Transportation Archives

California’s Transportation Spending Should Move Beyond Highway Expansion

March 17, 2026/in Blog, Transportation/by Zack Deutsch-Gross

Tailpipe pollution makes up about half of the greenhouse gas emissions in California, so shifting our travel modes to healthy, sustainable alternatives should be a priority. However, our state’s priorities, as expressed by the way we allocate our transportation dollars, shows exactly the opposite.

This Thursday, the California Transportation Commission is approving projects for funding under the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) and State Highway Operation and Protection Program (SHOPP), including highway widening projects in the Bay Area along US 101 in San Mateo and Santa Clara and State Route 37 in the North Bay. The ClimatePlan coalition, of which Transform is a member, has created an advocacy toolkit for those who want to call into the meeting and oppose these boondoggle projects and suggest sustainable alternatives.

San Mateo US 101 highway expansion

Caltrans, along with the San Mateo County Transportation Authority (SMCTA) and City/County Association of Governments of San Mateo County (C/CAG), are requesting $16.8M to build a managed lane in each direction along the U.S. 101 in the San Mateo 101 Managed Lanes Project North of I-380. Transform has been on the record repeatedly opposing this project, which would worsen air quality for already pollution-burdened residents of South San Francisco.

San Mateo submitted three projects for the last cycle of Active Transportation Program (ATP) funding. However, it didn’t get funding for any of them because the ATP’s budget had been cut so severely it was unable to greenlight many excellent projects. We recommend CTC fund the Kelly Avenue Complete Streets Project and other ATP projects in San Mateo instead of the 101 Managed Lanes Project.

Santa Clara express lane expansion

While Santa Clara’s US 101 Express Lanes Project proposes to convert existing lanes into express lanes, which would help reduce VMT and GHG along the corridor, the project also proposes to add a second express lane in each direction, which would undo any benefits from the converted lanes. This region also saw not a single ATP project funded in the last cycle, despite submitting five applications. In order to ensure that Santa Clara County continues to make progress toward meeting its GHG reduction targets, we recommend that the US 101 Express Lanes Project be substituted with the Milpitas Citywide Safe Routes to School Improvements Project and the Pruneridge Avenue Bicycle and Pedestrian Improvements Project.

Sonoma County State Route 37 boondoggle

The ‘interim’ project Caltrans is proposing on State Route 37 would spend $500 million to widen a highway by paving over protected marshland and endangered species habitat. What’s worse, this highway is already regularly flooded during king tides, and will likely be underwater due to climate change within two decades. Phase 1 of this project, which the CTC will vote on this month, will waste an additional $12.8 million on building a new bridge and roadway improvements for the interim project.

In addition to these three projects in the Bay Area, there are a few other bad highway expansions throughout the state that are slated for CTC approval. With your help, we can shift the narrative, replacing climate-killing highway expansions with projects to build bikeway networks and pedestrian amenities, spending California’s transportation dollars efficiently and wisely.

Transform, Partners Launch Sustainable Transportation Project in Alameda

March 2, 2026/in Blog, Transportation/by Sheila Islam

Transform’s 18 years of community engagement in Alameda have established us as a partner to the City of Alameda and its residents through projects like the Safe Routes to Schools program and the coordination of the annual Alameda Bike Fest. Now we are deepening and growing our relationships in the East Bay island as we conduct a holistic assessment of the transportation needs in West Alameda, through a project funded by the California Air Resources Board.

Cap-and-Invest funds mobility in West Alameda

In partnership with the City of Alameda, the Alameda Point Collaborative, and the Housing Authority of the City of Alameda, Transform is lifting up the transportation needs of residents on the west side of Alameda Island.

The goal is to find out what mix of active, public, and shared transportation will best meet residents’ needs. Working with Omni as our evaluation partner, we’re doing a community assessment to find out where there are gaps in sustainable transportation infrastructure that the city can fill as it moves toward more climate-friendly transportation.

The project will also lift up residents, building capacity and empowering them to advocate with local governments to ensure their needs are heard and met. By the end of this project in 2027, we hope to have fostered new partnerships and collaborations between residents, neighborhood groups, and city staff.

Stuck in the last century

To help design an outreach plan specific to West Alameda, we’ve assembled a site-level team made up of high school students and adults. At the first site-level team meeting, one member commented that the transportation options in West Alameda haven’t changed in decades.

