The Reform of Public Transit Governance in the Bay Area: A Comparative Institutional Analysis

Why is public transportation fragmented in the Bay Area, and what can be done to facilitate its
consolidation? There are over 20 distinct public transportation entities in the Bay Area, all competing
with one another for a declining rider base. The largest operator covers only approximately 45% of the
region’s overall public transportation market. This contrasts with comparable areas such as New York
City, whose largest operator, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, controls approximately 95% of
the city’s overall public transportation market. I conduct a historic analysis of Bay Area public transit’s
institutional evolution, supplemented by analyses of New York and the region around Seattle. Such
analyses provide insights into how the fragmented status quo arose in the Bay Area. These analyses
draw upon primary historic documents, such as contemporaneous committee reports and newspaper
articles, institutional histories previously drafted about regional public transit, policy reports, legal
statutes, public code provisions, and publicly available memoranda of understanding. Policy
recommendations to help facilitate consolidation in the Bay Area are generated at the conclusion of this
analysis. They are: amending Proposition 218, merging all pre-existing regional entities in the Bay Area,
and imbuing the Metropolitan Transportation Commission with a wider array of administrative powers.