

How would you improve BART? - Plasmoid
http://www.futurebart.org/

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jaysonelliot
These kind of pseudo-public-feedback surveys where the solutions available are
presented as a limited set of options, all funneling towards what the agency
wanted to do in the first place, really bug me.

You've got an entrenched bureaucracy that's paralyzed by a dysfunctional
relationship with unions and a We've Always Done Things This Way™ mentality
presenting what they think are the only options for fixing a system like BART.

Not one word about eliminating waste, improving efficiency, or innovation.
Just a thinly-veiled complaint about budget shortfalls and an obvious plea for
a sales tax increase to fill their coffers.

It would be wonderful if BART actually solicited public feedback on ways to
improve the system. We're right in the middle of the most vibrant tech
corridor in the nation, if not the world. You've got innovators and
entrepreneurs that ride the system every day, many of whom would leap at the
chance to fix an outdated, bureaucratic culture like the Bay Area Rapid
Transit.

This is just an advocacy page for a bigger BART budget.

~~~
apsec112
Where does all the money _go_? The Bay Area, and NYC even more so, spend far
more than anywhere else in the world for an equivalent level of rail service.
The "Central Subway" (only 2 km of tunnel!) will cost $1.6 billion; at the end
of the day, that money is going into someone's pocket. Whose? As far as I can
tell, nobody in local government has the foggiest idea - the contractors all
hide what they're doing under a cloak of darkness. Maybe FOIA should be
extended to private contractors for contracts over a certain amount.

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ghshephard
First thing I looked for was, "Bart around the Bay" \- nothing there. It's
beyond me why nobody has made getting Bart circling the bay a priority, and
really is a blight on "Bay Area" transit.

~~~
seanp2k2
San Jose station and 24x7 service. Not having either of these makes BART
nearly worthless to me. If they had these things, I would use BART probably a
few times a week to go to SF from SJ. Right now, I drive instead (1x on
average every other week) to night clubs / bars / dinner in SF / Berkeley. I
can park at Millbrae and take BART into the city, but doing so is only useful
if I'm going to be back before ~midnight.

Caltrain is not an option because the service isn't 24x7, it's terribly slow,
the train doesn't come often enough, and the station isn't close to where I
live. The last 2 are just personal annoyances, but I think the first 2 are
enough to make it a much-less-desirable option vs driving for people who would
otherwise take it. That the cars are ridiculously over-built because they
technically share tracks with freight trains (from what I've read, this is
also what makes them so horribly loud and inefficient [which also makes the
system much more expensive to run]) and do lots of PR damage by having very
loud horns (my speculation: is that also related to the shares-tracks-with-
freight-trains thing?) are just rotten cherries on top.

Public transit isn't easy, but it's also not impossible. I know that even the
Bay Area doesn't have the population density of places with their public
transit

~~~
hueving
An express caltrain is faster than driving (unless you encounter no traffic,
in which case the drive would be 9 mins faster) and you don't have to worry
about parking. It's not quite as bad as you say. No 24/7 service is really
annoying though.

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ulfw
Cleaning up and modernizing trains would be a big one for me. I rode BART
again recently for the first time in 17 years and it looked, felt and smelled
exactly the same as back in 1998. It's a disgrace for an Alpha-World City. A
homeless person was driving back and forth, sleeping on the front seats. The
seats and carpet were decades old. How hard can it be to at least
modernize/clean the rolling stock, if you're not willing to invest in new
ones?

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sethhochberg
They actually are investing in new ones.

[http://www.bart.gov/about/projects/cars](http://www.bart.gov/about/projects/cars)

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jesseendahl
Where is the option for "24 hour service on Fridays and Saturdays?"

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djcapelis
"Second transbay tube" and "increased capacity in core" together allow 24/7
BART service. This is a commonly requested thing, and these are the things
needed to make it happen.

