Transportation

We believe: Walking, biking, and taking transit should be the safest
and best ways to get around for people of all ages and abilities.

Our Goal

• Reduce emissions from transportation.

• Reduce driving.

• Build complete communities around transit.

• Make Bay Area transit work for the 21st century.

• Eliminate traffic deaths.

a bus traveling unimpeded in a transit-only lane

SPUR Report

Making Roads Work for Transit

Transit delays and unreliability can make riding the bus a nonstarter for those who have other ways to get around. Giving transit vehicles priority on Bay Area roads can deliver the speed and reliability improvements needed to get more people on buses and out of cars.

cyclist riding on a road with separated bike lanes

Policy Brief

Accelerating Sustainable Transportation in California

To fight climate pollution, California will need to build out the infrastructure to make walking, biking and riding transit the default ways to get around. SPUR makes the case to extend state legislation that is making it faster to build commonsense sustainable transportation projects.

A mostly empty parking lot viewed from above

SPUR Report

The Bay Area Parking Census

For decades, parking in the Bay Area has been both ubiquitous and uncounted. SPUR and the Mineta Transportation Institute have produced the San Francisco Bay Area Parking Census, the most detailed assessment of parking infrastructure ever produced for the region.

Cover of report with title in white text on blue background

Success on the Street

Policy Brief March 11, 2025

For years, California’s bureaucratic environmental review process held up transportation projects designed to reduce carbon emissions, including transit upgrades and bike lanes. Recent legislation changes created a temporary exemption for sustainable projects, which has allowed 92 climate-friendly projects to move forward. To keep this momentum going and meet state climate goals, California must make the exemption permanent. SPUR’s new brief makes the case for this and other changes to streamline sustainable transportation in California.

SPUR comments on the state transit transformation task force funding options

Advocacy Letter February 10, 2025

SPUR is serving on the State Transit Transformation Task Force, established by SB 125 (2023). Among other topics, the Task Force is required to develop recommendations about how to fund and finance public transit. SPUR provided questions and reflections about the preliminary financial analysis, as well as strategies and recommendations for short-term, medium-term, and long-term funding.

A Permanent Path for Climate-Friendly Transportation Projects: Q&A with Laura Tolkoff

News / January 17, 2025

This week, Senator Scott Wiener introduced Senate Bill 71, which would make permanent a successful pilot project that has jumpstarted dozens of sustainable transportation projects in California. SPUR has been a driving force behind this exemption and is a sponsor of this legislation. We asked Transportation Policy Director Laura Tolkoff to tell us what California has been able to accomplish with the exemption and what SB 71 will do.

California’s Largest Pedestrian Project Expands the Vision of a SPUR-Led Climate Adaptation Plan

News / December 9, 2024

San Francisco voters recently passed a SPUR-cosponsored measure to realize the largest pedestrian project in California’s history. The permanent promenade along a two-mile stretch of the coastal highway expands the vision of SPUR’s 2012 Ocean Beach Master Plan, the core elements of which the California Coastal Commission just approved. The win: a resilient public coastline offering community benefits.

Harnessing Local Support for Transit as National Uncertainty Deepens

News / November 15, 2024

Pandemic relief funds for public transit are running out, and the funding environment for transit is likely to worsen under the incoming Trump administration and Republican-controlled congress. While regional consensus on a potential future ballot measure to fund transit has been elusive, finding support for additional funding here in the Bay Area is more critical than ever. SPUR offers five principles for a regional funding measure likely to offer the broadest appeal to legislators and voters.

Planning Transit - SPUR Urbanist Header Image

Planning Transit for an Uncertain Future

Urbanist Article November 12, 2024

SPUR has long advocated for a robust, well-coordinated transit system as an essential part of an equitable, sustainable, and prosperous region. So, how are we reimagining the future of Bay Area transit, and our work, in a moment of uncertainty? First, we are more explicitly addressing the unknown with tools such as scenario planning. Second, we are refocusing on the aspects of the transit system over which operators and policymakers can exercise the greatest degree of control.