November 2026: SFLCV Endorses Sara Barz for BART District 8 Director

SFLCV endorses Sara Barz for BART Board of Directors, District 8. Her extensive background in helping improve the region’s transit systems make her an excellent choice to help the agency tackle its looming challenges in the coming years.

BART would benefit from competent, experienced leadership to weather its circumstances and ensure long-term financial viability of the system, while maintaining its critical role in reducing regional greenhouse gas emissions. 

Before the pandemic, BART’s farebox recovery ratio, or the proportion of the agency’s operating budget funded by passenger fares, was approximately 70% -- well above the 2019 national average of 36% for the 50 U.S. agencies with the highest operating expenses. Given post-pandemic commute pattern changes that now favor increased remote work and less frequent transit ridership, BART is facing significant financial headwinds in the current landscape. If the SFLCV-supported Connect Bay Area (the Regional Transit Measure, or RTM) does not pass, the agency will face even more dire consequences. 

Sara Barz will be up to the task. Her priorities include capital projects that will improve the rider experience, such as replacing dated components to ensure that track switches, signals, elevators, escalators, and other basic elements are working smoothly. She advocates for increased collaboration between agencies, including better connections to Muni at BART District 8 stations such as Glen Park and Balboa Park. Barz would draw on her background as a member of the SF County Transportation Authority’s (SFCTA) Community Advisory Committee and as a co-founder of Seamless Bay Area, a not-for-profit transit advocacy group, to bring about these changes as a BART Director. She astutely recognizes that one of the best ways for BART to increase ridership and revenue in the future is to continue its focus on addressing rider concerns like delays and multi-modal connectivity.

Barz expresses support for prioritizing revenue-generating efforts like increased transit-oriented development (TOD) and EV charging at BART stations. Expanding these initiatives will simultaneously reduce travel distances and encourage a shift away from automobile use, both of which help minimize greenhouse gas emissions.

Barz acknowledges that many of BART’s core riders are transit-dependent and belong to marginalized or low-income communities who may face barriers to accessing transit. She believes these groups should be considered in strategic decisions for the agency, and her professional experience exemplifies it. She was formerly a project manager at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission for the Means-Based Transit Fare Discount Pilot Program, which became Clipper Start and now offers a 50% discount for low-income riders on Bay Area systems. She also served as a product manager for transit payment at Apple, helping make transit easier to access for riders around the world.

She supports the Regional Transit Measure as well as BART’s recently published 2026-2035 Sustainability Action Plan, which outlines BART’s environmental goals over the next decade.

For all these reasons, SFLCV is proud to endorse Sara Barz for BART District 8 Director!