The Bay Area deserves better transit - support a transformational Bay Area transportation funding measure
To Bay Area State Senators Becker, Skinner, Cortese, Dodd, Glazer, Laird, McGuire, Wahab, and Wiener; Caltrain Directors Davis, Heminger, Zmuda, Walton, Medina, Mueller, Gee, Abe-Koga, and Burt; VTA Directors Abe-Koga, Blankley, Burt, Chavez, Cohen,
Bay Area transit needs to be much better, but is at risk of becoming much worse due to funding shortfalls. For the region to meet its climate, economic growth, affordability, air quality, public health, and justice goals we need drastically improved transit service.
In order for all Bay Area residents to have affordable, abundant, accessible mobility, each of our 27 transit agencies needs to provide significantly more service. That means more frequency, more routes, more hours of service, and better coordination between agencies. Bay Area residents deserve to be able to depend on transit for all their various mobility needs in their neighborhood and throughout the wider community.
Bay Area voters must be given the opportunity to vote for additional funding for transit agencies to provide the high quality transit services our communities deserve. The State and Federal governments also need to step up and provide funding for transit service, but we can’t wait for help from above.
We urge you to support SB1031 (Wiener/Wahab), the “Connect Bay Area Act.” It would authorize putting a critically important regional public transportation measure on the 2026 ballot that would enable voters to provide the funding needed to stop service cuts to Caltrain, BART, AC Transit, and fund service improvements in VTA's visionary network as well as all 27 Bay Area transit agencies.
The measure would also strengthen service coordination among the agencies. As Bay Area residents and workers, our lives take us across city and county lines. But unlike the seamless driving experience that connects all local, county and state roads, our transit experience is far from smoothly coordinated. Lack of coordination makes transit unnecessarily difficult, holds back ridership, and puts a heavy toll on people who depend on transit and those with long commutes due to our region’s housing affordability crisis.
The bill can and should be strengthened– for example, the highway expansion funding is unnecessary. We encourage you to work with the bill authors, transit agencies and community stakeholders to make this essential bill the best it can be for our communities, climate, and economy.
But efforts to strengthen the bill should not threaten its viability. Without this bill, no Bay Area transit agency will be able to offer the service our communities need. Also, without this bill, many transit agencies will be forced to slash service: stranding riders, clogging our roads, fouling our air, and stalling our economy.
We urge you to support SB 1031, the Connect Bay Area Act.
Sincerely,
Sponsored by
Additional Sponsors
To:
To Bay Area State Senators Becker, Skinner, Cortese, Dodd, Glazer, Laird, McGuire, Wahab, and Wiener; Caltrain Directors Davis, Heminger, Zmuda, Walton, Medina, Mueller, Gee, Abe-Koga, and Burt; VTA Directors Abe-Koga, Blankley, Burt, Chavez, Cohen,
From:
[Your Name]
Bay Area transit needs to be much better, but is at risk of becoming much worse. For the region to meet its climate, economic growth, affordability, air quality, public health, and justice goals we need drastically improved transit service.
In order for all Bay Area residents to have affordable, abundant, accessible mobility, each of our 27 transit agencies needs to provide significantly more service. That means more frequency, more routes, more hours of service, and better coordination between agencies. Bay Area residents deserve to be able to depend on transit for all their various mobility needs in their neighborhood and throughout the wider community.
Bay Area voters must be given the opportunity to vote ourselves the funding support our transit agencies need to provide the high quality transit services our communities deserve. The State and Federal governments also need to step up and provide funding for transit service, but we can’t wait for help from above.
We urge you to support SB1031 (Wiener/Wahab), the “Connect Bay Area Act.” It would authorize putting a critically important regional public transportation measure on the 2026 ballot that would enable voters to provide the funding needed to stop service cuts to Caltrain, BART, AC Transit, and fund service improvements in VTA's visionary network as well as all 27 Bay Area transit agencies.
The measure would also strengthen service coordination among the agencies. As Bay Area residents and workers, our lives take us across city and county lines. But unlike the seamless driving experience that connects all local, county and state roads, our transit experience is far from smoothly coordinated. These disconnects make transit unnecessarily difficult, hold back ridership, put a heavy toll on people who depend on transit, and those who have long commutes due to our region’s housing affordability crisis.
The bill can and should be strengthened– for example, the highway expansion funding is unnecessary. We encourage you to work with the bill authors, transit agencies and community stakeholders to make this essential bill the best it can be for our communities, climate, and economy.
But efforts to strengthen the bill should not threaten its viability. Without this bill, no Bay Area transit agency will be able to offer the service our communities need. Also, without this bill, many transit agencies will be forced to slash service: stranding riders, clogging our roads, fouling our air, and stalling our economy.
We urge you to support SB 1031, the Connect Bay Area Act.
Sincerely,