Alameda was recently recognized as a gold-level Bicycle Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists; Transform provided Safe Routes to Schools data to support the city’s application. But new infrastructure such as protected bike lanes aren’t evenly distributed. Alameda has made great strides in making many of its roadways accessible to people biking and walking. Our project is part of an effort by the city to give all Alameda residents access to active and shared transportation options.

Next steps

Our site-level team members pointed out that language barriers and lack of awareness prevent people from accessing all the transportation options available to them. As we start outreach this spring, part of our work will be to raise awareness of the options that currently exist, as well as finding out what transportation residents want and need.

The site-level team is the seed of an energized community, ready to tackle transportation challenges in Alameda. At the end of the meeting, one team member said, “The meeting got me really excited for this project!”

We’re excited too.

Transform’s current project in Alamea is funded through California Climate Investments, which is funded by California’s cap-and-trade program, now called Cap-and-Invest.

Transform Urges MTC to Link Funding to Housing and Transit

February 18, 2026/in Blog, Housing, Transportation/by Julia Gerasimenko

On February 25, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) will take its final vote on its Transit-Oriented Communities (TOC) Policy. This vote will determine whether the region follows through on linking billions in transportation funding to real progress on affordable housing, tenant protections, and transit-oriented development.

Last month, at its January 28 meeting, MTC advanced major decisions on the One Bay Area Grant (OBAG) program, which distributes billions in regional transportation funding. Commissioners affirmed that OBAG can be used to incentivize jurisdictions to align with regional housing and climate goals. But they also left the door open to weakening the link between funding and TOC compliance.

The February 25 vote will determine whether OBAG remains a meaningful incentive for implementation or becomes disconnected from the housing and land use policies needed to make transit investments succeed. Transform and our allies are organizing to urge MTC not to weaken its TOC policy. You can help by emailing your MTC commissioners.

The TOC policy is how Plan Bay Area gets implemented

The TOC policy is the implementation tool for Plan Bay Area 2050. It aligns transportation funding with local policies that support affordable housing, prevent displacement, and reduce car dependence.

Because MTC cannot require cities to adopt land use policies directly, tying OBAG funding to TOC compliance is an essential lever to encourage compliance. This incentive structure ensures regional funding supports jurisdictions that are taking concrete steps to implement the region’s adopted goals.

Cities across the Bay Area have already begun adopting tenant protections, affordable housing policies, and parking reforms in response to the TOC polixy. Weakening the policy now would undermine that progress.

Weakening TOC would undermine the region’s housing and climate goals

Some commissioners and jurisdictions are pushing to allow cities to qualify for funding without implementing meaningful housing policies. This would defeat the purpose of the TOC policy, which was designed to reward implementation, not simply planning or minimum compliance.

Allowing jurisdictions to qualify without taking action would weaken one of the region’s most important tools for reducing displacement, increasing housing affordability, and supporting transit ridership.

Regional transportation funding should support communities that are taking action to advance regional goals.

On February 25, MTC must uphold a strong TOC policy and follow through on its commitment to link transportation funding with housing and climate outcomes.

Want to take your advocacy to the next level?

Show up to make a comment on Wednesday, February 25 (9:35 AM – 1 PM)

You can show up in person at 375 Beale Street, San Francisco, CA 94105 at 9:35 or on Zoom (link to be released on Friday, February 20).

If you plan to be on Zoom, you can sign up for our Timely Text Alerts to know when the item is up.

We will share sample talking points when the agenda is released.

Connecting Residents with Active Transportation in Hayward

February 3, 2026/in Blog, Safe Routes to Schools, Transportation/by Emilio Elenes

Thanks to a grant from the California Air Resources Board, Transform and our partners are working with the City of Hayward to help more residents get around by biking and walking. We’re still early in the project, but we’re starting to see results.

The City of Hayward has already gotten bikes into the hands of Hayward residents. The first event was in October, and the city is planning on hosting many more public events for students and residents to pick up their bikes.

Community assessments

In keeping with Transform’s mission to lift up underrepresented voices, we conducted surveys to assess unmet active transportation needs.

We were pleased to learn that some students are already using bikes to get around, demonstrating a strong interest in active transportation when access allows. However, for students who did not have a bike, the most common barrier was cost. Financial limitations continue to prevent students from accessing reliable transportation options.

