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In July, BART released the Role in the Region Report, a comprehensive study of BART's impact on the Bay Area illustrated by new analyses, data visualizations, and powerful personal narratives. Over the coming weeks, we'll be sharing some of the key insights from the report in a series of Role in the Region articles here on bart.gov. Read the first article here. We encourage you to read the full report - click here - and visit the project webpage at bart.gov/roleintheregion. 

Today's post examines BART's impact on the regional economy. See the full report for methodology.

Fueled by unparalleled venture capital funding, a resilient technology sector, and a growing cluster of artificial intelligence (AI) companies, the Bay Area economy remains hot. BART provides access to a region at the leading edge of technological innovation and economic investment. Since 2021, the Bay Area has regularly attracted at least 50 percent of the total venture capital investment in innovative sectors such as information technology. 

San Francisco and the Peninsula

San Francisco continues to be a haven for innovative technology-focused businesses, and many firms cluster in BART-adjacent neighborhoods like South of Market and Hayes Valley.

Proximity to BART is a must-have for San Francisco’s downtown office market. Historically, office buildings near BART have outperformed non-BART accessible buildings based on market rents. Downtown San Francisco also has multiple “trophy” office buildings, which are commanding Downtown San Francisco’s highest rents and have the lowest vacancy rates. These buildings are all within a 15-minute walk of a BART station.

Top 15 San Francisco Office Buildings by Monthly Rent

Along the Peninsula, mutual growth in development and BART ridership is expected. At Millbrae Station, the newly opened Gateway Transit Oriented Development has over 157,000 square feet of office space, ground floor retail, a 164-room hotel, and 400 residential units. At San Bruno Station, the Southline project is slated for occupancy by the end of 2024 and is made up of 2.8 million square feet of office and research and development space. The existing Tanforan Mall is also in the process of planning to transform into a transit-oriented mixed-use village with 2 million square feet of life science, 1,014 housing units, and 86,000 square feet of retail space.

The East Bay

The East Bay’s economy continues to uniquely leverage BART. Employment centers in the East Bay, which has the highest concentration of BART stations in the system, represent tremendous regional growth potential.

Emerging industries are choosing to locate in BART-served parts of the East Bay. These emerging industries include creative technology and design— like software publishing, data processing, and advanced manufacturing. In addition, there are emerging industry-specific job hubs for manufacturing in Fremont and wholesale trade in Union City. While most AI investment has gone to companies in San Francisco or the Peninsula, the East Bay has its own innovation industries, including biomedical device manufacturing, computer technology, food innovation, and clean tech. These industries and others have driven demand for almost one million square feet of R&D and manufacturing space in the last ten years and attracted $5.5 billion in venture capital in 2021.

East Bay Office Space Rent per Square Foot

Many East Bay cities are responding to changing economic trends by adding jobs and housing. East Bay cities are leveraging access to BART to help shift market momentum towards their downtowns and prime infill locations. Demand and rents for East Bay commercial and industrial space remain high. Figure 2.9 shows that BART-served cities like Fremont and Walnut Creek continue to see increased rent for office space, and East Bay office rents have increased 59 percent overall since 2013. The East Bay industrial market continues to see high demand for warehouse and manufacturing space, with 11 consecutive quarters of net positive square footage leased as of 2023’s first quarter, with brokers and developers reporting an increased interest in transit accessibility for industrial tenants.

What BART Riders Say

When starting his own business, Raja Singh (pictured below with his son, Tyler) realized that transit would serve his employees’ well-being and morale. It also, as an added bonus, would serve his own interests and priorities as the head honcho. 

"People perceive going into the office as somewhat of a burden, and I thought it was important to make it as easy as possible for folks,” he said. “It’s more relaxing to get on BART and zone out or work than it is to navigate a tunnel and bridge then find parking downtown.” Raja would know – he's been commuting by BART for well over a decade. 

Raja also cited the recruitment benefits of headquartering his company by transit. They can enter the office, at 44 Montgomery Street, directly from the station, without having to step foot outside. Raja said nine of his employees live in the Bay Area and all of them commute by transit – seven take BART and two travel by Muni from their homes in the city. 

“Because we’re located at a transit hub, we can recruit from the East Bay, the South Bay, the Peninsula, and the city all at once, and it’s equally easy to get there,” he said “There's nowhere else in the Bay where you can say that. It gives you the broadest recruiting reach.” 

Read more about Raja here. 

2023 has been a big year for BART as we laid the critical groundwork toward a new vision and a better future. It’s a future that features a cleaner, safer, easier-to-use BART that prioritizes all riders - and it’s right around the corner. 

