Case Study:

San Francisco Bay Area, California

Context

Regional Setting

The San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose Metropolitan Area (the "Bay Area") is a nine-county area covering 7,179 square miles, with an estimated 1998 population of over six million. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) is the state-designated regional transportation planning agency as well as the federally designated metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for the region.

An understanding of the Bay Area's physical environment provides a background for understanding differences in accessibility by geographic area and mode (Figure 1). The urbanized area surrounding San Francisco Bay is defined by topography. Its bodies of water and ranges of hills limit development to particular corridors between these constraints. Correspondingly, transportation networks are "linear" along these developed corridors, and bridges and tunnels form key transportation links at water and hill crossings.

The city of San Francisco, on the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, contains the greatest regional concentration of employment in its Central Business District (CBD). The city is densely populated, supporting comprehensive transit service, and has a high number of middle- and upper-income zero-car households. The older cities on the east side of San Francisco Bay, the largest being Oakland, as well as core neighborhoods of San Jose also contain a moderately dense population and relatively high levels of transit service. Development in most the South Bay (San Jose and environs) and in the eastern and northern parts of the metropolitan area is more heavily automobile-oriented.

Transit service consists of three primary structures: local networks serving the more densely populated areas; long-distance commuter routes, including heavy rail, commuter rail, ferries, and express buses, to the San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose CBDs; and suburban feeder buses to the commuter systems. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a 95-mile heavy-rail system that serves the San Francisco and Oakland CBDs. Caltrain provides commuter rail service from south of San Jose to San Francisco along the peninsula.

Figure 1. San Francisco Bay Area

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census.

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