After months of seeing a decline in traffic, Bay Area roads are picking back up and so is public transportation.
Boosted by a pair of new stations opening in the South Bay, BART saw its ridership shoot up above 43,000 passengers Tuesday.
VTA is also coming back, as they work to make sure riders feel safe onboard.
“We are making sure we have the vehicles on our most populated lines, and we want to make sure people know we're doing our part, we're clean, we're safe, we need our riding public to do their part,” said Brandy Childress, VTA spokesperson. “Need to wear their masks when they're on board.”
If you’ve noticed more cars on the road, you’re right. After freeway traffic dropped by 90%, the Bay Area Council says Bay Area roads are now back to 52% of prepandemic levels.
“Things have significantly recovered since then,” said John Grubb, COO of Bay Area Council.
“There's more and more travel and more economic activity that's happening in the Bay Area, and that's very important for those that are out of a job right now,” said Grubb.
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A council study revealed that before the pandemic, Wednesday used to be the peak traffic day for the area. Now, with so many people working from home, peak traffic happens on Saturday as people try to get away.
