Webinar: California’s Public Transit Finance Woes and Prospects for Ridership Recovery

DATE: November 9, 2022

TIME: 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM (PDT)

LOCATION: Online

EVENT OVERVIEW: This webinar will feature new research from the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies (UCLA ITS) exploring the financial effects of the pandemic on California public transit as well as evolving operations. Researchers found that, overall, most public transit agencies were able to financially weather the first two years of the pandemic, in large part to the three federal pandemic relief bills; however, the future is far from secure. Researchers also found that transit service has been mostly restored with ridership slowly increasing from its April 2020 lowpoint. Members of the UCLA ITS research team will walk through their findings, and discuss implications for public transit going forward with guest commentary from public transit leaders in California. This webinar is co-hosted by the California Transit Association, and highlights research from the UC ITS Resilient and Innovative Mobility Initiative (RIMI).

SPEAKER(S):

Jacob Wasserman, Research Project Manager, UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies

Fariba Siddiq, Graduate Student Researcher, UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies
John Gahbaur, Research Associate and Project Manager, UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies

GUEST RESPONDENT(S):

Rodd Lee, Assistant General Manager, External Affairs, San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART)