AC Transit (in full, Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District) is a bus agency serving parts of Alameda County, California, and Contra Costa County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, AC Transit runs "Transbay" routes across the San Francisco Bay to San Francisco, California, and selected areas in San Mateo County, California.
AC Transit is constituted as a special district under California law. It is governed by seven elected members (five from geographic wards and two at-large). It is not a part of the Alameda or Contra Costa county governments, although the initials "AC" are often mistaken to mean "Alameda County."
Ridership is not as prevalent as in highly metropolitan areas. Subsequently, service is government-subsidized. In 2003, AC Transit responded to budget cuts in California by reducing and eliminating many bus routes.
Currently, AC Transit serves cities including Oakland, California, Berkeley, California, Emeryville, California, El Cerrito, California, Albany, California, Richmond, California, Hayward, California, Piedmont, California, Castro Valley, California and Fremont, California. Many routes connect with regional train service, especially BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). AC Transit also connects with Oakland International Airport and the University of California, Berkeley (where students have consistently voted to tax themselves, so their student ID works as a bus pass, even when school is not in session).
In 2003, AC Transit created a new bus rapid transit system called the "72R Rapid" transit line on San Pablo Avenue. Between 6a - 7p, buses run at a 12-minute frequency with stops 2/3 mile apart. Based on the success of this experiment, several other similar lines are in planning.
Also in 2003, AC Transit upgraded its bus infrastructure with new low-floor busses from Van Hool and satellite tracking units on all vehicles. GPS tracking units fix the position of the vehicle, and a private radio network sends updates to headquarters every 3 to 16 minutes. Vehicles on selected lines can be viewed from AC Transit's NextBus passenger information system.
In 2004 voters in Alameda County, along with voters in other parts of the San Francisco Bay Area approved Regional Measure 2, which will provide regional transportation projects (including AC Transit) with $125 million of additional yearly revenues. Additionally, 2/3 of the voters approved Measure BB, a parcel tax specifically supporting AC Transit.
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