And, at its core, the proposal to widen the highway is the wrong solution to a very complicated but completely different problem.

How to drown $500 million

The project to add lanes to SR 37 is described as “interim.” That’s because the $500 million the state proposes spending to add capacity to this highway segment, which is right at sea level and is regularly inundated during king tides, will likely be underwater due to climate change within 15 years. The long-term proposal is to raise the roadbed to accommodate future sea level rise, a much more expensive and involved undertaking.

The irony of building additional lanes that will increase driving, thus increasing greenhouse gas emissions, on a roadway that is likely to be submerged by climate change appears to be lost on planners.

Real problems—real solutions

The reason for the congestion on SR 37 is rooted in economics as much as transportation policy. Sonoma County has a dearth of affordable housing, so many of the people who work in its vineyards and tourist industry live in more affordable communities in Solano County. Those workers must drive to their jobs in Sonoma County towns and cities because of a lack of public transportation options.

Widening the highway is an acceptance of an unacceptable status quo, where working-class people are forced into long, expensive commutes.

The solution is two-fold. Sonoma County must build more housing, particularly more affordable housing, so employees have the opportunity to live closer to their places of work. This is a long-term project that won’t be easy, but it’s essential.

The second solution is to provide more frequent and reliable transit options between Solano and Sonoma cities. This could be accomplished fairly quickly. In our letter, we recommend tolling on the existing lanes of SR 37. The revenue this generates could support expanded public transportation. The tolling scheme could be designed to minimize the cost to low-income households and would cost substantially less than $500 million to implement. 

Over the long term, passenger rail is planned for this corridor to connect to the Capitol Corridor service between Sacramento and the Bay Area, which will provide another alternative to driving in the future.

Facing the realities of climate change

Highway expansion should no longer be a default solution to congestion. In congested corridors like Highway 37, widening will only serve to increase driving and ultimately worsen congestion. Choosing to invest in alternative solutions will not be easy; California has entrenched administrative structures and industries built around expanding highways, so change must include just transitions for workers and businesses. 

But, despite the challenge, we must change the way we think about transportation planning. Our freeway mentality has driven us to the brink of climate catastrophe. A future focused on infill housing development, housing affordability, and a broad array of low- and no-carbon transportation options is the only way to move toward a more stable and liveable planet.

Read the full letter.

September Is a Time to Celebrate Public Transit

September is Transit Month, and it will be marked this year by events around the Bay Area. Transform’s Transportation Policy Advocate, Abibat Rahman-Davies will participate in a panel on transit advocacy as part of a series on gender and transit sponsored by the Transbay Coalition. Transit Month events include contests, transit to trail hike and bike rides, a pub crawl on Muni, a BART state concert, and much more.

But first, it’s worth looking at how public transit benefits everyone, even those who don’t use it.

Public transit is the backbone of the Bay Area

In our dense, congested Bay Area, public transit provides an inexpensive and efficient way to get around without worrying about traffic or parking. And those who do travel by car can thank transit riders for reducing congestion and easing the pressure on local streets and highways.

In 2024, 163,000 people ride BART on an average weekday. While BART’s ridership has taken a dip from pre-pandemic levels, it is on the rebound as ridership numbers continue to increase each year. That ridership represents less smog, fewer vehicle miles traveled, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and less need for parking at office buildings, destinations, and venues around the region.

About half a million people ride San Francisco’s Muni; about 135,000 ride AC Transit; and 23,000 ride Caltrain on an average weekday. VTA doesn’t have daily statistics, but it carried 21.4 million riders in 2023.

Ways to celebrate Transit Month

In addition to the many transit-centered fun activities planned for Transit Month, you can celebrate our rich transit ecosystem any day of the week. If you’re on the bus, thank your driver! Additionally, if you don’t normally take transit, try substituting the bus or train for your next outing. 

See you on the bus!

