BART has been supplying rides to the people of the Bay Area since 1964, connecting different parts of the Bay Area through one swift train ride. Now, this public transport system is going through a few renovations to hopefully make the riding experience more convenient. After 78% of people voted to pass measure RR (Rail Service Tax), giving BART $3.5 billion to rebuild stations and trains, each station is looking to put the money to use and renovate their services. The most recent renovations include unlimited region-wide fare passes, consistent signage and maps, and coordinating schedule changes for increased reliability.
In 2022, The Independent Institute, awarded BART the California Golden Fleece Award, for being unsafe and unclean. The Golden Fleece Award is only awarded to systems that are accused of abuse and fraud, which according to the Independent Institute, BART has a lot of. And, this may also be reflected in the ridership where CBS reported that 78% of people would ride BART more often if it was safer and cleaner. English teacher Logan Spilker is one of many who dislike the current Bart system. He rode the BART almost everyday to commute to his previous job.
“I hate BART,” Spilker said. “I think it sucks. I find it really interesting considering the amount of money in our area that our system is filthy, insecure, doesn’t run on time, old, and there are not many good things about it other than it will eventually get you to point B from point A.”
However, not everyone seems to feel this way. Sophomore, Matthew Guo has ridden the BART almost 16 times in 2023, and is a passionate fan of the rail system.
“It’s a pretty useful system for a lot of people,” Guo said. “A lot of people around the Bay Area rely on it. It’s a pretty important piece of infrastructure.”
Currently, this important piece of infrastructure is being further improved as, in March so far, BART has renovated bike lockers making it easier to bike to BART, and improving accessibility on the trains. BART also reports ridership going up by 5.2% in January from December which may be proof that the renovations are working. Nevertheless, BART has only tackled a very small amount of real renovation projects, making riders feel like it’s still incomplete.
“I think we could have amazing infrastructure here for public transport, and I think we should, especially when you look at how bad traffic is,” Spilker said. “But, the fact that BART works is kinda the problem. We could have something amazingly better, but we settled for BART.”
