Reports
The Bay Area Affordable Housing Regional Bond: A Climate Solution
This November, Bay Area voters will have the momentous opportunity to pass an affordable housing bond that would unlock up to $20 billion toward housing and homelessness solutions, creating up to 72,000 new affordable homes.
This massive infusion of funding for affordable housing will also have significant climate benefits.
TransForm has analyzed the potential climate impacts of the affordable housing bond and found significant benefits from building more homes near transit.
Ride Fearlessly: A Framework for Reimagining Transit Safety
Safety impacts people’s decisions to ride a train or take a bus, and traditional law enforcement approaches often don’t address their concerns. That’s because safety isn't merely the absence of harm; transit agencies must create an environment that encourages riders to embark on their journeys confidently. In TransForm’s groundbreaking report, Ride Fearlessly: A Framework for Reimagining Transit Safety, we offer a roadmap for safer, more inclusive transit systems.
Shared Mobility: How Shared Bikes and Scooters Can Support an Equitable, Climate-Friendly Transportation Network (2023)
Shared bikes and scooters have mostly been a good thing for the transportation network and the climate: people love to use these low- or zero-emission rolling options to connect home to transit stops and to work. And yet, shared bikes and scooters are not as equitable or ubiquitous as they could be. They aren’t affordable for the region’s most vulnerable residents and they aren’t always available in the communities where they could make the biggest impact. TransForm’s new research clearly shows why expanding access to these micromobility options matters.
Parking Revolution: Housing Solution (2023)
Most cities mandate an excessive amount of parking with new development, which increases the cost of homes and rents and generates more traffic and pollution. With dozens of cities about to reconsider these mandates, this easy-to-read report lays out the key solutions so you can advocate for more affordable, inclusive, climate-friendly communities.
Steering Away From The Cliff: How a Transit Doomsday Scenario Will Harm Californians and the Climate
TransForm analyzed the forecasted ridership drop, and just how many people might turn to cars for travel. It’s clear: failure to save public transit would be a disastrous decision, burdening those who depend on transit and worsening the climate crisis.
Measuring the Promise of Transit Oriented Development (2021)
This report quantifies the climate and affordability benefits of potential future development at several BART stations, with wider implications for housing development near transit everywhere. Not overbuilding parking is a key strategy to maximize the potential of transit-oriented development.
Over the course of a year, TransForm collaborated with a team of equity advisors to inform the development of Remix Explore, the software tool transportation planners use to learn about the communities they serve. This project brief illustrates both how data innovation can help planners achieve equitable outcomes AND how advocates can inform innovation and planning efforts.
ReX would make it easier for millions of residents to get around the region on transit. It is designed to connect the Bay Area’s transit systems, minimize travel times and wait times, and broaden access to regional rapid transit service.
The goal of this report and toolkit is to challenge policymakers and equity advocates to act on this key proposition: that structural inequity in our transportation system may be remedied in part by effective, equitable road pricing.
As Silicon Valley's economic growth has soared, cities have failed to build the housing needed, leading to record traffic delays. This report, published jointly by the Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo County and TransForm, shows how the housing crisis is inextricably linked to our traffic and transportation woes, with recommendations for how to address both.
After leading a series of community engagement workshops in East and West Oakland, we collected critical feedback from Oakland residents about the upcoming expansion of bike and car share in the East Bay. This report describes the context of planning decisions in Oakland, and offers recommendations to bring the benefits of shared mobility services to the people who need them most.
New mobility technologies make change and disruption of the transportation network inevitable, but worsening inequality doesn’t have to be. We can harness innovation to create a more equitable, sustainable transportation system and begin to address the injustices of the status quo. This paper gives an overview of key obstacles to successfully achieving this vision. It then provides a framework for evaluating the social equity impacts of new mobility projects and programs, and several recommendations to ensure new mobility does more good than harm.
In its first two rounds of investments, the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) program has funded developments that will make significant contributions toward improving the state’s climate while also supporting affordable housing and transit infrastructure in underserved communities.
There are many compelling reasons to consider building a second transbay rail crossing: more frequent and reliable transit service across the bay would improve mobility for hundreds of thousands of Bay Area residents, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and offer low-income and transit-reliant people more connections to opportunity. But the benefits of a second transbay crossing are not guaranteed for everyone. Regional leaders and transit agencies need to start thinking now about the social equity implications of this mega-project on low-income and communities of color, so as not to repeat the mistakes of the past.
Within the first two years of its implementation, the Low Carbon Transit Operations Program (LCTOP) is already contributing to the creation of a better public transit system statewide and, with improvements, can maximize its benefits for all Californians. The purpose of this report is to assess whether and how transit service and capital projects funded by the LCTOP could meet the goals of the program to reduce GHG emissions and enhance transit mobility, in particular for residents of disadvantaged communities and low-income populations.
On June 2nd, the VTA Board of Directors will vote on a spending plan for a transportation funding measure for Santa Clara County. If approved, the half-cent sales tax measure will be on the November 2016 ballot and will need a ⅔ supermajority of voters to pass. The measure would generate approximately $6.3 billion over 30 years. An alternative funding scenario developed by TransForm, with more funding for local transit and active transportation projects, performed far better than VTA’s draft funding proposal, including over 90 times the VMT reduction benefits and four times the CO2 reduction benefits.