Regional Transportation Funding Meeting Exposes Conflicting Views, Hope 

On August 26, 2024, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) met to discuss the two frameworks for a transportation funding bill. Thankfully, despite a big push for business interests and few commissioners, the scenario that Transform supports, the Go Big Scenario, also known as Scenario 2, is still in play. The commission has decided to go forward and revise Scenarios 1 and 2, and look into the feasibility of Scenario 3, and bring these revised scenarios to the next MTC select committee meeting on September 23. 

What’s at stake

Ridership for all of the Bay Area’s transit systems is still well below pre-pandemic levels, reducing fare revenue that many providers rely on. Yet providers must maintain routes and schedules to make public transit a viable option and build ridership back up, rather than losing more passengers due to lack of service. MTC is developing language for authorizing legislation for a funding measure that will be on the ballot in 2026. The challenge is to find a solution that stakeholders can agree on.

The options currently under consideration are:

  • Scenario 1: Core Counties. San Francisco, Contra Costa, Alameda, and San Mateo Counties would develop a regional funding mechanism just covering their transit systems. Other counties could opt in. The funding mechanism would be a half-cent sales tax.
  • Scenario 2: Go Big. This option would cover all nine Bay Area counties and use a progressive funding mechanism of a parcel or payroll tax. 
  • Scenario 3: Go It Alone. There would be no regional measure, but MTC would support counties that wanted to run their own revenue measures.

Transform supports the Go Big option because it offers the best chance for an integrated and improved transit ecosystem throughout the Bay Area. Residents rely on more than their local transit systems to move from city to city throughout the region, so a region-wide approach will keep transit consistent and prevent a patchwork of different service levels. Plus, the progressive funding options are the most equitable and sustainable.

Voices in support of transformational transit funding

In the meeting, commissioners reaffirmed their commitment to funding transit. After MTC staff presented the scenarios, several MTC commissioners spoke up in support of the Go Big Scenario. 

Commissioner Noak, who represents Contra Costa County, stated that she supported The Go Big Scenario but had concerns about the funding amounts being reduced after eight years. Commissioner Canepa, who represents San Mateo County, also spoke favorably of Scenario 2, stating that a more regional approach will ensure that everyone pays their fair share into regional systems such as Caltrain. 

Several members of the select committee objected to asking voters to raise their taxes for service cuts, and Scenario 1 would do just that. Many commissioners also pointed out that Scenario 3 would force certain counties to vote on multiple transit measures. San Francisco, for example, would have to vote on three different transit agency funding measures for Caltrain, Muni, and BART. 

Despite the issues with Scenario 1, some members of the select committee spoke up in its favor and against Scenario 2. The primary concerns about Scenario 2 were that it was funded through a parcel or a payroll tax and that currently, a truly regional measure that included all nine counties lacked political feasibility.  

Advocates speak out

Many advocates with Transform and the Voices for Public Transportation Coalition made public comments at the meeting in support of Scenario 2. They coalesced around several demands addressed by Scenario 2:

  • This measure needs to be regional, so it must include all nine counties. 
  • The main goal of this measure is to fund transit, and Bay Area transit riders and voters have said they support investing in a transit system with fast, frequent, reliable, coordinated, accessible, and affordable service. 
  • MTC’s polling showed that voters want transit improvements even more than they want to prevent cuts. Only Scenario 2, the 9-county, $1.5 billion option, achieves this need. 
  • We must prioritize safe and complete streets in the measure and limit roadway expenditures to a state of good repair with no highway expansions. 
  • It should be funded through progressive revenue sources such as a payroll tax or parcel tax. 
  • Scenario 2 has a wide breadth of support from riders, community organizations, and labor unions. 

Many advocates hit home the point that we can’t run a campaign asking voters to increase their taxes and then start implementing transit cuts. Not only will voters not vote for this, but it will make it difficult to ask them to fund transit in the future.

On September 23, 2024, MTC staff will present revised versions of Scenarios 1 and 2 based on suggestions made by commissioners at the August meeting. They will also present on the feasibility of Scenario 3. At the September meeting, the commission hopes to narrow in on one scenario, with a final vote being at the October special select committee meeting. 

