Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Tina Martin meet at the Move Bay Area transit summit in San Francisco on Aug. 28. Martin writes that passing a city and regional transit measures in November is vital for the Bay Area.

Passengers board a San Francisco Muni bus on Market Street in 2025. Muni and other public transportation agencies would have to curtail service if the measures don’t pass in November.

Am I, at 80, too old to be a transit nerd?  I certainly dress like one — BART earrings made from tickets from decades ago, the latest holiday sweater with the Muni worm and earrings depicting a streetcar.

This November, San Franciscans will decide whether enthusiasm like mine is matched by the money needed to keep the buses and trains running. Proposition H would provide dedicated funding for Muni, while the regional Proposition RTM would support Muni and other Bay Area transit systems. If the measures fail, service cuts will not be abstractions. They will change whether people can reach work, school, medical appointments, friends — the places that, for so many of us, make a life.

I began needing Muni in 1966, when I was a student and learned San Francisco through its bus routes. By day, I took the 1 California and the 28 19th Avenue from the Richmond to San Francisco State University. At night, Muni carried me all over the city to babysitting jobs that paid $1 an hour. 

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After I married and moved to Potrero........

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