August 19, 2020

Contact:
Richard Marcantonio
Duc Luu

Statement by Public Advocates Managing Attorney Richard Marcantonio

In the Bay Area, 27 separate transit agencies have taken a hit-or-miss approach to worker and rider safety since the COVID-19 pandemic struck in March. Five months later, the Bay Area’s glossy “plan” for healthy transit essentially tells transit riders: “you’re on your own.” The plan’s failures especially impact people of color, who are a majority of transit workers and riders, and are the hardest hit by COVID-19 crisis.

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), the regional transportation funding and policy agency for the nine-county Bay Area region, released its long-overdue “Bay Area Healthy Transit Plan.” Instead of a set of uniform, verifiable standards that every Bay Area transit agency will be responsible for meeting, the “plan” is mostly about what riders should do for themselves. It does not address ANY of the concerns brought by the people who operate and ride transit. Among other things, the plan:

• Does not set standards for PPE that transit agencies are required to provide to their workers.
• Allows 3-foot social distancing, rather than requiring standard 6-foot distancing.
• Does not require transit agencies to:
  • Provide a mask to riders who do not have one.
  • Provide hand sanitizer to riders.
  • Provide sick leave to transit workers showing symptoms of COVID-19.
  • Offer rear-door boarding or provide plexiglass shields for vehicle operators.

In short, MTC’s long-delayed “Bay Area Healthy Transit Plan,” while heavy on PR, lacks the most basic protections our transit workers and riders need during this public health emergency.

In April, Bay Area transit workers and riders brought a simple request to MTC: Respond to the public health emergency by setting strong, uniform standards to protect transit workers and riders across the nine-county region. The public further demanded that MTC report on compliance, and take action to fill any gaps. With a total of $1.3 billion in emergency CARES Act funding for transit, there was more than enough money to ensure strong safety standards, yet MTC has failed to do so.

At first MTC ignored the request, but in May, Commissioners promised that the safety of transit workers and riders would be MTC’s “first order of business” in connection with the allocation of the remaining $500 million in CARES Act funding. Today’s disastrous plan is the result.

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Public Advocates Inc. is a nonprofit law firm and advocacy organization that challenges the systemic causes of poverty and racial discrimination by strengthening community voices in public policy and achieving tangible legal victories advancing education, housing and transit equity.