While it is good news that the Go Big Scenario is still on the table, advocates, riders, labor, and community groups will have to continue to speak up and take action if we want to ensure that the select committee narrows its focus and selects the Go Big Scenario as the best option to move forward in the upcoming legislative session. 

Transform Brings Mobility Options to National Night Out

On August 6, 2024, Transform staff took part in National Night Out events at two affordable housing sites with Mobility Hubs pilots. We shared information on mobility options and the transportation measure Transform is supporting while sharing food and fun with neighbors of all ages.

What is National Night Out?

National Night Out is a night of community gathering held in neighborhoods across California on the first Tuesday of August each year. It started as a way to connect community members and local law enforcement in a positive setting. This August, the event’s 40th year, gatherings at Betty Ann Gardens in San Jose and Lion Creek Crossings in Oakland focused more on bringing community members together to connect them to community resources and continue conversations about transportation needs in order to improve the services for these communities.

Great turnout for community building event

At Lion Creek Crossings, about 250 people came together for food, fun, and prizes. With our partners from East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation, residents had a wealth of activities to dive into! From button-making through the Oakland Public Library to receiving family resources from BANANAS, there was something for everyone! Transform was promoting our Mobility Hubs offerings, signing up 25 people for the AC Transit Easy Pass and registering another 25 for Lyft ride credits. 

Lion Creek Crossings

Through our Mobility Hubs program, Lion Creek community members held a bike build the weekend before the event to assemble 15 kids’ bikes, and we also had 15 adult bikes on hand, all with help from our friends at Cycles of Change. Residents at the National Night Out event who completed a passport by visiting all the tables and signing up for an Easy Pass and/or Lyft credits were entered into a drawing for 20 bikes; we gave away 10 more after to those who took a Mobility Hubs program survey. The residents we spoke with were generally supportive of transit and opportunities to fund transit like the regional measure. They loved that transit was nearby, but they wanted to see more frequent service.

At Betty Ann Gardens, about 40 people enjoyed hot food and face painting. Transform brought a bike blender, and kids and adults made human-powered smoothies. The Mobility Hubs interns talked with residents about the new on-site electric vehicle carshare, held a drawing, and gave out prizes at a festive and fun event.

Betty Ann Gardens

Transform Welcomes New Housing and Parking Manager

Julia Gerasimenko has joined Transform as our Housing and Parking Policy Manager. She will lead the SPOT SJ program and Transit Oriented Communities outreach and engagement in the Five Wounds neighborhood of San Jose. 

Julia is motivated to tackle systemic issues in ways that materially improve people’s lives. “As a first-generation immigrant growing up on low income in the affluent community of New Haven, Connecticut, I often felt othered,” she says. “Public transportation was an accessible and affordable public service that allowed me to access incredible cultural and educational opportunities in nearby New York City, despite not having a lot of money.” 

Julia has never owned a car and has always gotten around by public transit, walking, and biking. Her first job out of college was helping others access educational resources because she saw that as the path to upward mobility. However, she soon realized that the students she worked with had to choose between making a car payment or buying textbooks, and that led her to focus on the interconnections between transportation, housing, and community and individual well-being at the Active Transportation Alliance in Chicago.

“The most successful campaigns I was a part of at the Active Transportation Alliance always had housing and transportation advocates collaborating to build a larger umbrella and more collective power to influence policy wins,” Julia says. “Housing and transportation are fundamental to everyone’s lived experience, and I can think of few other issues that need urgent solutions to tackle climate change and systemic racism.”

While working on transportation issues in Chicago, she also became aware of how much of our public space and streets are dedicated to storing (mostly) empty cars. She sees an urgent need to aggressively push policymakers and developers to prioritize constructing more affordable housing by repurposing parking and investing in transit-priority streets, protected bike lanes, and other forms of infrastructure that support safe and healthy living conditions for all.

