BART is fantastic already. But it could be better.

When I first rode BART, I was excited. I had never gone on a train before, and this was my first time. But when the train came to the station, I was disappointed. When I imagined a train in my head, it looked better. Nicer, cleaner. It didn't look like that. I sat down uncomfortably in my seat and wondered, how can this be made better?

I've been riding BART for ages, and I've seen my fair share of stuff on the train. From the trashed seats to the frequent hobos, I've seen it all. So why does BART still suck, and how can we make it better?

We all know what it feels like to step in dog poop. Sitting on a dirty seat is like that feeling. It's uncomfortable, disgusting, and it gets on you. At least, that's what it feels like. So why does BART have so many dirty seats, and how can you fix it? Well, it's mostly because of people putting their feet on your seats.

BART has recently encountered issues with passengers placing their feet on the seats. In fact, this happens so much that BART had to release an announcement addressing it. They are also fining them. Some believe this is excessive, but I feel that fining people is OK. They are making the cleaner's work harder, and diminishing the BART experience for others, so I support the fines.

Another big reason the train and stations are so dirty is because the Bay Area has been treating this place like a trash can. There are some clean stations, like 19th Street, but most of them are dirty. In a 2022 study, BART had some of the lowest scores for the cleanliness categories, and that's because it is pretty dirty when people just eat, drink, and drop their trash there and leave it for the custodians. So what can we do about it?

There's not much to do once it happens, so it's pretty hard to come up with a solution to the problems, but you can try and prevent it, and BART is already trying to prevent it. BART's been announcing that you can't bring food or drink or litter for a while now, but I don't think anyone's following the rules. It's just so easy to bypass them, and no one really cares if you break the rules.

I think the best would be to just not eat or drink on the train or inside the stations. Unless it's like a trip from SF to Concord, I'm sure people can wait a few minutes to eat their food outside, or inside their homes and show a little self-restraint.

Another big issue with BART is their finances. BART has been using the government's emergency funds for a while now, and the government will stop letting BART use its funds in 2025. BART has gotten state funds, but it won't be enough to fund BART unless they get more funds somewhere. They've dealt with this sort of thing before, back when they were still building the system, but this time it's different. Not only will they be short-staffed, there'll be less frequent trains, more crowding, and more delays in general. It's quite a big issue, so what can we do right now?

If you're into activism, you could try to petition the congressmen of California, or your state DOT, but if you're just an ordinary person that doesn't want to do something extra, try using BART a bit more. Even if it's just a trip from your house to downtown, taking the trip by BART and other connecting services, like MUNI or VTA saves the environment and also your gas! If you can't do that, it's fine. Lots of places are still hard to access without cars, even in the bay, so I get it. It's hard to get around without a car, isn't it? Well, there's another big issue with BART that doesn't revolve around cars.

Lots of hobos have been riding BART, and one of the main reasons why is the fare gates. People have been hopping the gates, and it's become a major issue, and it's because the fare gates are way outdated, and BART knows. At West Oakland BART station, BART is experimenting with new fare gate designs, which are tall and impassable, and are often located under low ceilings. These fare gates will be the gates of the future, and hopefully will be installed soon.

There's nothing really to do but wait for BART to install these fare gates everywhere.

BART has lots of problems, and I'm sure this is just the start of a long list of problems it has, but these are the three major problems that it has. Its cleanliness problem and fare gate problem would be easy to fix without the finance problem though, so I'm attributing it to that.

By That One Urbanist