University of California Transportation Center

The San Francisco Bay Area is blessed with one of the most extensive urban rail networks in the nation -- the 80-mile Bay Area Rapid Transit System, the 72-mile CalTrain commuter rail system, a new light-rail service in Santa Clara County, and streetcars, trams, and cable cars lacing the streets of San Francisco. This extensive, multi-billion dollar network, however, has been unable to reverse mass transit’s continuing decline. A major reason why transit has been losing market share to the private automobile is that fixed guideway systems are ill-suited to a metropolitan area which continues to grow outward, in the form of low-density office parks, big-box retail outlets, and tract subdivisions.