Silicon Valley badly needs transportation improvements. Without investments in transit, expressways, bike lanes and more, our quality of life and our economy will deteriorate.
Soon our community may have the opportunity to make decisions that can help make progress on these critical infrastructure issues. The Valley Transportation Authority is considering placing a quarter-cent sales tax on the November ballot. As has been done before, the voters of our region will have the chance to raise local revenues to fund our own local priorities.
This proposed measure will affect the quality of life of everyone who lives and works in our valley. Some will be affected more than others.
Transit is of particular importance to low-income families, seniors and the disabled. A minimum wage worker usually cannot afford to buy and/or operate a car; because of health impairments, some county residents may be unable to safely manage an auto in traffic. The number of such individuals is growing; seniors constitute a larger and larger share of our population and for all of our region’s well-known wealth, our economy generates massive numbers of poorly paid jobs.
For these major segments of our community, the core transportation service on which they depend is the bus system. The average household income of bus riders is just over $33,000 per year, much less than the income of those who depend on other forms of transit. Seventy-eight percent of bus patrons are people of color.
Low-wage workers need transit to get to jobs throughout the region. Families rely on the bus to get to supermarkets, schools, or relatives who care for their children while they work. Seniors rely on the bus system to see their doctor or get a hot meal with friends. Buses are a lifeline.
Over the last decade that system has endured both service cuts and fare hikes. A $70 monthly pass can consume a full day’s wages. A missed connection on a multi-hour bus trip can cost you your job.
Every day at Sacred Heart Community Service we see hundreds of households whose daily survival revolves around a costly and slow network that does not always take you where you need to go.
Allocating resources to our bus lifeline is sound transportation policy. After all, the goal of public transit is to get people where they want to go. When bus routes are designed to take people to important destinations, they use public transportation. When the wait times between buses decreases, ridership increases. Lower fares make transit a more attractive alternative.
Today, transportation professionals, business leaders and elected officials are considering specific programs and projects that may receive revenue from a new tax. Services for seniors, the disabled and the working poor need to receive a fair share of these service augmentations.
A grass-roots coalition of advocates and human service providers known as the Silicon Valley Transportation Justice Alliance is recommending specific improvements to the bus system:
- More frequent service on the highest-ridership routes.
- Restoration of routes to destinations that low-income families and seniors rely upon.
- Reducing fares for needy youth and low-income riders.
- Programs to make riding the bus easier and more comfortable for seniors.
- Safer, more attractive bus stops.
We should grasp this opportunity to use transportation policy to help reduce the growing economic divide in our valley. Seniors have paid taxes for decades; low wage workers pay a larger share of their income for sales taxes than others. Improvements to the bus system can enable them to benefit from the regional transportation system that a new ballot measure will help to create.
Derecka Mehrens is executive director of Working Partnerships USA. Poncho Guevara is executive director of Sacred Heart Community Service. Diana Hermone is president and business agent of ATU Local 265. This article first appeared in the San Jose Mercury News.
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