Public Invited to Comment on Title VI Assessments

OAKLAND, CA — As Bay Area transit agencies change their paper discount tickets and passes to be available only on the Clipper® transit fare card, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) is working to ensure that transit riders who are minorities or low-income or have limited English proficiency are not negatively affected. As part of this effort, MTC has conducted a series of assessments on the impact of specific pass and ticket transitions on these individuals, who are protected by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Environmental Justice (EJ) principles.

MTC has just released the final assessments in this series, examining how moving Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) and SamTrans paper monthly passes to Clipper®-only availability will affect Title VI and EJ-protected individuals. MTC is interested in receiving public comments about these assessments.

Email written comments to info@bayareametro.gov, mail them to MTC Public Information, 101 Eighth Street, Oakland, CA 94607-4700, or fax to 510.817.5848 by May 2, 2012.

MTC manages the Clipper® program for San Francisco Bay Area transit agencies. Introduced by MTC in June of 2010 with six charter transit systems, the Clipper® program has grown rapidly as more transit agencies have joined and as participating transit operators have phased out paper fare media and are encouraging customers to use the Clipper® card. The number of weekday transit boardings made with Clipper® now regularly tops 600,000, accounting for more than a third of all daily transit trips in the region. More than one million Clipper® cards are now active in the Bay Area.

MTC is the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.

Contact:

Lysa Hale, 510-325-7319