The hope is that if a regionwide pass increases ridership without causing transit Armageddon, perhaps individual agencies will stop blocking and delaying real transit integration. Then the goals of S.B. 917 can be achieved via MTC--which is supposed to be the coordinating agency for Bay Area transit--without the legislation.
"We should have a world-class transit system. We have the bones of it," said California Senator Josh Becker. "If we just do fare and schedule integration, that would make a tremendous difference."