Here are 23 things BART is proud of this year. 

We understood travel patterns were changing…so we changed with them. 

1. BART listened to riders clamoring for more comprehensive service outside 9-to-5 work hours. We increased service during nights and weekends, where ridership is growing fastest. From weekend sporting events to evening concerts, BART is dedicated to being the safest, fastest, most reliable way to get where you need to go for fun.  

We made historic updates to modernize our system.  

2. We are now running exclusively new trains as part of the base schedule.  
3. We migrated to 100% digital payments, eliminating paper ticket waste, and paving the way for our new state-of-the-art fare gates that will bolster ridership, revenue, and rider safety in 2024. 
4. We rolled out the first gates to the public at West Oakland Station this week, ending the year with yet another upgrade to BART’s public safety infrastructure. Watch the time lapse video.

We doubled down on safety and cleaning. 

5. We released our Safe & Clean Plan to show the progress we have made in making our system cleaner, safer, and more reliable.  
6. Customer on-time performance is at 92%. 
7. We doubled the police presence in the system, and we won awards for using unarmed Ambassadors and Crisis Intervention Specialists to increase staff presence in our system and help people in need. 
8. We discontinued the disruptive fare inspections during the morning commute at Embarcadero Station and re-deployed the fare inspectors to ride trains and inspect Clipper cards at more stations. 
9. We started running shorter trains to enhance safety because data shows without a doubt that active spaces are safer spaces. 
10. We launched our “Let’s Talk About Us” campaign about domestic violence and Phase II of our Not One More Girl initiative addressing sexual harassment. We believe using art to change a culture of violence and building community partnerships to make BART safer is important. 
11. We doubled the rate of deep cleaning train cars, and we increased the pressure washing of stations.  

We made stations more welcoming. 

12. We made it easier to pay for parking with the new Tap-and-Go feature on the Official BART Mobile App that allows customers to pay for parking with just one tap. 
13. We reopened newly remodeled all-gender restrooms at Embarcadero and Downtown Berkeley stations. We now have six open underground restrooms. 345,000 people used these attended, clean, and safe restrooms in 2023. 
14. We deployed a comprehensive strategy to clean up Civic Center, resulting in a dramatically improved station experience from previous years.   
15. We now have ten brand-new escalators in downtown San Francisco and six new canopies along Market Street. 
16. We’re increasing the discount for low-income riders from 20% to 50% with the Clipper START program beginning January 1, 2024.  

We advanced our efforts to build housing on our property. 

17. BART was proud to celebrate the openings of three transit-oriented development projects - Gateway at Millbrae Station, Waymark at Walnut Creek, and Kapuso Upper Yard at Balboa Park, creating over 1,100 new homes, including over 200 new affordable homes.  
18. We advanced two additional projects by signing lease options with our selected developers at West Oakland and Phase I at Lake Merritt. These will bring nearly 1,200 new homes, including more than 400 affordable homes for riders who need them most. 

We focused on responsible long-term planning to secure a thriving BART today and long into the future. 

19. We delivered a balanced budget during the most difficult financial time in the history of American public transit. The Grants team secured nearly $400 million of funds in 2023 to help pay for improvements and reinvestment within the BART system. 
20. We welcomed our new Inspector General and nearly tripled the office’s budget so it can expand and perform even more audits and investigations to identify waste, fraud, and abuse and ensure we are maximizing our efficiency.  
21. And most impactful of all, we successfully advocated to get financial assistance from the state budget that immediately averted an impending fiscal cliff. BART stands to receive 45% of the region’s allocation and we will continue to build the case for long overdue investment.   

We got to know our riders and celebrated transit with our biggest fans. 

22. From our book club to new anime mascots, we activated our stations and trains with fun events to welcome people back to BART.  

We also haven’t lost sight of the future. 

23. The Link21 program was awarded $11.3 million in project development funds from the state, reaffirming the critical role of our efforts to build a second train crossing between Oakland and San Francisco in helping the State achieve their State Rail Plan vision for Northern California. Link21 launched its first 18-member, community-based Equity Advisory Council to advise program on priority population concerns, including anti-displacement, connectivity, access, and service needs.  

BART remains the best and the safest way to travel the Bay Area.  

We are proud of what we accomplished in 2023 - from investments in public safety, modernizing our trains and schedules, improving infrastructure, increasing equity, and working toward a secure fiscal future. But we know there’s always more to be done. We can’t wait to show riders what’s in store in 2024 and beyond as we continue driving our vision for the future of Bay Area public transit.