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.
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.
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.

Updates and Events


Harnessing Local Support for Transit as National Uncertainty Deepens

News /
Pandemic relief funds for public transit are running out, and the funding environment for transit is likely to worsen under the incoming Trump administration and Republican-controlled congress. While regional consensus on a potential future ballot measure to fund transit has been elusive, finding support for additional funding here in the Bay Area is more critical than ever. SPUR offers five principles for a regional funding measure likely to offer the broadest appeal to legislators and voters.

Planning Transit for an Uncertain Future

Urbanist Article
SPUR has long advocated for a robust, well-coordinated transit system as an essential part of an equitable, sustainable, and prosperous region. So, how are we reimagining the future of Bay Area transit, and our work, in a moment of uncertainty? First, we are more explicitly addressing the unknown with tools such as scenario planning. Second, we are refocusing on the aspects of the transit system over which operators and policymakers can exercise the greatest degree of control.

SPUR Provides Principles for Consensus on a Future Regional Transportation Measure

Advocacy Letter
SPUR continues to actively participate in the development of a potential regional transportation funding measure. In this letter we provide principles for consensus to the MTC Legislation Committee as they consider how to shape enabling legislation for a future ballot measure to fund regional transit.

Take It From a Critic — Muni Is Actually Doing Great

News /
As an advocate for high-quality transit, SPUR has at times been one of Muni’s critics. In a 2005 report, we argued that the agency was in a downward spiral, but now Muni appears to be enjoying a virtuous cycle. That cycle can only continue with voter support of Propositions L and M on the November ballot.

Six SPUR-Sponsored Bills Will Become California Law

News /
The 2024 state legislative year ended with a number of big wins for SPUR and our partners in affordable housing and transportation advocacy. Governor Newsom signed hundreds of bills into law, including six pieces of SPUR-sponsored legislation that will make housing faster and easier to build, support development of interim housing for unhoused people, and make dangerous roads safer for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Funding Regional Transit — and Managing Risk in Uncertain Times

News /
SPUR is serving on an MTC-appointed select committee to explore legislation that would put a regional transit revenue measure on the ballot in a future election. Two other regional funding measure efforts — SB 1031 for transit, and the BAHFA bond for housing — were both paused earlier this year, casting a cautionary light on regional funding measures. Our recent comments to the committee focus on how to set up the current transit proposal for success.