![]() As previously reported, Seamless is trying to create an umbrella management structure-a "network manager"-to oversee and integrate schedules and fares on all the region's trains, buses, and ferries. "So many riders rely on multiple agencies, but there’s nobody accountable for all the agencies as a whole," said Ian Griffiths with Seamless Bay Area. That's all well and good for BART, but with 27 different management structures, riders still have to navigate the disparate results of all those different boards as soon as they transfer from one system to another. We have to find ways to bring people into the conversation as much as possible." For example, "I go out to the stations with people with disabilities, testing out the new fare-gate options," she said. Li said it's essential for board members to overcome that and get out in the field and see how the high-level management issues work for real people. But it seems sometimes that’s disconnected from the actual human beings who will be affected." ![]() "Or even around people with disabilities, we talk about how new fare gates would be theoretically helpful. "We talk about increasing headways or we talk about fare policy as benefiting low income ," she gave as examples. She added that after an exhausting campaign, board members then find themselves trying to decipher arcane and technical issues. "Down-ballot fundraising is so hard, and our districts are so large." But running for the board isn't easy, explained Janice Li of the BART Board, another of the panelists. In theory, that should make their boards more representative of the riders. In fact, only AC Transit and BART have constituent-elected boards. "But if you searched the document you don’t find the word wheelchair."Ī look at different governance systems, plus three of the panelists and Adina Levin, who introduced them. It was forward-looking, addressing land use and the environment, housing concerns, issues of social and economic justice," said Frank Welte with the California Council for the Blind, another of the panelists. ![]() ![]() "The MTC was in the process of rolling out the very exciting Bay Area Plan 2050, our long-range plan. Similar issues of boards not understanding the needs of riders comes up in the disabled community. "Women receive greater violence and harassment on transit without women on boards we don’t see that in our discussions of safety." She said it isn't always necessary for boards to perfectly match the geographic, ethnic, and gender makeup of the transit-riding public, but t hey must understand that the needs of their riders may be different. "Men in general and white men in particular are overrepresented on boards," said Stephanie Lotshaw of TransitCenter, referring to the results of Who Rules Transit, a new study. That was a key takeaway from a panel discussion held Thursday afternoon by Seamless Bay Area and TransitCenter aimed at looking at how transit governance works and why it often fails its riders. If transit is governed primarily by white, male, 9-to-5 commuters, it's probably not going to work well for, say, a senior trying to get to a medical appointment in the middle of the day. ![]()
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