Bay Area Transit Rider Forum 1: Breakout Group Comments

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O
1	Name	Room #	Residence (City)	Association (if any)	Car?	Agencies Normally Ridden	Riding Since COVID?	Agencies Ridden Since COVID	More/Less/Same Riding Frequency?	Why?	Yes/No/Somewhat Safe on Transit	Why?	Perception of Transit Safety	Other Thoughts	Notes

2	Charles	3		Transit Professional: WestCAT, General Manager	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
3	Marie	3	Milpitas	Observer	N/A	N/A	No	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Depends on what other riders are doing; universal masking is important; does not know what is going on on transit because she has not used it yet	N/A	N/A
4	Paul	3	San Francisco	Rider	N/A	N/A	No	N/A	Less	Not in Bay Area; Employer forbids him from coming to the office	N/A	N/A	Top concern is airborne transmission--are vehicles adequately ventilated?	N/A	Not been in the Bay Area since early March – stuck in Hawaii – has not been commuting since
5	Pam	3	Fremont	Transit Professional: RideOn Fremont Program	N/A	N/A	No	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Having windows open; concerned about groups of individuals at higher risk for COVID, like senior citizens--how do we find ways to stay safe and resume travel (training) for seniors?	N/A	Out teaching people how to be using transit
6	Margarita	3	Half Moon Bay	Youth Leadership Institute: Program Coordinator	N/A	SamTrans	Yes	SamTrans	Less	N/A	Yes	Appreciates that transit is free; bus drivers carry hand sanitizer; never more than 5 people per bus; At first she was concerned about her mother using transit, but now she feels safe that her mother is still using transit	Feels that things are clean and safe, and that transit is safe	N/A	Works with youth on transit issues (in Half Moon Bay); not a lot of transit in Half Moon Bay, the youth that use it are transit dependent
7	Ian	3	San Francisco	Facilitator (Seamless Bay Area)	No	BART, Caltrain, MUNI, BART, etc.	Yes	BART	Less	Used to take transit multiple times per day for work, all around Bay Area; Since SIP, tries to bike only for local trips within SF. Only has taken BART, when need to go to the East Bay to visit family – no other way of getting to the East Bay	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
8	Mike	3	Concord	Rider (Senior Citizen)	No	County Connection, BART	Yes	County Connection	Less	Has been using transit to get around – mainly County Connection; using a lot less than before; Hasn’t used BART yet since SIP– is thinking about it because he has to go to the Dentist in San Francisco soon	Somewhat	No more than 5-6 people on County Connection; feels unsafe if more than 8 people; noticed that drivers ask passengers to wear masks; a Before masks were required, there was one time when one person who was mentally ill wasn’t wearing a mask and that felt unsafe; if BART were crowded, would not feel safe	Concerned about airborne transmission--would like all windows on buses to be open	N/A	Has been using county connection since Shelter In place
9	Patrick	3	San Mateo	Rider	Yes	SamTrans, Caltrain, VTA	No	N/A	Less	Before – using it go to school and work (school won’t come back until January; work – may not come back); Now – Getting a ride from parents for most things – Everywhere that he previously needed to go is not open	N/A	N/A	N/A	When do we have the chance to provide feedback on service cuts that are proposed at AC Transit? When would proposed cuts be permanent?	N/A
10	Steven	Beaudry	Redwood City	Rider	N/A	N/A	No	N/A	Less	Have not been riding transit. Works from home. Doing things in his neighborhood, walks mostly.	N/A	N/A	Becoming increasingly concerned about majority of population is behaving. As older person, feels more comfortable outside than inside. Feels most comfortable staying home. Feels that transit is doing the best it can. Very alarmed about what may happen to budget, concerned that it may not be there, safe or not.	N/A	N/A
11	Marcia	Beaudry	San Mateo County	Rider	N/A	N/A	No	N/A	Less	Last rode VTA was to comment at Board meeting on March 5. Won’t be riding anytime soon, because VTA shared cleaning schedule	N/A	N/A	Feel for people who need to travel now on the VTA. Is sure that BART and other agencies are doing better. Believes VTA has been in violation of County and State health orders for past 2 months. Believes that lack of cluster evidence on transit is due to it being harder to track people on transit.	BART says it does daily fogging. If this is important, why aren't other agencies doing it? All agencies have stopped dry sweeping – if aerosol spread is important, there should be no dry sweeping. The agencies have APTA which suggests having riders log in. Homeless people are still riding and their issues have not been resolved.	N/A