Adding Julia to our team represents an increased emphasis at Transform on our parking reform efforts. “I’m excited to change the narrative around parking and our communal public space. The dominant narrative that there is ‘never enough parking’ and countering that with a mindset of abundance,” she says.

SPOT SJ is a collaborative effort to better utilize abundant garage parking spots in downtown San Jose, leaving curb space for active transportation and public transit. Julia’s work in Five Wounds will be conducted as part of a grant from the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) to design better connections for people biking, walking, and taking the bus to connect with a transportation hub around the next planned BART station in San Jose. 

We’re thrilled to add Julia Gerasimenko’s enthusiasm, knowledge, and policy savvy to our policy team.

ac transit bus

We Still Have a Path to an Excellent Regional Transportation Measure — With Your Help

Representatives from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) joined a Voices for Public Transportation (VPT) meeting on August 21 to outline three scenarios under consideration for a regional transportation measure. Transform and VPT believe the Go Big Framework deserves strong support, while the other options fall short of what we need to ensure transit transformation. We’re rallying people who care about the future of public transportation in the Bay Area to attend the MTC Transportation Revenue Measure Select Committee meeting on Monday, August 26, 2024, at 9:30 a.m. The meeting will be held at the Bay Area Metro Center, 375 Beale Street in San Francisco, in the first floor board room. If you can’t attend in person, consider joining on Zoom or sending public comments by email to [email protected] by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, August 23.

Here’s what you need to know about the scenarios MTC is considering and talking points to support a robust transit funding measure.

Core Transit Scenario: The opt-in option

This option would cover San Francisco, Contra Costa, Alameda, and San Mateo Counties, with an option for the other five Bay Area counties to opt in. It proposes a half-cent sales tax and would raise money to fund the agencies operating in those counties: BART, AC Transit, MUNI, and Caltrain. 

MTC estimates this option would raise $540 million annually from these four counties and $1 billion if all nine counties opt-in. In this scenario, 10% of the funding would go to region-wide transit transformation projects. MTC would have to find additional funding to cover those projects in counties that don’t opt-in. The remaining 90% would initially shore up funding for transit operations before shifting entirely to county-by-county discretionary transportation spending. 

Unfortunately, the Core Transit Scenario would not fill the broader operating funding need in a way that keeps our transit systems running without service cuts. It is hard to imagine that voters would vote to increase their taxes for a measure that would result in service cuts. While some flexibility for counties is needed, the Core Transit Scenario would give counties carte blanche on two-thirds of the entire measure without any guarantees that the money would be spent on needed investments in transit, walking, and biking as opposed to harmful highway expansion projects. 

The Go Big Framework: A nine-county solution

The second scenario MTC is considering would raise $1.5 billion annually through a 0.54% payroll tax or a $0.28 per square foot parcel tax across all nine Bay Area counties. 

This scenario would allocate 20% of funds to transit transformation, with 10% going to MTC for regional projects and 10% returned to counties. It would allocate 50% of funding to operators to maintain their 2023 levels of service initially, with amounts adjusted for inflation after that. The remaining 30% would be county-by-county discretionary transportation spending, known as county flex funds, for use on any projects included in Plan Bay Area. This could include road repairs, new bike lanes, or transit improvements, but it could also mean adding highways. 

One of the sticking points in negotiating a region-wide measure is the desire of counties to keep the revenues raised locally rather than subsidizing operations in other counties. Transform is recommending a guaranteed 90% of the revenue raised in a county would be returned to that county over the life of the measure to address this concern.

While Transform opposes any regional transportation revenue going to highway expansion, we believe this is by far the best scenario presented by MTC and look forward to improving it further. It uses a progressive revenue source, gives a great deal of autonomy to counties to serve the varied needs of their residents, gives robust funding to transit transformation, and, most importantly, fills the transportation funding deficit.

