Despite a major drop in Bay Area transit ridership due to the COVID-19 pandemic, tens of thousands of commuters continue to rely on the transit system to get to work and conduct other essential errands. This fall, UC Berkeley planning and engineering graduate students Karl Reinhardt, Amy Thomson, and Andrew Tate conducted in-depth interviews with essential workers to understand their experience navigating the transportation network during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project examined the interviewees’ commute to three Bay Area cities: San Francisco, Oakland, and Palo Alto. Concerns about physical distancing, transit frequency, and public safety were commonly cited across all geographies.

On Wednesday, December 16, join our webinar to learn more about these essential workers’ travel patterns, and ideas for making our regional transit network more accessible and rider-friendly, both during the pandemic and beyond.