Fighting for a Rider-First City
We only win with your support!
Thank you to everyone who has made this year special for SFTR. We are appreciative of everyone who has attended one of our events, stopped at our table during community gatherings, volunteered, and most importantly, became a member and joined our community.
Despite the impending challenges, in 2025, we will continue our fight to find a permanent and equitable funding solution to our current transit deficit, spread transit joy, and show Bay Area riders why public transportation is foundational to a thriving city. But we only win with your support. Please consider donating to San Francisco Transit Riders for our End-of-Year campaign from now until January 10, 2025, so that we can continue to advocate for the needs of transit riders in local and regional investments.
Give today!
Help us meet our goal, and support our work for 2025.
In 2024…
We organized more opportunities for membership engagement
In January we hosted a General Membership Meeting, where SFTR presented members with our goals for the coming year and members also had the opportunity to share their collective vision for our organization. There, members expressed the desire to attend more in-person events hosted by SFTR, so we did just that! We hosted the most events we ever had this year, creating various opportunities to connect with our community.
For April’s Membership Month, we hosted a dessert crawl to visit small businesses along the 38-Geary, a tour of Treasure Island, a social at the Market Street Railway Museum, and a movie night where we learned about the history of public transportation. For this year’s Transit Month, we hosted our annual Kickoff Celebration with Mayor Breed and other elected officials on the famous Boat Tram, a panel to discuss and reimagine the future of Bay Area public transportation, a social hosted by our Board of Directors, and a treasure hunt in collaboration with various transit-oriented small-businesses.
We raised our organizational profile
In addition to building relationships with our membership, we also worked to grow our relationships with local merchants. San Francisco is privileged to house various small businesses throughout the city. We hope that by investing in these relationships, we can gather merchants’ support for transit and show how riders can benefit their businesses.
To keep transit front and center for the November election, we organized our Ride the Vote Questionnaire which received responses from 47 candidates representing 15 local, state, and federal races. These questionnaires helped voters make informed decisions and keep candidates accountable for keeping transit at the forefront.
SFTR was regarded as a thought leader in public transportation advocacy and featured in various publications such as the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner, Streetsblog SF, SF Bay, and ABC 7 Bay Area. Local San Francisco media sources turned to the expertise of our organization to understand the needs of transit riders across the region.
We continued to raise awareness around the importance of public transit
In alignment with our organizational goals, we empowered transit riders to speak up for rider-first policies and informed voters of the importance of transit as an essential public service.
Earlier this summer, we urged over 100 members, riders, pedestrians, and other street safety advocates to send messages demanding the SFMTA Board of Directors approve stronger safety and transit improvements for the West Portal Station.
We successfully lowered the proposed 50-cent fare increase for Clipper users, a non-equitable solution to addressing the budget deficit that could have hurt riders and decreased ridership.
The Transit Justice Coalition (TJC), convened by SFTR, published our report to lay the groundwork for a new, sustainable, and equitable funding source necessary to ensure that our local transit agencies improve and remain accountable to riders. Discussions between the Transit Justice Coalition and external stakeholders revealed a ride-hailing gross receipts tax (like Prop L) to be the most politically viable and equitable option for funding Muni.
SFTR in the Media
“Senior and Disability Action and San Francisco Transit Riders have a long history of working together on transit issues, dating as far back to when the word Union was a part of the SFTR name. SFTR’s current support of our Gimme Shelter! campaign and their work on completely Restoring Muni services are just a couple examples of their commitment to make sure that all SF Transit Riders are not just here for the ride, they’re here to create their ride.”
-Pi Ra, Senior & Disability Action
“SFTR has been instrumental in making sure transit riders are heard when important decisions about transit priority improvements like bus lanes are being made.”
-Liz Brisson, proud SFTR member and SFMTA Major Corridors Planning Manager
Contact us
San Francisco Transit Riders
P.O. Box 193341, San Francisco, CA 94119
© 2018 San Francisco Transit Riders, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit
Tax ID 47-4568771