For the first time in history, the Bay Area is working on a region-wide “Transit Priority Network” to make buses and local transit faster and more reliable.
Buses are moving slower as they get caught in traffic.
The Bay Area has been trying to make local transit faster, but improvements take a long time to happen. Sometimes cities reject or delay transit priority projects, supporting the status quo, and not pursuing creative and practical solutions that would allow people to move affordably, quickly and safely.
We need your help to speed up our buses and get local governments on board. Below is more about what transit priority is and a toolkit you can use to get your local government to pass a transit priority policy.
What is Transit Priority?
Transit Priority refers to transit-supportive infrastructure, design, and policies that decrease transit vehicle travel times and enable them to move more reliably by avoiding traffic congestion and minimizing delays.
Speed and reliability improvements make buses and light rail much more appealing, helping more people choose to take transit, walk and bike rather than drive. When buses complete their trips in less time, they can come more frequently for the same amount of public funding, delivering public outcomes more cost-effectively.
Speeding up buses means shorter trip times, more frequent service for the same cost.
Some examples of transit priority include: Transit lanes • High-occupancy vehicle lanes • Transit signal priority • Queue-jump lanes • Transit bulbs or boarding islands • Strategic traffic/parking regulations • Optimized transit stop placement and spacing • Off-board fare payment or all-door boarding
What do we need to speed up our buses?
Urge your city and county to adopt a local Transit Priority Policy to establish a clear, orderly process for local governments, transit operators and the public to consider improvements to roadway design and planning on a programmatic basis.
Instead of each potential transit feature being subject to project by project negotiations, the Transit Priority Policy is guided by a Transit Priority Network and processes that routinely considers and implements transit priority improvements.