13985.
(a) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:(1) “Bay area” means the region comprised of the City and County of San Francisco and the Counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma.
(2) “Centers of Excellence” means concentrations of staff, financial, professional, and other resources that provide leadership, best practices, research, support, training, and efficient delivery for the entire bay area.
(3) “Clipper Executive Board” means the board formed by a memorandum of understanding between MTC and bay area transit agencies to establish goals, a
budget, and workplan for the Clipper card payment system and to provide policy, oversight, direction, and authorization of business matters for the Clipper card payment system.
(4) “MTC” means the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
(5) “Network manager” means the Transportation Network Manager described in Section 3 of the act adding this section, which the Legislature intends to create in subsequent legislation in the future.
(6) “Task force” means the Bay Area Seamless Transit Task Force.
(7) “Transportation agencies” means all public agencies involved in the planning, regulation, or provision of transportation in the bay area, including public transit agencies, county transportation authorities, congestion management authorities, the
Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Department of Transportation, and, where applicable, municipalities located in the bay area that oversee use of public rights-of-way used for transportation.
(b) (1) There is hereby established a Bay Area Seamless Transit Task Force to do both of the following:
(A) Recommend the organizational structure, governance, and funding for bay area transportation agencies, and other reforms to the bay area’s local, regional, and state public agencies, that should be enacted in future legislation to maximize the effectiveness of the public transit system in the bay area.
(B) Recommend the structure, governance, and funding of the network manager.
(2) MTC shall, and the Clipper Executive Board may,
provide staffing to the task force to aid it in the performance of its duties. The task force may also hire additional staff to aid it in the performance of its duties.
(3) The Legislative Analyst’s Office shall advise the task force in the performance of its duties.
(c) (1) The task force shall consist of 19 members who shall be appointed as follows and confirmed by the secretary pursuant to paragraph (2):
(A) One member representing the Transportation Agency, appointed by the secretary.
(B) One member appointed by the Governor.
(C) One member appointed by the President pro Tempore of the Senate.
(D) One member appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly.
(E) Three members who are bay area local elected officials, appointed by MTC, including at least one member from either the City of San Jose, the City of Oakland, or the City and County of San Francisco.
(F) Three members representing public transit operators in the bay area, appointed by the Clipper Executive Board, including at least one representative of bus operators and one representative of rail operators.
(G) Two members representing county transportation agencies in the bay area, appointed by the directors of the county transportation agencies in the bay area. For purposes of this subparagraph, “county transportation agency” means the agency responsible for preparing and implementing the congestion management program in the county, except
for the County of San Mateo, in which case “county transportation agency” means the San Mateo County Transportation Authority.
(H) Two members who are technical experts, appointed jointly by MTC and the Clipper Executive Board, with relevant national or international expertise, or both, in fields including, but not limited to, public transit operations, finance, scheduling, procurement, project delivery, capital project management, planning, or governance. MTC and the Clipper Executive Board may appoint a technical expert who is not a citizen of the United States or a resident of the bay area. MTC and the Clipper Executive Board shall not appoint a technical expert who is employed by MTC or a bay area transit operator.
(I) Four members who are bay area residents appointed by MTC as follows:
(i) Two members
representing low-income transit riders, residents of communities of concern designated by MTC, or persons with disabilities, or any combination of these groups.
(ii) One member representing the bay area business community.
(iii) One member representing transit riders from a sustainable transportation advocacy organization.
(J) One member representing bay area organized labor, appointed by the Governor.
(2) The secretary shall confirm each member appointed pursuant to paragraph (1).
(3) The secretary shall convene the task force by April 1, 2021.
(4) The secretary shall appoint a chair and vice chair from the membership of the
task force.
(5) The task force shall establish an executive committee of four to eight members of the task force, which may meet more often than the task force.
(d) The task force shall study the collective and individual performance of existing agencies and funding sources that impact the planning, delivery, and operations of transportation in the bay area and shall recommend institutional and funding reforms in the report required pursuant to subdivision (f) that would enable seamless integration of all forms of transportation in the bay area.
(e) The task force shall do all of the following and shall summarize the results of these activities in its report to the Legislature required pursuant to subdivision (f):
(1) Identify the goals of the bay
area’s multimodal transportation system.
(2) Consult with a wide variety of bay area residents and workers to understand public goals and expectations for a multimodal, regionally integrated, user-centered, and equitable transportation system.
(3) Investigate worldwide institutional best practices of metropolitan regions with high-performing, competitive, regionally integrated transportation systems, including associated governance systems.
(4) Recommend an agency to be designated as the network manager in future subsequent legislation. The task force may recommend an existing, modified, or new public agency to be designated as the network manager. If the task force recommends the creation of a new public agency to be designated as the network manager, the task force shall also recommend at least one transportation
agency in the bay area to be incorporated into the new public agency.
(5) Assess the effectiveness and adequacy of the governance structures of existing transportation agencies in the bay area, collectively and individually, and recommend improved governance structures for any existing entities, the network manager recommended pursuant to paragraph (4), and the region’s transportation system as a whole.
(6) Assess the effectiveness of MTC in achieving its current mandate and recommend governance changes to support the realization of a multimodal, regionally integrated, user-centered, and equitable transportation system.
(7) Recommend a governance system or process that enables integrated fares, such as a zone-based system or integrated passes for express bus, rail, and ferries.
(8) Recommend a governance system or new process for transit operator route and schedule coordination.
(9) Recommend strategies to develop a qualified and adequate workforce of transit workers to fulfill the needs of an integrated, high-ridership transit system.
(10) Recommend a governance system or process improvements to the project delivery process to allow projects to be delivered on time and in a cost-effective manner.
(11) Identify functions that are provided separately across agencies that could be consolidated into fewer agencies or a single agency.
(12) Explore the potential for establishing Centers of Excellence. Centers of Excellence should serve the collective needs of
transportation agencies, jurisdictions, or other public entities in the bay area, and should provide higher quality and more efficient service than if transit agencies were to pursue these focus areas independently.
(13) Analyze institutional mergers, consolidations, or dissolutions, or any combination of these things, of agencies that could be implemented to promote better customer outcomes and improved access. The task force shall consider creating a single regional rail operator, and whether any transit operator consolidations would provide a benefit to riders.
(14) Ensure that connectivity and transit rider perspectives are built into the recommendations for planning and design phases of capital projects.
(15) Evaluate the optimal structure and authority for the network manager described in paragraph (4) and the
appropriate accountability and enforcement levers for further transit integrations to support the creation of a seamless regional transportation system.
(16) Identify what authority the network manager described in paragraph (4) should have in order to raise revenue for public transit.
(17) Recommend additional strategies to minimize unnecessary bureaucracy or institutional layers that contribute to poor coordination, high costs, and inefficiency.
(18) Evaluate what role the network manager should play in guiding the evolution of emerging forms of mobility, including transportation network companies, autonomous vehicles, and other private sector mobility providers.
(19) Evaluate actions and changes in authority and governance needed for managed lanes
and other transit priority lanes in order to establish consistent operations, design standards, pricing policies, violation rules, penalties, enforcement tools, and occupancy requirements.
(20) Recommend actions to ensure that future regional funding is conditioned on advancing institutional reforms that improve accountability and establish a seamlessly integrated regional transit system.
(21) Develop a timeline for implementation of reforms that recognizes the urgency of addressing the state’s climate crisis.
(f) (1) The task force shall submit a report of its findings and recommendations and a summary of its activities to the Legislature consistent with the requirements of this section on or before January 1, 2023.
(2) A
report to be submitted pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795.
(3) Pursuant to Section 10231.5, this section is repealed on January 1, 2027.