Abstract
San Francisco’s public transportation system reflects the value the city has historically placed on public services. This thesis investigates the political journeys of the city’s two main public transportation systems, BART and Muni, placing them into broader historical context in order to understand how they came to be and why they currently look the way they do. Public transportation connects people, and throughout San Francisco history that has proved to be both a strength and a weakness. In some cases, it has provided proposed systems with broad bases of support. In some, it has activated racist and classist opposition. Throughout the city’s history, San Franciscans were largely willing to treat transit as a public service—something the city or state government should provide to residents. So overall, this is a success story: San Francisco’s public transit was envisioned and maintained as a public service, despite episodes of opposition, as San Francisco residents remained willing to support the infrastructure that connected them to their city and to each other.