12	Sara G	Beaudry	San Francisco	Facilitator	N/A	N/A	No	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
13	Helen	Beaudry	N/A	Rider	N/A	N/A	No (only once)	N/A	Less	Has a disability; services provided in schedule are not adequate for what they need (and it was awful pre-COVID, too). Only used one time, too hard to use again. Didn’t want to put themselves at risk again, also.	N/A	N/A	N/A	I have a disability, and with the schedule changes, how difficult it is to get to where I need to go, and with the conditions on the vehicles I don't want to put myself at risk. The transit system schedule has been awful and was awful before. We can do better.	N/A
14	Beaudry	Beaudry	San Francisco	Facilitator	No	BART, MUNI	Yes	BART, MUNI	Less	Uses BART and MUNI for essential trips, since family does not have a car	Yes	All the riders wear masks, and the driver is screened off. The waiting for a bus instead of walking or biking makes me uncomfortable. Not sure they can do anything more to make me feel safer.	As safe as it can be, at present. But also has to find it safe, because doesn’t own a car and needs to make transit trips from time to time.	N/A	N/A
15	Justin	Beaudry	N/A	Rider	Yes	N/A	No	N/A	Less	Have not been riding transit (4 months now). Don’t have to travel most places. For the most part been driving, when he needs to.	N/A	N/A	No more unsafe than indoor dining. – it's a double standard that people dine indoors and go to the gym but say transit is unsafe.	The reason I have stayed off MUNI is because Tumlin advised we not use MUNI if possible so buses don't become crowded. Point about transit vs indoor dining – that's for me to assess justificaitons for taking a risk – risks and realities don't align.	N/A
16	Peter	Beaudry	San Francisco	Rider	Yes	N/A	No	N/A	Less	Has not been riding transit, most trips he used to take transit for have disappeared. Meetings have become virtual. Walks and drives when he needs to	N/A	N/A	Not as safe as it needs to be. Troubled when transit folks compare it to other parts of the world (as we begin to reopen). Other parts of world are way ahead than we are in general background of disease, and mask compliance. Worries most about people with higher risk factors. Believes there are things that could be done with some defensive strategies, but does not believe we’re ready to open up more widely. Has been discussing better defensive strategies with health department	N/A	N/A
17	Rob	Dustin	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
18	Dustin	Dustin	Santa Clara	N/A	N/A	Caltrain	No	N/A	Less	Took CalTrain to SF. Gets around on E-Bike, has not been riding because doesn’t need to go up for work.	N/A	N/A	Wants assurance that other riders are wearing masks	N/A	N/A
19	Bill	Dustin	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Yes	N/A	More (?)	Typically take transit every day. Takes them more or less to see and understand what is really happening in the field.	N/A	N/A		N/A	N/A
20	Socorro	Dustin	Half Moon Bay	N/A	N/A	SamTrans	Yes	N/A	Less	Used to take transit to school, now use it to run errands	N/A	N/A	Depends on how many people are in the bus. If people are very close it makes you feel unsafe. There have been less people taking the bus recently.	N/A	N/A
21	Nichele	Dustin	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Yes	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
22	Liz	Dustin	San Leandro	N/A	N/A	BART	No	BART	Same	N/A	Somewhat	Is a normal rider, has observed and looked around, biggest concern is people not consistently wearing masks. Encourage that people not touch things since people are touching everything. Is it safe? What is the cleaning mechanism?	Took BART, stopped in December. BART was claustrophobic, as long as things are consistent and reinforcing wearing masks, should be fine.	N/A	N/A
23	Claudia	Sandhya	East Bay	Transit Professional: AC Transit	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
24	Ron	Sandhya	N/A	Rider	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
25	Walter	Sandhya	San Jose	Business Owner (Senior Citizen)	N/A	N/A	No	N/A	Less	Not using any transit. 65 rider African-American, definitely sheltered in place.	N/A	N/A	You’re still sharing the same air! I don't consider public transit to be a safe place to be in during covid. Challenging situation for seniors to be in (especially those are reliant on transit)	Opening back up post-Covid - will cause more infections and deaths in POC and am very concerned about the same.	N/A
26	Sandhya	Sandhya	Palo Alto	Facilitator (Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition)	N/A	VTA, SamTrans	No	N/A	Less	Used transit regularly pre-Covid, haven’t used it at all during the lockdown. Also since am mainly working from home, I don't need to use transit	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