Scenario Three: Going it alone

The final scenario is to abandon the project of a regional transportation revenue measure entirely. The MTC’s only role would be to seek authority for local jurisdictions to run their own ballot measures to raise revenue. This option would provide no transit transformation funding and wouldn’t guarantee the future of the Bay Area’s interconnected transit network. It would be particularly challenging for multi-county operators like BART and Caltrain and cities like San Francisco that could see three separate transit funding measures on the same ballot. Many Bay Area residents live and work in different counties, and funding a harmonized and fully operational regional transit network serves everyone’s needs. Further, putting multiple transportation funding measures on the ballot will confuse voters, making it more likely these measures would fail.

Speak up for regional transit transformation

MTC is hearing a lot of loud voices from different interest groups right now. They need to hear from those of us who want a revenue measure that will protect our regional transit system, share the costs proportionately, with those of greater means contributing the most, and bring about transit transformation, encouraging more people to ride instead of drive.

If you can attend in person, attend virtually, or submit a public comment, here are questions and talking points Transform and VPT suggest raising to MTC: 

  • The number of counties that will get funded matters. Will we get a measure that excludes transit riders in the North Bay and South Bay, or will our measure help everyone?
  • The revenue mechanism should be progressive. Will the measure be funded by a sales tax, which hurts working people, or will it be funded by those with the most ability to pay?
  • The amount of money raised needs to be enough to keep transit fully operational or the whole purpose is defeated. Some scenarios won’t even keep transit funding at the levels they are today, which we all know is already inadequate. How will MTC ensure the measure includes adequate funding for all transit operators?

Please speak up for regional transit funding at the MTC Transportation Revenue Measure Select Committee meeting on Monday, August 26, 2024, at 9:30 a.m.:

  • In-person: Bay Area Metro Center, 375 Beale Street in San Francisco, in the first floor Board Room 
  • On Zoom 
  • Or send public comments by email to [email protected] by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, August 23.

Working together, we can save public transit in the Bay Area!

Regional Housing Bond Measure Pulled from the Ballot — What It Means for Our Movement

On Wednesday morning, the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority (BAHFA) unanimously voted to remove Regional Measure 4 from the 2024 ballot. The measure would have raised $20 billion to alleviate the Bay Area’s housing and homelessness crisis. Unfortunately, the measure was scuttled in response to a series of eleventh-hour challenges by extremist anti-housing and anti-government activists. This is a tragic missed opportunity for voters to say yes to urgently needed affordable housing and homelessness funding.

This decision is heartbreaking for Transform and other housing advocates, and, more importantly, for the hundreds of thousands of people in our region who now must wait longer for the affordable housing and homelessness solutions Bay Area residents need and deserve.

The decision is also a major setback for our climate and transportation goals. By funding the construction of over 40,000 new affordable homes near transit, the measure would have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by over three million tons and spurred an additional five million transit trips per year.

While it is frustrating that a well-resourced group of naysayers halted progress on housing and homelessness this election, Transform and our partners will continue to build the necessary power to win big on these critical issues.

Looking Forward

All is not lost in the fight for affordable housing. Transform and our partners will be working hard to pass Prop 5 this November, which will lower the voter approval threshold for housing and public infrastructure bond measures to 55%. This measure is critical to advancing future affordable housing bond measures across the state.

Beyond November, our region continues to face significant challenges, from the housing and homelessness crisis to a looming transit fiscal cliff. New regional funding measures for both transportation and affordable housing are urgently needed. Passing both measures in the coming years will take unprecedented collaboration, creativity, and courage.

Transform will play a leading role in both these efforts as we continue our work to empower communities of color, innovate solutions, and advocate for policies and funding — all with the aim of helping people thrive and averting climate disaster. And we will need supporters like you in this fight to build up the necessary resources, political will, and movement organizing to beat the anti-taxers in future election cycles.

In the meantime, get ready to vote yes on Prop 5 in November, and stay tuned for future calls to action in the fight for housing, transportation, and climate justice for our region.

New Program Coordinator Joins Transform’s Program Team

Qianning Tang has joined Transform as a program coordinator. They will be working on the Safe Routes to Schools program, primarily in elementary and middle schools in Alameda, Fremont, Albany, and Oakland.