Among students who owned a bike but were not riding regularly, maintenance issues — such as flat tires, broken brakes, or lack of basic repairs — were primary reasons their bikes went unused. These challenges underscore the importance of pairing infrastructure investments with education, equipment, and hands-on support.

Addressing these gaps is a core goal of the Hayward Rides project. By combining bikes, maintenance support, and safe infrastructure, Transform and its partners are working to remove barriers and make biking a realistic, reliable option for students who want to ride.

The City of Hayward has worked with a local bike shop to build bikes for Hayward residents. Transform identified a handful of students from Tennyson High School to receive the bikes.

Infrastructure awareness

Making the transition from driving to walking or biking also means finding new routes where traffic is calmer and there’s more infrastructure. Part of Transform’s work in this project will be to educate residents about new crosswalks and safe bike routes. Finding the best route to a destination can greatly increase the likelihood that someone will successfully adopt biking as their preferred travel mode.

Transform has partnered closely with the City of Hayward to gather input from school administrators and community members during the planning phase of infrastructure improvements at ten Hayward Unified schools: Burbank, Faith Ringgold, Longwood, Martin Luther King Jr., Park, Schafer Park, Southgate, Tennyson, Tyrrell, Winton, and Palma Ceia. This community-informed approach ensures that upcoming changes reflect real needs and everyday travel patterns.

At the same time, Transform’s programs team has been working inside these ten infrastructure schools to build excitement, connection, and a culture of walking and rolling. Through events like International Walk and Roll to School Day, the Ruby Bridges Walk and Roll Day, and other recurring monthly activities, students and families are becoming more comfortable getting around by walking and rolling.

The goal is simple and powerful: when infrastructure improvements are complete, schools receiving these upgrades should see even higher rates of walking and rolling, turning temporary events into lasting, healthy habits.

Next steps in Hayward

Looking ahead, Transform is preparing for the next phase of the Hayward Rides program by deepening our engagement with families and the broader community. A key focus will be working with parents to recruit and support parent leaders who can facilitate community walk and roll events. These efforts will be especially important once infrastructure improvements are complete in fall 2026, helping ensure that new investments translate into lasting changes in how families travel.

Transform also plans to partner with the City of Hayward at community events to share bike safety education and active transportation resources.

Hayward Rides partners

Transform Helps Kick Off Regional Transit Measure

February 3, 2026/in Blog, Transit, Transportation/by Zack Deutsch-Gross

Last Friday, Transform and our partners at Connect the Bay kicked off the campaign to pass a regional transit measure with events in five counties throughout the Bay Area.

From Pleasant Hill BART to Diridon Station, Redwood City to Oakland, and with an energy-filled kickoff in San Francisco, riders, elected officials, and advocates throughout the Bay Area gathered to rally and begin collecting signatures. The rallies marked the start of a campaign to place a new regional transit funding measure on the ballot this coming November.

As the Alameda County lead for the measure, Transform led the kickoff event in Oakland, which included Berkeley Mayor Adena Ishii and Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee. Mayor Lee gave an inspired speech, drawing connections between public transit, access to opportunity, and economic vitality for the region. Transform’s Abibat Rahman-Davies also spoke at the Oakland rally.

The ballot measure will ask voters to approve a half-cent sales tax in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, and Santa Clara Counties and a 1-cent sales tax in San Francisco County. The tax sunsets after 14 years. To get it on the ballot this November, we need to collect over 200,000 verified signatures across the five participating counties.

Want to get involved? Learn more on our website or look for upcoming events here: https://luma.com/connectbayarea?k=c

Regional Transit Ballot Measure FAQs

February 3, 2026/in Blog, Transit, Transportation/by Abibat Rahman-Davies

Transform and our partners in the Connect the Bay coalition are working to put a citizen-led measure on the November ballot to fund public transit. In our FAQs, we break down what the measure does, where the money will come from, why it’s critical to Bay Area transportation, and what you can do to help.

What Is the Connect the Bay ballot measure?

Connect the Bay provides a stable funding source for transit agencies operating in five Bay Area counties. These funds will allow transit agencies to maintain their current level of operations or improve them, providing reliable, sustainable transportation for millions of people.

Why does transit need extra funding?

During the pandemic, transit ridership plummeted as nonessential workers stayed home. As businesses slowly returned to normal, ridership has increased, but so have costs. While federal and state one-time funds kept transit operating, those funds have now run out, leaving many transit services facing a fiscal cliff.

What is a fiscal cliff?

