Last night was the turning of a page at the AC Transit Board. AC Transit has a new board President, Diane Shaw, and a new Vice President, Murphy McCalley and we hope that under this new leadership the board takes this opportunity to focus on improving service, increasing ridership, and improving working conditions at AC Transit.
As AC Transit enters this new year of looming potential service cuts, a need for more funding, high stress on its employees, and the tumult to come of the shifts in service routes and schedules: the agency needs strong, proactive, and collaborative leadership to see it through.Fortunately the board has leaders stepping up like Director Sarah Syed and Jean Walsh who are fiercely dedicated to improving AC Transit’s service and working conditions.
Unfortunately, the board started the year with a step that could have gone in the wrong direction. The board had proposed a censure of Director Syed, for the manner in which she took proactive action to seek information from staff in pursuit of improving service quality for riders. The agency’s investigation had recommended training for board members, however the board proposed stronger criticism. Dozens of public commenters, including city councilmembers of Berkeley, Alameda, and El Cerrito, and outpouring from EBTRU & Transbay Coalition members spoke up in support of Director Syed’s leadership on behalf of riders and in favor of the board taking a more moderate and collaborative approach.
We are heartened that the board resolved to focus on the training and coaching of all its members so that they, AC Transit staff, and the community will be more prepared to face the challenges of the future together.
Transit in the East Bay has a rough few years ahead of us and the only way we’ll get through this is together. If we want billions of dollars of new funding to move from freeway expansion to transit, or regional funding for better transit in the whole Bay Area, or bus shelters, benches, bus-lanes, and bus-stop bulb outs – the only way we move forward is together.
Want to learn more about ways you can get involved to help win better transit, bike & street safety for the East Bay and the whole Bay Area? Join us on January 23rd at our Virtual Activity Fair to get plugged in – details are here.