Policy Background

The SFMTA Climate Roadmap supports policies and plans passed by San Francisco voters, the Board of Supervisors, Mayor London Breed and the SFMTA Board of Directors.

2007: San Francisco voters passed Proposition A (2007), directing the SFMTA to issue a report every two years that identifies actions that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while also describing the progress toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector.

2019: The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed Resolution 160-19 declaring a climate emergency. The resolution directed the city to consider “high-priority strategies to achieve deep emission reductions at emergency speed.”

2021: In response to the climate emergency legislation, Mayor Breed and the San Francisco Department of the Environment released the San Francisco Climate Action Plan 2021 (CAP). The CAP is a multi-sector framework that aims to realize San Francisco’s ambitious climate goals with a primary target of net-zero emissions by 2040. The Transportation and Land Use chapter of the CAP contains 44 actions the city must advance to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector.

2023: To align with the city’s CAP and urgently advance priority actions, the SFMTA releases the Climate Roadmap, which identifies the highest-priority actions it must initiate in the next 5-7 years to rapidly reduce emissions and generate important community benefits such as health, equity, accessibility, safety and many others. Implementing the actions identified here will be a step toward realizing the city’s climate goals and the vision established by the CAP.