A fiscal cliff is a point of no return, where a transit provider is forced to drastically reduce service because of a funding shortfall. At that point, transit services can go into a death spiral. With longer waits between buses or trains, transit becomes less reliable and less convenient. Riders are forced to find other means of getting to work, school, and other destinations, and declining ridership further reduces revenue. This starts a negative feedback loop that, in the worst situation, can close down an entire transit service.

I don’t take public transit. Why should I support Connect the Bay?

Bay Area traffic is already back to pre-pandemic levels. Without transit, it would be gridlock 24/7. Nearly 1 million people ride transit every day in the Bay Area. Imagine adding a million cars to our roadways every day. Frequent, reliable, appealing transit serves the interests of drivers too.

In addition, robust public transit is an equity, climate, and affordability issue. People who can’t drive, either because of age or ability, rely on transit to maintain autonomy and mobility. Owning and maintaining a personal vehicle is expensive; public transit provides an affordable option for low-income families. Transit-dependent riders are lower-income and more diverse than the general population. Finally, trains and buses have a much smaller carbon footprint than individual cars, even electric vehicles. Supporting transit is a pro-climate position.

What parts of the Bay Area will be affected by the measure?

Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara Counties are participating in the regional transit funding measure.

Which transit agencies will receive funding from this measure?

The funding from the measure will go to support operations at BART, Muni, Caltrain, AC Transit, SF Bay Ferry, TriValley Wheels, County Connect, Tri Delta Transit, Union City Transit, Westcat, and VTA.

How does Connect the Bay raise funds for transit?

The ballot measure asks voters to approve a half-cent sales tax in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, and Santa Clara Counties and a 1-cent sales tax in San Francisco County. The tax sunsets after 14 years.

What’s the difference between a citizen-led ballot measure and one placed on the ballot by other means?

The ballot measure language comes from SB 63, a bill passed by the legislature in 2025. The bill gives the Metropolitan Transportation Commission the power to create a taxable district for the five-county measure. However, if MTC were to put the measure on the ballot, it would need a two-thirds majority to pass. In recent years, many funding measures have fallen just short of that supermajority.

When an initiative comes to the ballot through the signature-gathering process, it needs 50% + 1 to pass. By making the regional transportation ballot measure a citizen-led measure, we increase the chance of passage.

How many signatures do we need to collect to qualify for the ballot?

We need to collect over 200,000 verified signatures across the five participating counties. In reality, this means gathering significantly more to ensure we have enough valid signatures.

What’s the deadline for collecting signatures?

We must finish collecting signatures by mid-May.

Who’s behind this measure?

Connect the Bay is supported by labor unions, environmental groups, transit advocates, bicycle coalitions, businesses, and elected officials. A list of individuals and organizations endorsing the measure is at https://connectbayarea.com/endorsements.

If I add my name in support of the regional transit measure, do I have to vote for it?

No. If you’re approached by someone gathering signatures for the regional transportation ballot measure, your signature will only help it get on the ballot so voters can decide. You are free to vote however you choose in November.

What happens if you don’t collect enough signatures in time?

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission and transit agencies could use reserve and other flexible funds to reduce the impact, but it would not be sufficient to stop massive service cuts. Muni would be forced to cut over 20 lines, and BART could go down to one train an hour.

What can transit supporters do to help?

There are many ways you can get involved, including gathering signatures. Fill out this form to stay updated on the latest developments and find opportunities to volunteer. Go to connectbayarea.com to learn more.

Automated Speed Enforcement Comes to Oakland

January 21, 2026/in Blog, Transportation/by Zack Deutsch-Gross

Transform marked another milestone in our work for safer streets this week, thanks to legislation we helped pass in 2023. Under a pilot program created by AB 645 (Friedman), Oakland placed 18 speed cameras at key intersections to deter speeding vehicles, the leading cause of accidents and traffic violence. This follows a successful year of a similar pilot in San Francisco.

Preliminary speed camera data shows high proportion of drivers speeding

The Oakland cameras began issuing warnings last week and will start sending out tickets in March. Tickets start at $50 for cars going 11 mph over the speed limit, with discounted fees for low-income drivers and higher fines for greater speed violations. The citations don’t add points to drivers’ licenses and will help avoid confrontations between drivers and law enforcement.

San Francisco started its automated speed enforcement last year and has a dashboard where the public can see speeding data. Initial results verified what anyone who walks or rides a bike already knew: people drive too fast on city streets.