Qianning (pronounced Channing) emigrated to California from Guangzhou, China at the age of 12 and has lived in Oakland since then. Growing up in these cities with vastly different paces of development, context, and fabric, they found a passion for understanding our built environment and its many intersectional impacts on people and communities. 

They hold a BA in Sustainable Environmental Design and minored in City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley and hope to center community engagement strategies to transition decision making and organizing power into community members’ own hands. 

Qianning also wants to facilitate more community ownership beginning with engagement as the first step to understanding needs and barriers. This can look like transit safety and the Safe Routes to Schools program, for example, but can also manifest in many other critical ways where residents interact with our built environment through Transform as one of many channels and opportunities. Land is the basis of our freedom, and our ability to navigate/engage/understand our environment is a critical entry into decolonizing work. 

During Qianning’s time at Transform, they hope to build strong and trusting relationships with champions and other community workers and tap into the resilient power of healthy networks. They are excited to join Transform and start a justice- and access-focused career. 

As part of Transform’s program team, Qianning looks forward to helping youth discover the joy in walking and rolling that they have found in being a new bike rider, which has allowed them a completely new way of seeing and moving through the world. 

We are thrilled to have Qianning as part of our program team. 

Disability Access Lifts Everyone Up

The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law on July 26, 1990, after a decades-long fight by disability activists seeking equitable access to our civic commons. As we pass the 34th anniversary of this landmark legislation, we take a moment to appreciate the way ADA improvements benefit people of all abilities, particularly in transit. And it’s also a good time to reflect on how far we have to go.

Removing barriers, providing opportunities

The ADA has four sections, requiring equal opportunity from employers; access to state and local government programs, services, activities, and facilities as well as public transportation; access to public accommodations such as businesses; and provision of telephone relay services. The public transportation section requires service providers to buy accessible vehicles and provide paratransit services.

The ADA caused changes in building standards that have made our built environment — especially newer buildings, buses, and transit stations — more broadly accessible. Still, 34 years later, barriers remain for people with disabilities. 

Everyone benefits from a more accessible world

Everyone benefits from improved access for those who most need it. If you’ve ever rolled a stroller or a bicycle down a curb cut, you’ve benefited from the ADA. If you’ve ever taken your bike to a BART platform using the elevator, you’ve benefited from the ADA. 

People in the disability community say that the rest of us are temporarily able-bodied. We will all get older and appreciate a kneeling bus. Whether permanent or temporary, many of us will have times when we need a helping hand, and the ADA makes that possible.

We also all benefit indirectly from improving access. We benefit from the creativity, humor, insights, and company of our neighbors and friends when we build a world with curb ramps, accessible buses, station elevators, level train entries, and other improvements brought to us by the ADA.

We still have a long way to go

The disability justice ecosystem in California is woefully under-resourced, often excludes the voices of directly impacted people, and is underrepresented in the transportation planning space. While important progress has been made in the disability justice movement, accessible transportation remains stubbornly excluded and has shown little improvement in the past few decades. Living in a world that denies access to the nearly 25% of Californians who live with a disability denies all of us the valuable contributions of those community members. A substantial investment in the movement to focus on accessible transportation is necessary if we are to make progress for this community’s ability to meet their needs and live full lives. 

Last year, we spoke with disability advocates from the Silicon Valley Independent Living Center and Community Resources for Independent Living and a planner from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission about how to make public transit more accessible. They pointed out that the ADA is “a floor, not a ceiling,” and accessible design must go farther. And they emphasized the importance of the disabled community having seats at the table when decisions are being made about transit access. As the community says, “Nothing about us without us.”

In Transform’s new strategic plan, we make a point of giving power and voice to those historically impacted by racist disinvestment in housing and transportation. Empowering and investing in the voices of the disability community is fundamental to our theory of change. And it’s also fundamental to a more accessible world for everyone.