27	Donna	Sandhya	Oakland	Rider (Senior Citizen)	N/A	N/A	No	N/A	Less	Just started using Lyft again, feels safe, they’ve been taking precautions to keep themselves and their riders safe. Live in a building full of seniors - feels scary to use transit. Paratransit buses also just take a few riders. It is a very difficult scenario for seniors to be in, especially who rely on transit alone.	N/A	N/A	Challenging situation for seniors to be in (especially those are reliant on transit)	Just started using Lyft again, feels safe, they’ve been taking precautions to keep themselves and their riders safe. Live in a building full of seniors - feels scary to use transit. Paratransit buses also just take a few riders. It is a very difficult scenario for seniors to be in, especially who rely on transit alone.	N/A
28	Maryann	Sandhya	Berkeley	Climate Activist	N/A	AC Transit	Yes	AC Transit	Less	Used a bus a few times for pleasure - visiting friends, impressed by cleanliness and friendliness.	N/A	N/A	Delighted to see there is data that shows there has there has been no infection due to transit	N/A	N/A
29	Briana	Sandhya	San Francisco	Transit Professional: San Mateo County Office of Education	N/A	SamTrans	Yes	SamTrans	Less	Before Covid, main transportation was transit, now I don't use it so much, since am concerned that I may not be able to get on a bus to go all the way from SF to RWC (Samtrans), if there is no space on the bus	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
30	Tom	Sandhya	Richmond	Rider	No	MUNI	Yes	MUNI	Same	I don't drive, so have been relying on transit. Use transit mainly to go shopping. A friend lives in Noe Valley, no bus routes there, have no other option but to use a taxi.	No	There is no way to maintain social distance - especially on buses and waiting for the next bus may not always be the best decision. Used Muni in SF, it is compulsory to wear a face mask, but there are kids who may or may not follow this especially youth and kids. Should we then change the bus? Will we encounter the same folks on the next bus? It is challenging. In SF, if you’re over 60, there are essential trip cars, people should make use of this. These are taxis with a plastic screen between you and the driver.	There is no way to maintain social distance - especially on buses and waiting for the next bus may not always be the best decision. Used Muni in SF, it is compulsory to wear a face mask, but there are kids who may or may not follow this especially youth and kids. Should we then change the bus? Will we encounter the same folks on the next bus? It is challenging. In SF, if you’re over 60, there are essential trip cars, people should make use of this. These are taxis with a plastic screen between you and the driver.	I don’t have a car, I don’t drive, so am totally reliant on transit. During Covid - There is no way to maintain social distance - especially on buses, but there may or may not be an option every time to wait for the next bus. Not everyone has a mask on, how do you enforce that? For Muni, how will they make decisions about what bus lines should be continued and which should be discontinued? Facilitate a meeting with Muni to understand how they will decide their potential routes	N/A
31	Monica	Sandhya	South Bay	Climate Activist	No	VTA	Yes	VTA	Less	Used VTA a few times to visit the Dr.	Yes	Used VTA - They’ve been doing a great job! Has been a great experience - keeping them clean, wearing masks.	I’ve had a great experience using transit, but I’ve heard that people haven’t had the same experience especially buses getting full and not being able to maintain social distance has been a major concern	N/A	N/A
32	Lauren	Thea	Mountain View	Transit Professional: SFCTA Intern	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Spouse takes BART into San Francisco for work
33	Ria	Thea	Sunnyvale	N/A	N/A	VTA	N/A	N/A	Less	N/A	N/A	N/A	Transit pre-COVID was bad. Worse now. It’s a theoretical discussion. Spacing is important. Takes 4x longer than driving or riding a bike. Had a plan to lower coverage and higher frequency on key lines. For most people they are too far away from a bus to use it.	N/A	N/A
34	Andy	Thea	San Francisco	Transit Professional: Planner	N/A	MUNI	No	N/A	Less	N/A	N/A	N/A	Haven’t been since March. I think I’d feel safe, as # of people on vehicles is low. I’d be hesitant to make the trip. Not appropriate for non essential travelers.Space per passenger is the big thing for me. Happy to walk/bike.	N/A	N/A
35	Thea	Thea	N/A	Facilitator	N/A	N/A	Yes	N/A	N/A	N/A	Yes	Everybody wears masks when I ride, and operator is far away with backdoor boarding from riders.	N/A	N/A	N/A
36	Steve	Thea	Marin County	Transit Professional: CivicKnit	N/A	Marin Transit	Yes	Marin Transit	N/A	N/A	Yes	Comfortable b/c I wear a mask, and there are a limited number of riders on the 68. Between those two things, I feel comfortable	N/A	N/A	Interested in concerns that people may have