What’s more, speeding disproportionately impacts low-income residents, seniors, disabled persons, and communities of color. Black Oaklanders are three times as likely to be killed or severely injured while walking, while those over 65 years old are twice as likely to be killed in a crash, according to data from the City of Oakland.

Next steps for automated enforcement

Six percent of Oakland streets account for 60% of collisions, so the speed cameras are focused on this high-injury network. The cameras photograph only the license plate, not the face of anyone in the vehicle, and records are not stored long-term. The California pilot was designed with privacy and equity in mind.

Human traffic enforcement is spotty, since officers can’t be everywhere all the time, and is steeped in a legacy of discriminatory practice. Automated enforcement through cameras that operate 24/7 on dangerous streets has been proven to change driver behavior and reduce the need for traffic stops that can turn fatal for Black and brown drivers.

The pilot established under AB 645 lasts until 2032. Data collected during the pilot will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of automated speed enforcement to save lives. Transform will continue to advocate for evidence-based and equity-focused measures that enhance neighborhoods and make it safer for people of all ages to walk and roll to school, work, and other destinations.

Walking with the Dead: Avenida de Altares

November 25, 2025/in Blog, SPOT SJ, Transit, Transportation/by Julia Gerasimenko

This year, Avenida de Altares brought together many parts of East San Jose in a way that felt both familiar and very new. The Mexican Heritage Plaza was full of families moving from one altar to the next. There were quiet moments, crowded moments, and a lot of joy in between. People stopped for face painting, food, the vendor market, and the big performance from Ozomatli that pulled everyone in. There was also a lot of excitement around the lucha libre matches, which added to the energy of the night.

Sustainable transportation to a cultural celebration

Transform worked with the School of Arts and Culture to support the event by gathering information about how people traveled and what barriers they experienced. Earlier in the year, we completed a walk audit and a focus group that gave us a clearer picture of the conditions around the plaza to support sustainable travel options.

One of the most meaningful parts of the event was the honorary altar for the MACSA Youth Center. The organization was an important part of the neighborhood for years, but the building was heavily damaged in a large fire earlier this year. Many people in the community shared stories about growing up with MACSA, attending programs there, or having a family member who did. There were many types of altars throughout the plaza, and the MACSA altar stood out as a place where people paused to remember and reflect. Photos of the fire and past MACSA programs helped tell the story, and the altar became a place where people talked about the loss and also the importance of keeping cultural spaces alive.

A welcoming space — despite ICE

In the days before the event, the community got a notice reassuring everyone that they were welcome and safe amid rising fears about ICE being active in the Bay Area. This message mattered. It shaped how people decided to attend, who chose to bring their families, and how long people stayed once they arrived. It reminded us that transportation choices are tied to trust and comfort, not only the physical conditions on the street.

Creating community and walkability together

There is still a long road ahead to make East San Jose safer and more accessible for walking, biking, and transit. The event itself showed what is possible when the community gathers in a place that feels like home. The challenge now is building a transportation system that supports that energy.

Over the next few weeks, Transform will review transit ridership data from the night of Avenida de Altares and compare it with that of the same period from last year. Once we have that information, we will share a short report and look at how travel patterns are changing over time and what that means for future events. The hope is to understand not only how people arrived this year but also what it will take to help more people choose to walk, bike, or ride transit in the years ahead.

Transform Helps Affordable Housing Residents Get Moving

November 7, 2025/in Blog, Transportation/by Stephanie Jim

For the past two years, Transform has contributed our community engagement expertise and knowledge of pedestrian and bike safety to Oakland Making Moves, a project spearheaded by Alameda County Health’s Nutrition Services Team. The goal is to support affordable housing sites to explore safe routes to healthy neighborhood destinations.

Recently, our work culminated in the creation of an older adult pedestrian safety curriculum. We also had the privilege of piloting the presentation at three affordable housing sites in East Oakland: Lockwood Gardens, Lion Creek Crossings, and Madison Park Apartments. The curriculum aims to remind the audience about general pedestrian safety tips. Most importantly, it facilitates a conversation that unearths the opportunities and barriers seniors face in pursuing a healthier lifestyle. The course offers participants a chance to start connecting with one another through shared experiences and leaves folks with the opportunity to identify and rally around collective safety concerns.

