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

Challenges (and High Hopes) for Electric Vehicles in San Francisco

News /
Plug-in cars in San Francisco [Photo Credit: flickr user felixkramer] PG&E's clean energy blog, Next 100, recently explored the idea of the rise of electric vehicles in the Bay Area. At the recent Plug-In 2010 conference, PG&E President Chris Johns predicted that the Bay Area will see around 500,000 electric vehicles (EVs) "plugging in" over the next decade. From a sustainability perspective…

Public Art Installations to Guide Passengers of Central Subway

News /
Reflected Loop [Image via San Francisco Arts Commission] We are visual creatures. As such, we derive our orientation of our relative location according to the landmarks and visual reminders around us. This is especially evident in how we navigate urban areas, by remembering a block near a notable statue or fountain in an otherwise crowded arrangement of buildings. It's a common situation - getting…

Getting High Speed Rail Right-Enough

News /
The California High Speed Rail Authority met yesterday in San Francisco. The agenda was packed with many interesting things including a new station area development policy. But the real controversy was about the section between San Jose and San Francisco. I joined hundreds of people during public comment to weigh in on this one small segment. Over the past few years, a group…

SFpark Update

News /
SFpark has released a video demonstrating how the new and improved parking system can help reduce traffic, carbon emissions -- and road rage -- while driving on San Francisco streets. Find out more about the program in this blog post. SFpark Overview from SFpark on Vimeo.

Transit in the Valley

Urbanist Article
The South Bay has particular challenges when it comes to transit—a robust network of light-rail and buses, but some of the lowest ridership numbers in the country. Can better land-use policy help?

SFpark: Re-imagining How We Park in SF

News /
Taking the guess work out of parking. That's what SFMTA's innovative new parking program, SFpark, aims to accomplish. When implemented, the program will dramatically change how drivers locate and pay for parking. A new SFpark "smart meter" [Photo Credit: flickr user SFMTA_sfpark] Here's a quick breakdown of how SFpark works: Sensors located in parking spaces and City-owned garages will track real-time parking…
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