Get on the Bus! Retaking Bay Area Public Transit
Peninsula DSA transit campaigners and comrades enjoy an in-person social in San Mateo May 2, 2025.
How DSA Members Can Help Save Regional Services
In the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area, public transportation is in existential crisis. Many of our transit agencies are racing toward fiscal cliffs: By mid-2026, projected revenue for Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), Caltrain, Muni, and others will not be enough to cover operating costs. Though our transit systems have faced structural deficits before, this time is different: Losing one-time COVID relief funds while struggling to regain pre-COVID ridership has blown a combined $800 million-dollar hole in budgets that have already survived multiple rounds of austerity measures.
To avoid financial collapse, these agencies anticipate massive service cuts that will leave more than one million working class people without safe and reliable routes to work, school, shopping, and loved ones. We previewed this “new normal” on May 9 when a small malfunction shut down BART and stranded 170,000 weekday commuters all around the Bay. Those who couldn’t find a bus turned to predatory ride-share companies, whose services cost 10-20 times more than the usual transit fare.
The financial precarity of Bay Area public transit is the logical result of decades of systemic disinvestment, intentional fragmentation, and unabashed NIMBYism. Each of our 27 transit operators must plan its own infrastructure and negotiate its routes in 101 municipalities, with every project subject to unilateral changes and at risk of last-minute cancellation. Bedroom communities on Peninsula DSA’s home turf are specifically at fault for refusing to participate in regional transit planning. From San Mateo County’s withdrawal from the full BART network in 1961 to filthy rich Atherton’s attempt to weaponize CEQA to block Caltrain's electrification in 2015, our local leaders rarely miss an opportunity to subsidize and normalize car dependency. (Thankfully, their latest pet project, a highway-widening scheme connecting Highway 101 to SR 92 / San Mateo Bridge, is facing stiff public opposition because it would remove homes without reducing traffic or commute times.)
The only way forward is securing sustainable new sources of revenue for the public transit ecosystem as a whole. The state Senate passed Senator Scott Weiner (District 11) and Senator Jesse Arreguín (District 7)’s five-county regional funding measure (SB 63) that would go to voters in November 2026. The measure would rescue transit agencies in the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Francisco by levying a sales tax of at least 1/2 cent over 10–15 years, though the revenue still wouldn’t be enough to preserve the current level of service.
Though we support any solution that prevents transit apocalypse , this “pragmatic” solution repeats two historical mistakes. First, although San Mateo County and Santa Clara County have the highest median incomes and home values in California, SB 63 allows either county to choose a lower tax rate (1/4 cent) or simply “opt out” of participation, denying access to their robust tax base. Second, no matter how noble the cause, adding yet another sales tax to everyday items will hit working class people the hardest. Adding insult to injury, we’d end up paying more for less service because even the maximum sales tax wouldn’t keep pace with rampant inflation and arbitrary tariffs.
For months, San Mateo County’s transit agency, SamTrans, has declined to support or oppose the regional funding measure that would preserve local BART and Caltrain service. (SamTrans has structural deficits too, but not until fiscal year 2027.) Though the nine-member Board of Directors (BOD) has approved another round of polling, they seem fixated on just how much tax “the public” might accept rather than what awful consequences their riders will face should SB 63 fail. Their hesitancy isn’t surprising: No SamTrans board members regularly ride public transit, let alone depend on it. And some live in communities such as Hillsborough (median household income $250,000+), which is accessible only by car, and Redwood Shores, which has a single bus route that runs only during school dropoff and pickup hours—and takes summers off!
Peninsula DSA showed up to the San Francisco May Day rally to talk transit and Palestinian liberation.
New Polling Provides Hope for Progressive Tax Solution
Fortunately, pro-transit organizations and activists across the Bay Area are uniting to pressure San Mateo County and Santa Clara County to pay their fair share. Our new demand is a gross receipts tax on all business activities, similar to San Francisco’s GR tax. Bay Area Forward, a group of transit unions (including SEIU), operators, and activists, just surveyed likely 2026 voters and found that 61% would support a gross receipts tax. The race is on to build enough public support to pressure other San Mateo County decision makers—San Mateo County Transit Authority (SMCTA), the Board of Supervisors, C/CAG—into advising SamTrans to “opt in” to SB 63 by the August 11 deadline.Once our county is confirmed to be in play, Peninsula DSA and our coalition partners will have a more than a year to boost public support through canvassing, flyering, and more.
Peninsula DSA now organizes with Transbay Coalition, as part of its San Mateo County cadre, and with Seamless Bay Area. Our chapter has promoted regional socials and led flyering events at BART and Caltrain stations to inform riders of proposed cuts. (The coalition’s next big event is a rally for public transit at the Millbrae BART/Caltrain station on July 1.) Every month, we mobilize to make public comments—whether in person, by Zoom, or via email—at the SamTrans BOD meetings. Transbay Coalition members now hold three of eleven seats on the SamTrans Citizens Advisory Committee and are actively recruiting like-minded folks for four vacant seats.
We call on our fellow socialists to join our fight for public transit in four ways:
Push your chapter to use public transit. Like public libraries, public transit budgets rise or fall with public demand. If the coordinated Montgomery bus boycott ended racial segregation, a coordinated bus-riding effort by California DSA chapters could force more public investment. A great place to start is making all chapter meetings, socials, and events fully accessible by transit!
Join your local transit coalition so we can fight on a unified front. There are pro-transit organizers already at work near you; see this joint letter that Move California sent to Sacramento legislators for 100 different organizations!
Make public comments at agency board meetings. Because the monthly BOD meeting of your local transit agency is probably underattended, your public comment can directly influence decision makers. Use your two or three minutes to air socialist perspectives and solutions! You can show solidarity with Peninsula DSA by commenting in person or via Zoom in favor of SB 63 at the next SamTrans meeting on Wednesday, July 2. (Details at peninsuladsa.org/public-transit.)
Support your local transit workers (e.g, ATU, SEIU, TWU AFL-CIO). Santa Clara County’s Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) workers proved so essential that a Superior Court judge ordered them back to work on March 26, 2025. Imagine the transit we could win when we stand in solidarity with the workers who provide it.
Transit coalitions
Bay Area
Bay Area Safe Routes to School
Transit Riders Unions
San Francisco Transit Riders (includes Transit Justice Coalition)
Bicyclists
California Bicycle Coalition
Marin County Bicycle Coalition
San Francisco Bicycle Coalition
Silicon Valley Bike Coalition (includes San Mateo County)