MTC speeds up transit with BRT funding

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) is partnering with cities, counties and transit agencies to bring more bus rapid transit (BRT) corridors to the Bay Area. 

BRTs breeze past traffic, just like light-rail trains, but are cheaper to build than trains. They speed up public buses with a combination of streamlined routes and improvements to on-street facilities. These improvements include dedicated lanes, center boarding islands for bus passengers and signal timing technology so buses avoid having to wait at red lights. 

Time saved with BRTs can really add up. In San Francisco, trips on San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s (SFMTA) new Van Ness Express bus corridor are 35 percent faster than they were before the BRT opened. (That’s even better than the 32 percent time savings that Muni predicted.) 

MTC has contributed more than $75 million to several BRT projects in the Bay Area: 

• Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority’s Alum Rock-Santa Clara project – opened in 2016 – the first BRT in Northern California 
• AC Transit’s Tempo Line – opened in Summer 2020 
• SFMTA's Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit project – opened Spring 2022 

BRT is just one tool that local agencies are using to reduce traffic delays and fight air pollution.