WHEREAS, The people of the City and County of San Francisco did, together with the people of Alameda and Contra Costa counties, agree to form the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART), in order to construct a three-county rail rapid transit system, and the people of the City and County of San Francisco have paid property and sales taxes in to fund the construction and operation of the BART system; and

WHEREAS, BART presently operates a system with 39 stations and 41,315 parking spaces, with eight stations and 45 parking spaces within the City and County of San Francisco; and

WHEREAS, according to BART’s 2001 revised budget, BART currently raises 59 percent of its operating revenue from fares, 35 percent from a three-eighths cent sales tax in the three BART member counties, and 6 percent from other sources, chiefly leases and advertising revenue; and

            WHEREAS, BART parking is largely offered free of charge at all stations; and

            WHEREAS, a 1993 BART study of operating costs identified a cost of $7.1 million per year to operate BART parking spaces, which amounted to $18.58 per month in parking lots and $28.33 in parking structures, exclusive of BART’s considerable land and capital costs; and

WHEREAS, BART’s 2000 Comprehensive Parking Policy concluded that “neither the capital nor operating costs of providing parking are currently recovered from parkers,” which effectively passes the substantial cost of providing parking at BART to BART riders who do not park; and

            WHEREAS, BART’s policy of providing parking at BART stations at no charge, and passing the capital and operating costs of BART parking along to all BART riders, including BART riders who do not park, sets up a perverse incentive which encourages riders who can walk, bicycle, carpool, or take public transit to BART to drive and park instead; and

            WHEREAS, Encouraging BART riders to walk, bicycle, and take public transit to access BART stations, rather than encouraging BART riders to drive to and park at BART stations, will decrease local traffic congestion, reduce air pollution from automobile exhaust, improve bicycle and pedestrian safety around BART stations, free valuable land around BART stations for transit-oriented development, and lower BART’s capital and operating costs; and

            WHEREAS, BART’s 2000 Comprehensive Parking Policy documented that “BART parkers have higher income than BART riders in general—46 percent of parkers have incomes greater than $75,000, while 30 percent of all riders have similar incomes,” and also documented that although 10% of all BART riders earned less than $15,000 per year, only 2% of BART parkers earned less than $15,000 per year; and

            WHEREAS, BART policy of providing parking at no cost raises serious questions of social justice and equity, by passing along the costs of parking for generally more affluent BART parkers disproportionately to BART’s lower-income and transit-dependent riders; and

WHEREAS, BART has indicated that, in response to drastically lower passenger fare and sales tax revenue brought about by the current recession, it may be necessary to raise fares, impose parking charges, and/or make service cuts; now, therefore be it

RESOLVED, That the City and County of San Francisco encourages BART to adopt parking charges for riders who park at BART during commute hours, as an alternative to either raising BART fares or cutting back BART service in a manner which diminishes service quality; and be it

FURTHER RESOLVED, That the City and County of San Francisco urges BART to work cooperatively with the cities and counties that BART serves, and with the transit agencies within BART’s service area, to lower BART’s capital and operating costs, as well as the environmental costs to the region, by encouraging BART riders to access BART stations by walking, cycling, carpooling, and using public transit; and be it

FURTHER RESOLVED, That the City and County of San Francisco urges BART to, when setting or adjusting its fare structure and/or parking charges, address any disproportionately negative impacts on low income or transit-dependent riders.