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Transportation

Our goal: Make walking, biking, taking transit and carpooling the default options for getting around

SPUR’s Five-Year Priorities:


Improve the region’s transit network, and the institutions that run it, so that all people have fast, reliable access to their city and region.

Make it faster, easier, more dignified and less expensive to get around without a car.

Leverage transportation investments to build great neighborhoods and connect people to opportunity.

 

​​ Read our policy agenda

SPUR Report

A Regional Transit Coordinator for the Bay Area

The Bay Area’s two dozen different transit services would be easier for riders to use if they functioned like a single network. This type of coordination is complex, but that’s not why it hasn’t been done. The real reason is that it’s not anyone’s responsibility.

SPUR Report

More for Less

Around the world, building major transit projects is notoriously difficult. Yet the Bay Area has an especially poor track record: Major projects here take decades from start to finish, and our project costs rank among the highest in the world. SPUR offers policy proposals that will save time, save money and add up to a reliable, integrated and frequent network that works better for everyone.

SPUR Report

Value Driven

Roads and parking are expensive to build, but they’re mostly free for drivers to use as much as they’d like. This kind of free access imposes serious costs on others: traffic, climate change, air pollution, and heart and lung disease. SPUR’s new report Value Driven shines a light on the invisible costs of driving and offers five pioneering strategies to address them.

SPUR Report

The Future of Transportation

Will the rise of new mobility services like Uber and bike sharing help reduce car use, climate emissions and demand for parking? Or will they lead to greater inequality and yet more reliance on cars? SPUR proposes how private services can work together with public transportation to function as a seamless network and provide access for people of all incomes, races, ages and abilities.

SPUR Report

Seamless Transit

The Bay Area’s prosperity is threatened by fragmentation in the public transit system: Riders and decision-makers contend with more than two dozen transit operators. Despite significant spending on building and maintaining transit, overall ridership has not been growing in our region. How can we get more benefit from our transit investments?

SPUR Report

Caltrain Corridor Vision Plan

The Caltrain Corridor, home of the Silicon Valley innovation economy, holds much of the Bay Area’s promise and opportunity, but its transportation system is breaking down. Along this corridor — which includes Hwy 101 and Caltrain rail service from San Francisco to San Jose — the typical methods of getting around have become untenable.

Updates and Events


It’s Time to Think Bigger About the Future of Caltrain

News /
As Silicon Valley’s economy and population grow, the Peninsula is in dire need of transportation solutions. Caltrain has the potential to provide frequent, all-day transit service that could greatly reduce driving and serve more people. To deliver on this service vision, Caltrain must also develop a bigger organizational vision. One that enables it to meet the needs — and challenges — of the future.

SPUR Supports SB 127, Complete Streets for Active Living

Advocacy Letter
SPUR urges Governor Newsom to sign SB 127 which requires Caltrans to consider bicycle and pedestrian safety improvements when it repairs or repaves state routes that serve as local streets. The bill will help ensure Californians can live healthy, active lives regardless of who owns the streets in their neighborhood.

SPUR provides comments on the City of San Jose proposed extension of the downtown high-rise incentive program

Advocacy Letter
SPUR supports staff recommendation to extend the downtown high-rise incentive program until 2023. While we believe that downtown must have a large concentration of jobs to support transit, it is also important to maximize the potential of high-rise residential development downtown. This program helps ease the financial burden due to the cost of construction and land to help spur greater development in the urban core.

Tackling Inequality

Urbanist Article
Collaboration has been key to solving’s Miami's most pressing challenges around housing, transit and access to economic opportunity.

SPUR provides comments to California High-Speed Rail Authority Board regarding the staff recommended preferred alternative for the San Jose to Merced project section.

Advocacy Letter
SPUR supports staff's recommendation to move forward with Alternative #4 for the San Jose to Merced section. This is a key milestone for California High Speed Rail. SPUR further recommends that the Board update the project EIR/EIS for this alternative once the rail alignment is determined through the Diridon Integrated Station Concept (DISC) plan is completed.