SPUR Transportation Policy Area Header

Transportation

We believe: Walking, biking, and taking transit should be the safest
and best ways to get around for people of all ages and abilities.

Our Goal


• Reduce emissions from transportation.

• Reduce driving.

• Build complete communities around transit.

• Make Bay Area transit work for the 21st century.

• Eliminate traffic deaths.

a bus traveling unimpeded in a transit-only lane

SPUR Report

Making Roads Work for Transit

Transit delays and unreliability can make riding the bus a nonstarter for those who have other ways to get around. Giving transit vehicles priority on Bay Area roads can deliver the speed and reliability improvements needed to get more people on buses and out of cars.
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cyclist riding on a road with separated bike lanes

Policy Brief

Accelerating Sustainable Transportation in California

To fight climate pollution, California will need to build out the infrastructure to make walking, biking and riding transit the default ways to get around. SPUR makes the case to extend state legislation that is making it faster to build commonsense sustainable transportation projects.
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A mostly empty parking lot viewed from above

SPUR Report

The Bay Area Parking Census

For decades, parking in the Bay Area has been both ubiquitous and uncounted. SPUR and the Mineta Transportation Institute have produced the San Francisco Bay Area Parking Census, the most detailed assessment of parking infrastructure ever produced for the region.
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Updates and Events

cover of brief with title in white text on red background

The Next 100 Days

Policy Brief
San Francisco’s new mayor has made significant strides in his first 100 days in office. To maintain the momentum for change, the Lurie administration will need to set priorities in a time of many competing needs. SPUR’s new brief offers a framework for developing policies to streamline government operations, revitalize downtown, create more housing, support transit, prepare for climate hazards and earthquakes, and reduce fossil fuel use.
San Francisco Summer

Why SPUR Is Supporting SB 63, a Tax Measure to Keep Transit Alive

News /
Drastic cuts in the Bay Area’s transit services are all but guaranteed absent a regional transit funding measure. Senate Bill 63 would authorize several counties to place a tax measure on the November 2026 ballot in an effort to avoid such cuts. SPUR strongly supports the bill because it represents a practical and politically realistic framework to keep the region’s largest transit operators from going over a fiscal cliff.

SPUR Supports SB 63

Advocacy Letter
Drastic cuts in the Bay Area’s transit services are all but guaranteed absent a regional transit funding measure. Senate Bill 63 would authorize placement of a multicounty tax measure on the November 2026 ballot in an effort to avoid such cuts. SPUR is fully supporting the bill because it represents a practical and politically realistic framework to keep the region’s largest transit operators from going over a fiscal cliff
Cover of report with title in white text on blue background

Success on the Street

Policy Brief
For years, California’s bureaucratic environmental review process held up transportation projects designed to reduce carbon emissions, including transit upgrades and bike lanes. Recent legislation changes created a temporary exemption for sustainable projects, which has allowed 92 climate-friendly projects to move forward. To keep this momentum going and meet state climate goals, California must make the exemption permanent. SPUR’s new brief makes the case for this and other changes to streamline sustainable transportation in California.

State Budget Request to Save and Support Transit

Advocacy Letter
SPUR has led a coalition effort to support Senator Arreguín's request for $2 billion in the state budget to save and support transit. The request would provide funding to transit agencies around the state- many of whom are experiencing some form of fiscal crisis and are at risk of cutting service. In the Bay Area, this funding is urgently needed to act as a "bridge" keeping BART, MUNI and other operators solvent in the near term while the region works to raise more durable funding via a regional measure and local initiatives expected in 2026.

SPUR comments on the state transit transformation task force funding options

Advocacy Letter
SPUR is serving on the State Transit Transformation Task Force, established by SB 125 (2023). Among other topics, the Task Force is required to develop recommendations about how to fund and finance public transit. SPUR provided questions and reflections about the preliminary financial analysis, as well as strategies and recommendations for short-term, medium-term, and long-term funding.
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