Bay Area Rapid Transit District · Statewide General Election
BART Board, District 8
This is one contest. Enter your address to see every race on your November ballot, and keep track of your picks.
On the ballot
- Sara Barz
This person represents BART District 8 on the nine-member Board of Directors, setting policy, budgets, fares, service priorities, capital plans, and oversight for the regional transit system.
Sara Barz is the only candidate who qualified for BART Board District 8, so she runs unopposed for the seat Janice Li is leaving.
BART's nine elected directors set policy, budgets, fares, service priorities and capital plans for the regional transit system. District 8 currently lies within San Francisco County and covers only part of the city; the official BART boundary layer determines which addresses receive this contest.
With no opponent, the useful comparison is between Barz's plans and BART's operating and fiscal needs rather than between candidates. Her priorities include reliability, station maintenance, rider safety, housing near transit and planning for the system's fiscal crisis.
Sara Barz
Barz is a transportation planner and San Francisco parent with a master's degree in city and regional planning from UC Berkeley. Streetsblog reports that she represents District 7 on the San Francisco County Transportation Authority Community Advisory Committee and was named to Mass Transit's 2024 40 Under 40 list. Her campaign emphasizes preventive maintenance, protecting service for vulnerable riders, infill investment and using automation to improve service rather than reduce jobs.
Strengths
Direct transportation-planning experience and current service on a local transportation advisory body.
Trade-offs
She has not held elected office, and an uncontested race supplies no competing transit plan.
Keep in mind
Her detailed priorities come partly from her own campaign; implementation would depend on the full nine-member Board and BART's finances.
Source review: Very strong (93/100) · 7 cited sources
Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context; advocacy or endorsement sources are treated as attributed perspective.
Review note: Sara Barz for BART may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.
- sf.gov (opens in a new tab)SF Department of Elections — Candidates, November 3, 2026 General Election
- bart.gov (opens in a new tab)BART -- 2026 Board of Directors elections: District 8 is one of four seats elected this cycle.
- bart.gov (opens in a new tab)BART -- Board district descriptions: current District 8 covers part of San Francisco within San Francisco County.
- services.arcgis.com (opens in a new tab)BART official ArcGIS -- adopted 2022 Board of Directors district boundary layer.
- cal.streetsblog.org (opens in a new tab)Streetsblog California -- Q&A with Sara Barz, transportation expert running for BART District 8 (Aug. 19, 2026).
- sarabarz.com (opens in a new tab)Sara Barz for BART -- campaign priorities.
- campaign.sfethics.org (opens in a new tab)SF Ethics Commission — Candidate committees, November 3, 2026 election
Last updated September 3, 2026.