Bay Area public transit agencies should be consolidated by mode
California’s Legislature has an “on again, off again” approach toward consolidating the Bay Area’s 27 transportation districts. The most recent effort to merge the agencies, Senate Bill 397, introduced by Fremont Democrat Aisha Wahab, was quickly withdrawn after most transit agencies opposed the legislation.
Their opposition to consolidation has to do with politics and human nature and little toward efficiency and passenger convenience. The human nature aspect is that each district’s board members understandably love their assignment. It’s not just the stipend or perks they receive. They enjoy their role believing they are doing useful work while protecting their constituencies’ interests.
Staff members that might be impacted by decreasing management headcount are equally passionately opposed. Who wouldn’t be if some efficiency freaks suggested that your six-figure employment in a field you love and are good at be abolished in the name of saving tax dollars?
That opposition shouldn’t divert taxpayers from understanding that, like Marin’s 17 school districts, it’s far more efficient to combine bureaucracies by managing public transit and schools with fewer governing bodies. Then, direct cash saved toward transit enhancements and, in schools, toward student needs and classroom teachers.