The San Francisco Bay Area is facing a funding crisis for many of its public transit programs. Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), which serves riders across five of the area’s most populous counties, is considering cutting 70 percent of its service and closing up to 15 of 50 stations, some 30 percent. Caltrain, the area’s leading local commuter rail system, could discontinue weekend service and shutter up to a third of its stations. Two major local transit systems, San Francisco’s Muni and AC Transit in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, could also shut down lines. Paratransit would also be impacted, even beyond the potentially longer wait times and fewer slots that transit cuts will inevitably cause.
“The biggest thing about paratransit [that] people don’t realize is it’s tied to our fixed route,” said Michelle Rousey, a member of the East Bay Paratransit Access Committee. “So if you cut fixed-route [lines], you’re inevitably cutting paratransit users too.”
The chosen headline here and OP’s summary are kinda counter productive and misleading. There are two ballot measures on the ballot to fix funding. The cuts will probably happen if they don’t pass. But the way this post is written implies that the cuts will happen and there is nothing that can be done about it. Which is kinda dangerous during an election. Unsurprisingly the comments section mirrors the post.
Thank you for the clarification. I hate the misleading stuff, hard bias and sometimes outright disinformation you find online. Sadly also here.
The article itself makes it much clearer that this is a vote and that the outcome is uncertain. Hence an article to show what is actually at stake.
In an area of such incredible wealth, they first cut funding for the most needing it.
Sounds like the people of the Bay Area need to dunk a lot of Neoliberal politicians in the bay. They can join their worthless hero Milton Friedman out there.
Neolibs cosplaying as libertarians seem over represented in tech.
And underrepresented in crime victim statistics.
That’s the problem with Democrats, most if not all are neo liberals that believe in the same economics as Republicans. Literally a shit situation and why California is an absolute SHITHOLE to live in. I know, it’s depressing here.
Democrats are left of republicans, but globally they’re on the right. The USA has fundamental issues with democracy as there’s no proportional representation leading to a two party state.
Because they just can’t resist more traffic? People commute from across the Bay and shit, this would be a disaster I think.
Makes sense, its not like there’s any money in the area. Sometimes it’s just impossible to pay for things…
stop fixing roads and divert the funds here
Do you think busses levitate? They need roads as well.
how much does installing shocks big enough to drive on unmaintained roads cost vs maintaining the roads?
Busses in USA are absolutely horrible for rough roads. Some of the electric BYDs ride better but standard busses are absolutely garbage
road maintenance is really expensive and school busses come in variants that drive fine on dirt roads (I only remember three times a bus went off the road in four years with three buses and those were all from snow/ice before they put on chains for the year)
That’s cool Buddy.
The area’s transit funding crisis was exacerbated by ridership that plunged at the beginning of the Covid pandemic and remains too low to fill the coffers of BART
knew it. COVID dropped ridership and it never fully recovered. the same thing happened where I am, they’ve been cutting bus and light rail lines and reducing schedules for the last few years due to low ridership. I’m part of it, pre-covid I used light rail often, but now I work remote and moved as well and hardly ride public transit now.
Shame it’s sales tax but people should pass it.
Ideally would prefer cap gains tax at the state level get used towards maintaining public transit like this.
absolutely bonkers
sounds like a good way to make nobody use their transit
It’s interesting to see the implications of such drastic cuts to public transit in San Francisco. While I understand budget constraints, I’m concerned about how this may disproportionately affect lower-income communities who rely on these services. Have you thought about how other cities might adapt their models instead? street view
The American ideology of austerity has been admired by many center and right wing parties in Europe and every time it’s been a tragedy.
