On Wednesday August 20, dozens of transit supporters gathered at the Main Library to discuss the future of transit in San Francisco.
The summit was convened by the San Francisco Transit Riders, our City’s leading grassroots voice for public transit. SFTR also convenes the Transit Justice Coalition and Muni Now, Muni Forever campaign. Livable City was a sponsoring organization for the summit, and is an engaged participant in the coalition and the campaign.
The Transit Summit was open to anyone, and participants were invited to identify what’s essential to preserve about our current transit system, and the ways it can improve. Breakout groups discussed which transit services and programs were most essential and what should be improved as resources permit, how to improve the experience of transit as a shared public space, and to improve governance and accountability and empower the riders’ voice.
The collective intelligence raised at the Transit Summit will inform transit advocates’ near-term advocacy, including 2026 campaigns for essential transit funding, as well as outline a strategy for transforming San Francisco into the truly world-class transit-first City we officially aspire to be.
Few things are as crucial for healthy, equitable, and sustainable cities as high-quality transit. Transit is freedom to meet the needs of daily life, get to work, and stay connected to family, friends, culture, and nature. Without transit we won’t achieve our climate or environmental justice goals, satisfy our housing needs, or revitalize downtown and our neighborhood commercial corridors.
Transit is facing compounded threats, collectively the worst in decades. The imminent loss of federal transit funding, declining tax revenues, reduced office commuting, worsening traffic conflicts, and safety fears threaten what we have collectively built. Unless voters approve one or more new funding sources in 2026, users of Muni, BART, Caltrain, and AC transit will face extreme cuts to service. The threats are dire, but fortunately we have all the elements of a transit renaissance if we can put them together. San Francisco is a wealthy city in a wealthy region of a wealthy state. San Francisco and Bay Area voters understand the importance of public transit and a healthy environment, and have repeatedly voted to fund them. We have some strong transit champions among our elected officials – although others, including Mayor Lurie and Governor Newsom, ought to step up. SF Transit Riders, the Transit Justice Coalition, and the Muni Now, Muni Forever campaign is working hard to keep public transit and the threats it faces at the center of civic conversation, and grow support among the public and policymakers to solve transit’s near-term funding challenges and to keep making transit better and better.
You can sign up here to get involved in the Muni Now, Muni Forever campaign.
