Tag Archives: AC Transit

Bay Area

Fare hikes in the Bay Area starting July 1

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Facing budget difficulties in the upcoming fiscal year, three Bay Area agencies will be raising fares on July 1. Agencies include Muni in San Francisco, AC Transit in the East Bay, and Caltrain.

For the last several years, Muni, AC Transit, and Caltrain held off fare hikes due to the pandemic relief funds and the desire of maintaining ridership after a sharp decline since the pandemic social distancing restrictions. For Muni, this is the second phase of fare hike post-COVID since the first phase in January. Meanwhile, BART has been raising fares for the last few years as part of long standing policy.

In addition to budgetary needs, many agencies find fares necessary to improve public safety onboard transit. Rather than skipping fares, Bay Area agencies encourage low-income riders to participate in the Clipper Start program, where qualified riders receive a 50% discount on regular adult one-way fares across the Bay Area.

Bay Area

San Mateo Bridge Transit

A fact of life on the Peninsula is that during rush hours, the 101 freeway is jammed in both direction leading to SR-92 and SR-92 is also jammed leading to the San Mateo Bridge. Unfortunately, unlike nearly all other Bay Area bridges, this bridge has no transit option currently for the general public nor a route for cyclists. Commuters either have to drive themselves, make informal arrangements for carpool, lucky enough to have employer sponsored shuttles, or use other bridge corridors on transit or bike/micromobility. Why hasn’t transit worked for the San Mateo Bridge?

Remaining portion of original bridge that turned into a pier (right). High rise portion of the current bridge (left).

Even though the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge first opened to traffic in 1929, and being the second road bridge to be opened crossing San Francisco Bay (after Dumbarton Bridge), I was not able to find history of scheduled bus service on the bridge before SamTrans introduced the 90E route between San Mateo and Hayward BART in 1977. In the early decades, the Peninsula and East Bay regions outside Oakland and Berkeley were mostly rural. Primary transbay transit service was ferries from Oakland and eventually interurban rail and buses over the Bay Bridge.

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