Transportation
Our goal: Make it fast, easy and inexpensive to get around without driving alone
SPUR’s Five-Year Priorities:
• Secure sufficient funding and evolve public institutions to accelerate the repair, renewal and buildout of our aging and outdated transit network.
• Dramatically increase the percentage of trips that are taken on foot, bike, carpool and transit, bringing down average regional drive-alone rates.
• Leverage transportation investments to shape and increase growth, expand access to opportunity, improve public spaces and enhance quality of life.
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
The Bigger Picture: Ten Ideas for Equitable Transportation in Oakland
SPUR ReportMany Bay Area freeways and rail lines were designed without regard for their impact on local communities. SPUR and AECOM look at how key regional transportation infrastructure currently intersects in Oakland — and how it might do so differently in the future. The next generation of transportation investments and policy could rectify past planning injustices to facilitate a healthy, climate resilient and equitable Oakland.
SPUR Encourages Blue Ribbon Task Force To Study a Network Manager, Push Harder on Making Buses Reliable, Fast and Fair
Policy LetterAs the Blue Ribbon Task Force for Transit Recovery wraps up, SPUR pushes for the region to study setting up a network manager as recommended in our 2020 report and urges the region to quickly move forward on simple actions that can make taking the bus faster and more reliable and develop a "connected network plan" --a long-term, durable vision for frequent regional transit service throughout the region--to investments in the network.
SPUR Supports The Future That High-Speed Rail Can Achieve
Policy LetterIn 2008, voters support high-speed rail and funded a portion of the project though Prop 1A. The Governor approved the release of the next tranche of Prop 1A funds but the Legislature is holding these funds back.
Six Ways We Can Create an Integrated Transit Network, Together
News /One of the barriers to restoring Bay Area transit ridership after the pandemic is the fragmented nature of our public transit system, which can discourage people from riding. To stimulate recovery of both the transit system and the economy, policymakers are now pushing for changes that will welcome riders back and make regional transit work for more people. To make the most of these opportunities, SPUR believes six principles should guide this work.
SPUR Encourages VTA to Restore its Service Hours to Meet Demand and Support Caltrain's Operating Needs.
Policy LetterAs the region reopens, the fastest way to bring riders back to transit and improve the experience of current riders is to restore and increase transit service. However, VTA has not yet restored service hours and is planning to withdraw its annual operating and maintenance contribution from Caltrain. Yet if transit is too sparse, people will not use it.
SPUR Supports AC Transit Quick Build Transit Program
Policy LetterSPUR coordinated with East Bay sustainable transportation advocates in support of AC Transit's plan to support ongoing quick-build bus improvements. AC Transit voted unanimously to dedicate staff resources toward identifying, designing, and implementing strategic, quick turn-around roadway changes that will make buses faster, more reliable, and easier to use.