I presented at Lockwood Gardens, and I’ve been reflecting on the factors that contributed to the success of this presentation. It’s clear that the time and effort we invested in building trust, both leading up to and during the session, were critical. With the exception of Lion Creek Crossings, where we’ve done extensive engagement with residents on another project, Transform had not met the communities at the sites before our work on Oakland Making Moves. We understand the importance of dedicating resources to meaningful community outreach, preparation, and relationship-building to connect with people and deliver a message they can hear.

A constant learning process

Several lessons emerged from our work on Oakland Making Moves that can help guide and strengthen future engagement.

Partner with trusted community representatives

We were fortunate to work alongside Alameda County Health staff, who have been building strong relationships at each housing site for more than two years. Through the Oakland Making Moves project, they’ve hosted regular activities, such as group walks, that bring residents together. Thanks to their groundwork, Transform was able to enter as both a credible partner and a friendly face.

Center the collective wisdom in the room

The curriculum was designed to encourage participation, and we took several steps to help people feel safe sharing their thoughts and contributing to the conversation. From the start, we acknowledged that everyone has valuable insights to offer about pedestrian safety. We also set clear expectations that while not every concern could be addressed immediately, all input was important and would be revisited later. To demonstrate our commitment to follow-up, we documented every comment on chart paper so participants could see their feedback being captured in real time. Throughout the presentation, we built in multiple opportunities for participants to speak up, ensuring their voices were woven into the discussion. Everyone appreciated being listened to.

At Lion Creek Crossings and Madison Park Apartments, we faced the added challenge of a language barrier. With the help of a translator, we were able to communicate effectively with Cantonese- and Mandarin-speaking residents. However, it was clear that Transform’s depth of engagement at Lion Creek Crossings was the key to bridging the language barrier. Our prior, deep engagement with this community through Know How to Go played a key role in fostering trust and connection, allowing the conversation to flow more naturally despite language differences. Even with the language barrier, folks had a lot to share about how they get around and the challenges they face.

Share food to build connection and comfort

Sharing food is more than a gesture of hospitality. It’s a powerful way to build connections and create common ground. Having food at our presentations helped foster trust and made conversations feel more open and natural. We were fortunate to have the flexibility to purchase food from a variety of local vendors, working closely with Alameda County Health staff to ensure our choices aligned with their health messages and reflected the preferences of the residents. For example, we served tamales at a lunchtime presentation and pastries, fruit, and coffee at a breakfast session. Residents at both meetings expressed their appreciation for the food, underscoring how something as simple as a shared meal can strengthen relationships and engagement.

And people appreciated it even more when we handed out reflective pizzas as a fun item and an example of ways to stay visible and safe.

Looking to the future

The main accomplishment from Oakland Making Moves is that we were able to bring to light the opportunities and real challenges these communities face in using active transportation.

When asked why they don’t walk or roll, participants gave these reasons:

BART being unclean
Unclear mobility devices on bus
Safety (in the streets)
Violence, crime
Kids biking on the sidewalk
Past accidents
Trauma
Crime
Drivers and walkers looking at their phones
Language barrier communicating with drivers

When we asked about safety concerns, community members told us:

People on bikes
Signage
Dirty streets
People on headphones

Each issue points to new opportunities: to educate bike riders and pedestrians about sharing space; work with BART on station cleanliness, as outlined in our Ride Fearlessly report; help vulnerable community members develop strategies to keep each other safe in their neighborhoods; and much more. As we close out this project, we’ve given Alameda County Public Health a new tool to help people stay active, and we’ve built a bit more of our roadmap for future projects and policy initiatives to bring even more life, joy, and safety to Oakland streets.

Thank you to the Alameda County Public Health Department for supporting this crucial program.

Traffic Congestion Is a Housing and Transit Problem, Not a Highway Problem

October 22, 2025/in Blog, Housing, Transportation/by Zack Deutsch-Gross

One of the hardest aspects of transportation advocacy is that the solutions to transportation problems are often counterintuitive. Induced demand or induced travel is the best-known example of this: when you widen a highway, that encourages more people to drive on it, returning congestion to the original levels within a few years. But what we’re missing is that traffic congestion isn’t a problem that can ever be solved by building more or wider roads, because it’s not a problem with the highway.

Yet Caltrans keeps planning highway expansions, and California legislators and the governor continue to prop up these unsustainable projects.

