NBC Bay Area
Bay City News Article
The Bay Area's myriad transit agencies could soon utilize a single mapping system after the region's transportation planning agency approved a contract to streamline transit information and guidance.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission's Operations Committee approved a $6 million contract Friday with the mapping company Applied Wayfinding Inc. to develop a streamlined system of maps, signage and information at every transit station in the nine-county Bay Area.
The regional mapping project is part of a 27-point plan devised by the MTC's Blue Ribbon Transit Recovery Task Force in 2020 to help the region's transit systems rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic while making public transit more efficient and easier to use...
State Sen. Josh Becker, D-San Mateo, introduced a bill in February that would require all 27 agencies in the Bay Area to implement a standardized fare system and align their schedules by mid-2024.
Becker argued after introducing the bill that the region's transit agencies have multiple fare structures, discount and loyalty programs and trip planning systems and lack integrated schedules and live transit data.
Taken together, he said, riders often find transferring between multiple transit systems to be burdensome and force them to wait for needlessly long amounts of time.