~~~
hueving
Can you explain why more track is needed for a service that doesn't run 24/7
to allow it to run 24/7?

~~~
nrau
BART does not currently run 24/7 primarily because they have to perform
maintenance on the system, some of which requires that trains are not running.
This is especially the case for the Transbay Tube which requires a lot of
attention.

If BART had two tubes then they could run 24/7 and still complete the required
maintenance with shut down periods staggered at different times for each tube.
This would allow the full system to remain running 24/7.

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xfour
Scrolled down to not find, "Finish Bart to San Jose", or Connect to new 49ers
stadium. I don't even live in the South Bay, and that seems like the most
important project.

~~~
nilsimsa
I think it is already in the plans to extend to San Jose and then to Santa
Clara.

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autism_hurts
Bart is supposed to be a figure 8 loop in the bay, or at least a full loop
through San jose and up the peninsula.

The rich will never let this happen in Palo Alto, atherton, etc.

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jamesli
More parking capacity in the Bart station. A lot of people decide to drive to
the city because they cannot find a parking space in some stations. It is not
practical for them to walk or bike to the stations due to a variety of
difficulties.

The extra parking space could be achieved either by converting the basic and
space-inefficient one floor parking ramp to two floors, or building a new
underground one.

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pstrateman
BART really should be a circle line around the bay.

~~~
alialkhatib
I read somewhere that getting it to go through the Peninsula (with affluent
homeowners fighting such construction) would be a non-starter. I don't recall
how Caltrain factored in (it may be a little quieter but it's still certainly
pretty loud and runs right through the Peninsula), but I suspect this is why
they didn't bother to include that or other options extending service toward
the South Bay.

~~~
ghshephard
Caltrain runs a screeching loud horn and rumbling noise everywhere it runs. I
stayed at a hotel recently (Sequoia Inn, 526 El Camino) - and I was forced to
use ear plugs to get any sleep while the Caltrain was running. And I'm a heavy
sleeper.

~~~
was_hellbanned
If I remember correctly, legislation was passed in 2007 requiring trains
everywhere in the US to blast their horn four times (length unspecified)
before every crossing. The only exceptions are quad-gated crossing (I believe
that means a gate covering each lane of traffic on _both_ sides) or in
specified "quiet zones".

In my area, the trains only get active at around 11:30pm, an continue their
racket through the entire night. I'm regularly awakened by needlessly long
honking around 4am. It's awful.

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jmspring
Cut the pay to the BART board, do away with life time "free access" passes,
and run for longer hours.

~~~
jessedhillon
So assume there are 200 board members (a stupid number) each having their pay
cut by $100k (another stupid number), and each of those have 5 passes for
their family members who ride BART every day of the year from one end to the
other (about a $10 ride) -- thats $20.365m. Where's the rest of the money
going to come from?

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chipsy
FYI, former BART Director Robert S. Allen made Internet comments railing
against transit-oriented development. [0] One of the underlying attitudes that
drives today's transit situation is this notion of segregation via restricted
transit access.

[0] [http://systemicfailure.wordpress.com/2014/10/09/ex-bart-
dire...](http://systemicfailure.wordpress.com/2014/10/09/ex-bart-director-
says-transit-oriented-development-attracts-thugs/)

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tomlongson
I would make single car trains that are built by tesla and go exactly where
you need. Need to go directly to Fremont? Get on a train that is routed
directly to your destination with other patrons from Embarcadero to Fremont.
No unnecessary stops. This would require infrastructure for stations to
include "offramps", but with a modular bus system (think uber), your ride
would be available at the Fremont station waiting to take you the last few
miles.

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aftbit
This whole site feels like pure PR to me. BART wants the problems facing them
to look huge, and their current funding sources to look massively
insufficient.

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share1love
BART will go to San Jose in 2018 paid for by Santa Clara County tax payers and
federal funding. You would still have to take VTA's LRT to the 49ers stadium
from the future Milpitas Station.

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benjiweber
For reference here's some plans for the next few years of upgrades to the
London Underground
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3Q0FZUKHkY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3Q0FZUKHkY)

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erikpukinskis
Bike cars with dedicated bike racks.

