From Michael Bolden, Director of Culture and Operations:
Transportation is the lifeblood of a community. It can contribute to a place’s well-being and vitality, or it can sap it of energy. It can provide access to opportunity or deny it to people who need it. It can help us understand one another, or it can keep us apart. It is our job here at The San Francisco Chronicle to provide you with as much information as we can on how it is affecting the lives of each of us.
This is why I am excited to introduce our new Bay Area Transportation Project Road Map today. The tracker explores 10 major projects that will affect how all of us travel around our region, both in the near term and the distant future. As we emerge from the pandemic, which has kept many of us close to home, it is a reminder of the connections of all kinds that bind us and our communities together.
This interactive provides updates on multiple modes of transportation, from the burgeoning service on the San Francisco Bay Ferry, to the growth of our network of highway express lanes, to the electrification of CalTrain, to the debut of bus rapid transit in San Francisco, to the extension of BART to downtown San Jose.
The interactive explains the concept and timeline for each project, along with maps and renderings to illustrate how each development will impact the region, both on macro and street levels.
The tracker was reported and written by Chronicle transportation reporter Ricardo Cano. Cano and his editor, Robert Morast, will monitor the projects so that we can make regular updates as they make sense. Newsroom developer Paula Friedrich designed the tool to allow additions as needed. Chronicle graphic artist Todd Trumbull designed the maps, and freelance designer and transit advocate Chris Arvin created the illustrated icons for each project.
The Chronicle produces a steady stream of features and projects throughout the year that we hope enlighten and improve your ability to navigate our home. For example, check out this terrific report led by urban design critic John King on how San Francisco’s downtown bike paths are being remade during the pandemic.
And transportation reporter Cano writes about everything from what’s at stake as officials weigh the future of JFK Drive through Golden Gate Park, to the travails of our transit systems dealing with steep declines in ridership and revenue due to the pandemic, to the impact of service cuts on people who need transit to get around. The Transportation Project Road Map is a waypoint in our coverage, one more tool that we hope will help all of us understand some of the significant initiatives that are underway, what they cost and whether the public officials we entrust with these responsibilities are being responsive and responsible.
“As we continue to step cautiously out of the pandemic fog, few things track our changes in behavior like transportation and mass transit — where and when we move through the region, which events draw us back into the heart of San Francisco. It helps us understand how we live during this strange time,” says Morast, The Chronicle’s Transformation and Technology editor. “Keeping track of these transportation projects isn’t just holding our governing agencies accountable, it’s giving us hope that the future can be a little more mobile for all of us.”
The importance of transportation to the economic health and social well-being of a region is unmistakable. The successes and failures can shape our communities for generations; they can lift people up, or they can perpetuate systemic inequities. In the United States, we see the effects of this linger in the location of many of our interstate highways, which in many cities destroyed communities of color in the name of progress. But we also know that transformation for the civic good is possible. We have only to walk along the waterfront in San Francisco to see the positive results, thanks to the demolition of the Embarcadero Freeway following the Loma Prieta earthquake and the emergence of what’s become a grand promenade and public plazas.
We plan to continually update the tracker, to refine it as we learn more and to follow each of the threads with more stories and information on what you can expect. I urge you to ask us questions about the projects, to tell us what aspects of Bay Area transportation you would like to see us cover, and to help us tell the story of how these networks shape who we are and who we will become.
About The San Francisco Chronicle
The San Francisco Chronicle (www.sfchronicle.com) is the largest newspaper in Northern California and the second largest on the West Coast. Acquired by the Hearst Corporation in 2000, The San Francisco Chronicle was founded in 1865 by Charles and Michael de Young and has been awarded six Pulitzer Prizes for journalistic excellence. Follow us on Twitter at @SFChronicle.
