During a House Transportation Committee hearing last week, Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) questioned witnesses about farebox recovery and improving public transportation ridership.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Well said. With that, I yield back.
00:02The gentleman yields, Mr. Dessalnier.
00:04Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:06Thank you, Ranking Member,
00:08and thank you to the witnesses.
00:10I'll start with Mr. Reagan.
00:12As you know, Mr. Reagan, I represent
00:14an urban-suburban district
00:16in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area.
00:18COVID has changed our world.
00:20We have the General Accounting Office
00:22working in my office
00:24with a study about
00:26the ten largest metropolitan areas,
00:28so sort of the opposite of the last comments,
00:30where 65% of the U.S. GDP is.
00:33All of those areas,
00:35and particularly in California,
00:37where we're trying to transition
00:39from a car culture
00:41and four-bedroom, two-bath houses
00:43to higher density and higher transit ridership
00:45in the Bay Area for years,
00:47we've aimed at trying to get to 10%
00:49peak trips on transit.
00:51We have diminishing returns
00:53on transit agencies and democracy,
00:55sort of the opposite of Los Angeles.
00:58But when we look at New York or London,
01:00London at 90%,
01:02and for climate change,
01:04our black box for emissions,
01:06that's where our biggest challenge is.
01:08And then along comes COVID.
01:10Because of our tax structure
01:12in California
01:14and Prop 13,
01:16it doesn't reward local municipalities
01:18to provide housing.
01:20They get money from commercial development
01:22and retail.
01:24Well, that's all changed.
01:26We have a survey
01:28by the Bay Area Council.
01:30And again,
01:32we're probably an example of this,
01:34but it's happening in all these
01:36D.C., Boston, New York, Chicago, Atlanta,
01:38that a survey
01:40of the major employers
01:42in the Bay Area,
01:44in San Francisco,
01:46but also in Silicon Valley
01:48and the business parks
01:50in the East Bay,
01:52the overwhelming number
01:54commute an hour, two hours
01:56from the far edges of my district
01:58into the financial district of Silicon Valley
02:00is greatly enhanced
02:02by one of those two incomes
02:04being home with their kids.
02:06So, that's the new reality.
02:08The San Francisco Chronicle did a story
02:10yesterday, and I think it was the Bay Area Council
02:12that did this too, that they estimated
02:14it would be 20 to 30 years
02:16before the occupancy rate in
02:18San Francisco would return to where it was
02:20pre-COVID.
02:22We spent a lot of time in California
02:24doing 410s, trying to get
02:26people to do 410s. We changed labor law.
02:28Now we've sort of got a
02:30gift when it comes to quality of life
02:32and emissions reductions and greater efficiencies,
02:34but we've got these infrastructure
02:36opportunities that unfortunately
02:38the MPO,
02:40which I used to be on,
02:42and the transit agencies want to keep spending
02:44money the way they always did,
02:46like we're at 40% at BART of pre.
02:48It's not going to get back to 100%
02:50farebox recovery in the near future.
02:52So, being a friend of
02:54labor, ATU and operating
02:56engineers, how do we make this work
02:58and protect
03:00rank and file, but also protect
03:02the working people who are trying to get
03:04transit and be flexible,
03:06knowing that traditional heavy
03:08investments, like the extension of BART
03:10in the Silicon Valley, we're going to
03:12do that, but we've got to look at it differently
03:14in a different way than we ever have.
03:16How do we do that in a collaborative
03:18faction where we're really efficient
03:20about this, and I'd be happy to listen to any
03:22of the... The model
03:24has changed for 65%
03:26of the GDP in this country.
03:28Thank you for the question. I think that
03:30where we've seen some successful
03:32transitions from major transit
03:34organizations, and I mentioned this in my oral testimony,
03:36places like Atlanta
03:38that are looking at where their demand
03:40is. How do we evaluate
03:42our routes, both for bus
03:44and transit, and also our timing?
03:46Traditional Monday and Friday,
03:489 a.m. and 5 p.m. rush hours
03:50are no longer going to be the
03:52primary driver of ridership.
03:54How are we going to meet the demands of people
03:56in our communities? And I think you're seeing
03:58it in places like Washington, D.C., for example,
04:00where you're not seeing
04:02as much of the peak hour traffic,
04:04but you're seeing increased traffic at other times
04:06during the week, whether it be
04:08more people using the metro to come
04:10in on the weekends and visit our lovely
04:12museum systems here in the city.
04:14So I think as transit agencies
04:16look at their resources and look at how they're allocating
04:18their routes,
04:20their ridership, and how they can take
04:22the people that are their professionals who
04:24are operating these systems
04:26and allocate their expertise and their resources
04:28to better meet their growing demands.
04:30But I think that takes work.
04:32That takes work for people to study
04:34what is actually the demand in their communities
04:36right now. And I've heard that argument
04:38in California. However, that's a
04:40small number of what
04:42our farebox recovery
04:44was. I mean, it's one or two
04:46percent, potentially. So the model
04:48is still, we can't keep doing things
04:50the way we always did. We have to adapt to that,
04:52but it's not an answer to what we've lost
04:54on the peak in terms of farebox
04:56recovery. Well, but part of it also
04:58is you need to have
05:00a system that
05:02will draw people in to the
05:04ridership as well. I mean, we saw it
05:06in California, in L.A.,
05:08one of their major lines, they operated
05:10a 30-minute service.
05:12Every 30 minutes, you're going to operate. And they saw
05:14their ridership increase by
05:1617 percent. So when you have
05:18a reliable service, you're going to see
05:20a lot more people that are going to be drawn to that
05:22as an option, as opposed to trying to drive
05:24or spend, you know,
05:2660 bucks on a rideshare.
05:28Yet, you're going to see more people as an opportunity.
05:30Thank you. I yield back. The gentleman
05:32yields. Mr. Van Drew.
05:34Thank you, Chairman. And
05:36just before I begin, I want to associate
05:38myself with the remarks of
05:40Congressman Stober, who just spoke a little while
05:42before. I would mean