Abstract
Public transit ridership has been slipping nationally and in California since 2014. The San Francisco Bay Area, with the highest share of transit trips in the state, had until recently resisted those trends, especially compared to Greater Los Angeles. However, in 2017 and 2018 the region lost over 27 million annual transit boardings, over 5 percent of all transit trips, despite a booming economy and service increases. The steepest ridership losses have come on buses, at off-peak times, on weekends, in non-commute directions, on outlying lines, and on operators that do not serve the region’s core employment clusters.Amidst falling Bay Area ridership, transit trips in the region are becoming much more commute-focused. Ridership at peak hours has grown dramatically, especially into and out of downtown San Francisco, resulting in severe overcrowding on Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). Researchers at the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies examined recent Bay Area ridership trends for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission in order to identify both possible causes of falling transit use as well as potential policy responses. The key dimensions of shifting Bay Area transit use are summarized below.