37	Jean	Thea	Larkspur	Rider	Yes	N/A	No	N/A	Less	N/A	N/A	N/A	I have a 98 y old and a disabled 60 yr old in my household so unfortunately I need the car to transport them.	N/A	Lives near the Larkspur Ferry, used to take bike to bus but everything is on Zoom now
38	Shawn	Thea	Fremont	Transit Professional: City of Fremont	Yes	BART	No	N/A	Less	N/A	N/A	N/A	Spouse takes BART into SF for work. Teleworking now. Looking at capacity. Schedules BART is putting out really helpful. Would be great to be able to look at with buses to see how crowded they are.	N/A	City manager in Fremont, does travel training for seniors and disabled; has a family of transit riders: a brother that is disabled and is an essential worker; not using transit since disabled mother at home
39	Julie	Thea	Fremont	Transit Professional: Tri-Cities	Yes	BART, Bikeshare	No	N/A	Less	N/A	N/A	N/A	Have been using BART and bikeshare app prior to COVID prior to work b/c of traffic on freeways. Since COVID, I haven’t b/c traffic has gone down as well. Driving. I would still feel safe with right precautions (gloves, mask, distance). Car is about 20 minutes faster than pre-COVID.	N/A	N/A
40	Greenie	Thea	N/A	Rider	Yes	Caltrain	Yes	Caltrain	N/A	N/A	Yes	N/A	Feel comfortable now, it’s just like going to the grocery store on. Mask and gloves on. When you take Caltrain, it’s kind of like being outdoors. You open the windows and the air flows around. Public transit is like that. With distance, mask and gloves, it’s like grocery stores.	N/A	N/A
41	Tina	Ron	N/A	Transit Professional: SamTrans	N/A				N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
42	Stephanie	Ron	Oakland	Rider	N/A				N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Depends on use of face coverings	N/A	N/A
43	Tammy	Ron	N/A	Transit Professional: AC Transit	N/A				N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
44	Tim	Ron	San Jose	Rider	N/A	Caltrain	No		Less	Before COVID used Caltrain frequently. Have not had reason to use transit. Not opposed to using transit but haven’t had reason to. Have put more miles on bike in last three months than during past two years	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
45	Rich	Ron	San Mateo	Transit Professional: San Mateo, MTC	N/A	SamTrans (FCX), Shuttles	No		N/A	Lives near Bridgeport uses shuttles or FCX. Has not used transit due to health concern – doesn’t have confidence to control mask wearing.	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
46	Cliff	Ron	Sunnyvale	Rider	Yes	Caltrain	Yes	Caltrain, BART, MUNI	Less	Been to Sunnyvale twice once by auto and once by Caltrain. Since COVID has taken 3 trips on Caltrain, 3 trips on BART and one on Muni	Yes	Felt safe because of low ridership Felt apprehensive on BART due to not universal face coverings	Depends on use of face coverings	N/A	N/A
47	Philip	Ron	Redwood City	Rider	N/A	SamTrans	Yes	SamTrans	Less	80 trips by subway while in Taipei; Five trips by Samtrans during COVID – grocery	Yes	For most trips only passenger. Felt safe but that might change	Stations in Taipei spotless, moving sidewalks and escalator had dedicated person cleaning, mask wearing commonplace due to air pollution, country had better testing and tracing program	N/A	N/A
48	Eugene	Eugene	San Jose	Facilitator	N/A	N/A	No	N/A	Less	No bus service to Monterey	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
49	Chonita C	Eugene	N/A	USOAC	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Mandatory masks would make people (in this group) feel safer; not appropriate for non-essential riders to be on transit right now
50	Hui	Eugene	Berkeley	Rider (Senior Citizen), Pedestrian	No	AC Transit, BART	Yes	AC Transit	Less	Pedestrian first, transit riders second, sheltered in place for the first few weeks and needed exercise so she got out and walked her neighborhood. She soon bored with walking and ventured onto transit. She does not like BART: "too many crazies and no one wears a mask." Would rather walk 5 miles to Berkeley Bowl instead of taking BART	N/A	N/A	N/A
51	Peter	Eugene	N/A	Rider	N/A	VTA	No	N/A	Less	Works from home. VTA does not make anyone wear a mask. Would like to ride more light rail, but VTA does not run in the evenings. Feels like the buses are crawling with the coronavirus	N/A	N/A	N/A
52	Josh	Eugene	N/A	Reporter	N/A	BART	No	N/A	Less	Works from home	N/A	N/A	N/A
53	Jacqueline	Eugene	Half Moon Bay	Rider	N/A	SamTrans	Yes	SamTrans	N/A	N/A	Yes	Not too many people on board, feels safe
54	Vinita	Eugene	Berkeley	Rider	Yes	Caltrain	Yes	Caltrain	Less	Spent 5 hours in traffic--now, doesn't drive on the freeways, just locally	Yes	No safety concerns
55	Kristi	Eugene	San Mateo	Rider	N/A	N/A	No	N/A	Less	Works from home, used to commute from San Mateo to Palo Alto	N/A	Has some ventilation concerns
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