Mike Rosenberg (Photo by Noah Berger via MTC website)

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission has given a merit award to Mike Rosenberg and his colleagues at the San Mateo County Times/Bay Area News Group for a series on the challenges facing public transit.

“Running on Empty: Bay Area Transit in Trouble” — ran concurrently, from Jan. 10 to 14, in Rosenberg’s San Mateo County Times as well as in other Bay Area News Group papers, including the San Jose Mercury News, Oakland Tribune and Contra Costa Times.

In MTC’s fall newsletter said, “Rosenberg and his colleagues painted an unsettling portrait of a transit system that is vital to the environment and the economic life of the region, but which is nonetheless fighting for its life.”