The following thoughts are not the position of STAR, though some might become so over time. Instead, they are the things that transit advocates are talking about, particularly in the wake of the failed Measure A transportation sales tax.

1. We don’t need a better Measure A. We need something completely different. Right after the failure, many people were thinking and saying that if Measure A 2024 were better, for example, by eliminating the Southeast Connector, it would be OK. Almost no one in the transit and transportation world is saying that any more. Measure A, and the similar if not quite as bad tax measures that came before it (2016, 2020), are in fact bad news for transportation and the livability of our county and region.
2. Measure A did not address equity and the history of disinvestment in lower income communities. At all. In Sacramento County, that means primarily south Sacramento, north Sacramento, and Arden-Arcade. Transportation funding must account for and heal past disinvestment. It has been suggested that a significant dedicated portion of any transportation investment should go to disinvested communities, as defined by SB 535 Disadvantaged Communities. And the planning must be done with those communities and not for those communities. Civic Thread has been a leading voice for looking at transportation though an equity lens.
3. Sales tax may not be the right funding mechanism at all. As sales tax levels increase, for the funding of other government activities, to levels that are hurting many people, we become more and more reluctant to think of sales tax as a solution. Sales tax is regressive, meaning that lower income people spend a significantly higher percentage of their money on sales tax that do higher income people. That doesn’t mean that transit advocates would oppose a sales tax measure, but it would have to be one that really solved a lot of issues, particularly for lower income people.
4. Transit advocates have come to an understanding that any transportation expenditure that increases roadway capacity works against the success of transit. When we widen roads and add freeway lanes (whether regular or managed lanes) and build new interchanges, we are encouraging and subsidizing drivers to drive. To the tune of billions of dollars of your tax money. And through induced travel, we are clogging the streets that buses must use to provide good transit service. We need to stop capacity expansion, now, and forever more. We have built wider roads for drivers for the last hundred years, and all it has gotten us is sprawling cities, intentional harm to communities of color, air pollution, climate change, traffic violence, and yes, more and more congestion.
5. It is a STAR position of long standing that transit must be funded at the level of an equivalent of one-half cent of sales tax. Not that it should be sales tax, but that is the amount of investment needed to have an effective transit system. The governor has proposed to reduce funding for transit, but the legislature seems opposed to that idea and is talking about increasing funding. Please keep a eye on those efforts. State funding is an important portion of funding for transit agencies.
6. We are coming to believe more and more that light rail extension is not the transit that the county or region needs right now. We need buses, buses, buses. We need to greatly increase the number of routes that run a frequency of 10 to 15 minutes (we have only two right now, and sort of a third). People should be able to meet their needs without having to consult schedules, and without being victimized by infrequent buses, cancelled buses, and missed transfers. We also need more coverage. The issue of coverage is complex, because much of the county is low density, at a level where it is difficult to create a successful transit network. The first actions for coverage should consider the needs of the disinvested communities, because those are the places where people don’t have cars, or don’t have reliable cars, or can’t budget for the high cost of a car.
7. Most transit advocates believe that we should complete the SacRT light rail modernization project that will bring low floor service (though SacRT bollixed this one by not making it level boarding). Many transit advocates believe that light rail extensions such as the double-tracking to serve Folsom and the streetcar/light rail extension to West Sacramento should only continue if they are already fully funded. To the greatest degree legally possible, infrastructure funding should be shifted to bus service, and to any new buses necessary to meet increased service levels.
8. Transit advocates have long known, and now many more people are coming to the realization, that it is impossible to have successful transit without sufficient density created by infill housing, and that it is impossible to have truly affordable housing without great transit service. The concept of transit oriented development (TOD) begins to get at this nexus, but unfortunately too much affordable housing has gone in along arterial roads, where transit may be accessible, but walking and bicycling for kids and anyone else is not safe or desirable. We recognize that transit and housing must be planned together. We don’t know yet whether they should be funded together, but that idea is being discussed.
9. STAR believes that discussions of free fares are valuable, though we have not taken a position beyond supporting free fares for youth, which SacRT has implemented. Fare box recovery, as it is called, never accounted for more than 20% of operations costs, and is less since the pandemic, so fare income is not insignificant, but is not the solution.
10. We are in a climate crisis. Actions, and funding, that contribute to solving that crisis are welcome. Actions and funding which do not, are not welcome.

Your feedback on these ideas is welcome. STAR wants to hear from riders and transit advocates about the future that they would like to see, and that input does influence our policy positions. And of course we encourage your participation in and support of the transit advocacy organizations in the region.

• transit