U.C. Berkeley: Combatting inequality with public engagement in urban transportation
Updated: Mar 7
UC Berkeley, April 2025 Conference
Problem: How can cities engage the public in planning and decision-making to ensure clean mobility projects respond to community needs and address past inequalities?
Solution: Redefine public engagement as “co-governance” to bridge the gap between community input and design decisions.
The UC Berkeley team addressed the challenges of achieving equitable clean mobility in San Francisco. Despite high usage, the transit infrastructure remains unequally distributed. Often, technology is prioritized over accessibility and local needs. While initiatives like the Southeastern San Francisco Mobility Hub and the MetroQuest survey platform have seen success in increasing rider satisfaction to its highest levels in over 20 years, geographical disparities in micro-mobility access persist.
To address these challenges, the team proposed a fundamental shift from traditional public engagement to a model of “co-governance.” This framework ensures that community input is not just a checkbox in the planning process but is directly translated into actual design decisions. By building long-term public capacity through education and awareness, cities can move away from top-down planning and toward a system where residents are active partners in shaping the transit networks they rely on daily.
The proposal emphasizes the creation of community councils that work in tandem with city planning departments and transit agencies. This collaborative structure aims to replicate the success seen in recent rider satisfaction gains, which reached their highest levels in over 20 years following targeted improvements. By institutionalizing this relationship between the public and policymakers, San Francisco can ensure that clean mobility options like the light rail, buses, and micro-mobility are distributed fairly and reflect the unique needs of every community.
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