Brian Taylor says pandemic flipped L.A.’s public transit | Sustainable LA Grand Challenge

Katerina Jowid
August 29, 2022
SLAGC News and Blogposts

Publication: Bay Area News Group

UCLA Expert: Brian Taylor: Professor, Urban Planning and Public Policy; Director, Institute of Transportation Studies

Synopsis: Should investments go towards the building of pricey rail projects that cater to white-collar commuters who fled public transit or towards the bus riders who never left? The implications are major, calling into question public transit’s role in the climate change battle and resurfacing long-standing tensions between planning transit for more privileged rail riders over lower-income bus riders.

UCLA News: Taylor said the wide disparity is because Bay Area transit ridership was so heavily skewed toward commuters heading into buzzing San Francisco office buildings. “The share of trips on BART that began or ended at the four downtown San Francisco stations was going up every year. Right up to the pandemic. And then that cut off. What happened in the pandemic is the whole script flipped.”