Picking up the right tools to solve congestion

The United States has spent decades and trillions of dollars prioritizing driving and car-centric infrastructure. As a result, there will always be more demand for driving at peak hours than there will be space on the roadway. Thankfully, there are better ways to reduce congestion, like building infill, affordable housing near jobs, schools, and transit hubs, plus adding bus, walking, and rolling options.

Unfortunately, when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. In California, Caltrans is tasked with maintaining the highways and many state routes that wind through towns and cities, often serving as local roads and streets. This includes responding to problems on the roads, including backed-up traffic and slow travel times. For decades, Caltrans’ only tool to solve congestion has been roadbuilding, so that’s what it does — to the tune of $20 billion a year.

To truly solve California’s tangled traffic, we need to take the problem out of the hands of the road builders and address the root causes of congestion: building more affordable housing near jobs and improving public transportation options.

Wrong solutions create more problems

State Route 37, which connects Vallejo and other Solano County communities to Marin County and beyond, is the Bay Area poster child for wrong-headed highway widening. Caltrans proposes to spend $500 million to add lanes to a section of the roadway that will be underwater within the next couple of decades due to sea level rise. It’s a high price to pay for a very transitory solution.

And money isn’t the only cost of this destructive highway project. Governor Gavin Newsom just signed AB 697. The bill lifts limits on killing endangered species in the delicate marshland adjacent to the roadway during construction, clearing the way for Caltrans to bulldoze its plan through.

But even without the looming spectre of climate change, the SR 37 project won’t fix congestion because it doesn’t address its causes. Marin County has more jobs than households, thanks to thriving businesses and tourist attractions, plus a strong science and technology industry, and workers gravitate to job centers in these locations. Meanwhile, Vallejo and neighboring communities on the other side of the Baylands have something the North Bay counties don’t: cheaper housing. The average rent for a three-bedroom unit in Vallejo is $2,476, while rent for the same unit in Marin is double that, at $4,995 a month. So workers in lower-income sectors —like the people who keep restaurants, hotels, tasting rooms, and spas running — are often forced to look far from their work to find housing they can afford.

The lack of affordable housing near jobs in North Bay communities is compounded by a lack of frequent and reliable public transit. This leaves workers with no choice but to drive between work and home, clogging SR 37.

Widening a section of this highway to ease the congestion is like taking pain medication for a broken arm, but not setting the bone. You might feel better for a while, but you haven’t solved the problem.

Housing and transit are better investments

According to California’s Department of Housing and Community Development, Marin County needs to build over 14,000 units of new housing by 2031 to keep up with its housing needs. Building these homes is one of the best ways to reduce congestion — much better than adding new lanes to a highway that will simply be new surfaces for congestion in a few years. A report on the impact of California’s successful Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) program showed that building 20,000 homes took more than 40,000 cars off the road each year. With a $500 million public investment, affordable housing developers could help finance thousands of housing units in the North Bay.

Single-occupancy vehicles are a wildly inefficient way to move humans from one place to another. A recent study by the Climate and Community Institute modeled the impact of shifting $1 billion in highway spending to public transit. The study found that this shift saved almost $200,000 in congestion-related costs, as well as reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by more than 1.8 million annually. Putting $500 million toward improved transit options would do much more to ease congestion on overcrowded roads like SR 37.

Highways aren’t drainpipes

Even the smartest engineer will come up with the wrong answer when they start with the wrong assumptions. For decades, our road planners have assumed that roads function like drainpipes: iIf the pipe is overflowing, get a wider pipe to handle the flow.

A better metaphor for the network of streets and highways that connect our communities is as an expression of our desires, frustrations, and aspirations. Our roads show where we’ve failed by backing up traffic when transit and housing options are suboptimal. They show what we wish for with people creating ad hoc walkways to cut through too-long blocks and bike riders on sidewalks where streets are too dangerous. But our transportation systems can also highlight the best of us, lifting up our shared humanity and strengthening our social fabric, from the ubiquitous smile and head-nod of strangers riding the bus to the wave of a toddler zooming past on the back of an e-bike.

Highway widening as the go-to solution for traffic congestion is a failure of attention and imagination. We need to direct the attention of the decision makers who allocate funding for transportation, housing, and transit to the true causes of congestion. And we need to expand our imagination of what’s possible to solve congestion from what has always been to what actually works.

Transform is leading the fight to move beyond highways as the answer to every transportation challenge. We’re working to find real solutions that improve people’s lives and stop climate change. We hope you’ll join us.