REDUNDANCY IN PUBLIC TRANSIT. VOLUME III: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF TRANSIT IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, 1945-63

This 4-volume study examines the problem of redundancy/duplication of transit services in the San Francisco Bay Area Transit System. Volume III, this volume, focuses on two concrete developments: 1) the historical process that produced the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) District in 1957 and the district's regional rapid transit plan, approved by the voters of Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Francisco counties in November 1962; and 2) the process that produced the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit (AC Transit) District in 1955 and 1956, and the particular transit service this district began operating in 1960. The relation between these two districts is one of the central concerns of this report. These developments are analyzed as contingent outcomes of a regional transit movement that was active during this period. Several aspects of this movement's history are analyzed. Government-owned interurban rapid transit, in addition to freeways and off-street parking, are discussed as transport means sought by business and political leaders in downtown San Francisco and Oakland to maintain and enhance their competitive positions and to gain shares of postwar economic growth. The composition of movement leadership groups is described; the informal and formal regional organizations they created are analyzed with particular reference to the internal conflicts that delayed the movement's progress in the early years, and then caused it to fracture and partially distintegrate. Transit was a controversial political area on which many places in the region sought to gain competitive locational advantages. (UMTA)

• Corporate Authors:

  University of California, Berkeley

  Institute of Urban and Regional Development
  Berkeley, CA  United States  94720

  Urban Mass Transportation Administration

  400 7th Street, SW
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Adler, S
• Publication Date: 1980-8

Media Info

• Pagination: 434 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Competition; Economic development; Politics; Public transit; Rapid transit; Redundancy; Regional economics; Regional transportation; Transportation planning
• Identifier Terms: San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District
• Subject Areas: Economics; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00334671
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: UMTA-CA-11-0001-81-3
• Files: TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Sep 16 1981 12:00AM