Building a Sustainable Future for California Public Transit

Overview

For decades, public transit has been asked to do more and more. Yet most policy recommendations in California and beyond center on making modest changes to service provision and fare policy to squeeze more out of existing resources. Much greater change and new resources will be needed to substantially increase ridership in order to realize California’s ambitious transportation, climate, and equity goals.

This project seeks to reimagine public transit as a central backbone of urban transportation systems and a service that can be relied on by most Californians. The research program has two key objectives: 1) identify sustainable funding and governance models for public transit in California in the near- and long-term and 2) help transit compete more effectively with other modes for street space and customers. Researchers will meet these objectives through five tracks of work: case studies of public transit funding, analyzing institutional design considerations for regional transit governance, exploring the congestion pricing program recently implemented in Manhattan for application elsewhere, evaluating impacts of various policies intended to increase ridership, and identifying transit service gaps across the state based on governance areas.

The project will investigate:

What funding models exist for transit in the medium- and long-term?
How can transit better compete for riders, street space, and public support?
How do workforce, manufacturing, technology, and governance shape transit’s future?

Key Research Activities

Initiative Leadership

Research Team Members

Working Group

Overview

Research Lead

Kari Watkins

Policy Analyst

Jacob Wasserman