Social media opinions: BART's dysfunction indicates underlying revenue, safety, reliability issues

 
 

The Opp Now team dove into Reddit community r/BayArea to find out how local residents feel about Bay Area Rapid Transit, and the following comments—excerpted from a thread titled “Why does BART suck so much?”—are all things frank, tongue-in-cheek, and, yes, profoundly sobering for taxpayers. Fasten your seat belts.

cuponoodles213:

So I got rid of my car recently because of both financial and environmental reasons, and I have to say, BART [****] sucks.

I am extremely lucky in that most of the stuff we would need is walkable and I live a literal 2-3 minute walk from the station, but even with that, it sucks. It's NEVER on time. It's always [****] late, it's slow as hell, comes infrequently (why does the train come just twice an hour during rush hour?), is sneaky expensive, has extremely random schedule changes and track closures, the app [****] sucks, and when you get there, it often dumps you in spots that aren't super convenient, which requires further travel & logistics.

I know the Bay Area has the bright idea to make it so expensive through endless road and highway taxes that people opt out of cars, but I have to say, the alternative [****] sucks. What is the future? Is there a real plan to fix BART?

forest_fire:

I took BART from home (east bay) to work (SF) every work day from 2017-2020. Back then, not long ago at all, it could be uncomfortably crowded, but it usually was on time. A delayed or canceled train was a rarity.

Now I only commute using BART 2 out of 5 days per week... and while the crowds are kind of the same at rush hour, there are way more canceled trains, delayed trains, "short" trains lacking all 10 cars, etc. There's always a red delay indicated on the app now at crucial, peak hours.

You're right that the logistics suck, a given since the system is a skinny skeleton. Honestly, the only saving grace is having a bicycle and a lot of grit. If you can make the last mile feasible (and maybe even fun!?), bike or scooter or the like, BART can still be fast. When I catch a train without waiting more than 5 minutes, my commute is much faster than carpooling over the Bay Bridge. The very early trains especially seem to be on time still. 7am is better than 8am.

My read is that the pandemic was the death blow to BART's ability to operate above water. It used to have just enough funds and staff to keep operations smooth. Now it's drowning. Not enough rides paid for, budget in the red, not enough staff (mechanics, drivers, whatever). It's really sad. I used to begrudgingly love BART for all its rough efficiency. I hope someday I'll love it again but I think it's just going to get worse.

BobaFlautist:

It's underfunded because the region made the genius decision to fund it 50% through ticket revenue.

Less people took BART during the pandemic, and ticket revenue fell. The loss in funding meant they had to cut service, and now even fewer people take BART.

If BART was sufficiently funded through tax revenue, like highways (yes, there are toll highways, no they aren't a significant source of highway funding), we wouldn't be here.

Objective_Plan_8266:

I am tired of this disrespectful riders. The slobs. The puking drunks. The guys smoking weed. People screaming, making a scene, or just playing loud obnoxious music. I'm not trained to confront people because that's not my job. I just want to get to and from work safely. I feel like it's unsafe. I've had to stand between crazy screaming druggies and riders who were scared witless in these friggen prison trains several SEVERAL times. Bart can do better, but so can society. It's sad how many people are trying to make things worse for everyone.

seamonster103:

Bottom line. No enforcement of violators.

HouseBitchTim:

I hate BART. I prefer to sit in my car and deal with traffic than to deal with the trashy dirtiness, crime, and unpredictability of BART.

old_gold_mountain:

No money.

That's really the crux of it.

It used to get all its money from commuters, so when remote work became the norm, they lost a huge amount of their funding.

Before the pandemic it was almost always on time, it always ran no less frequently than every 20 minutes.

Stop location has more to do with suburbia than anything.

gouwbadgers:

15 years ago, BART almost always arrived exactly on time. Sure, there were occasional issues, but I was generally able to plan my schedule around BART arrival times.

Now, Bart doesn’t even remotely follow a schedule. You have to just show up at the station and hope your train arrives soon.

This thread originally appeared in Reddit. Read the whole thing here.

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Opp Now enthusiastically welcomes smart, thoughtful, fair-minded, well-written comments from our readers. But be advised: we have zero interest in posting rants, ad hominems, poorly-argued screeds, transparently partisan yack, or the hateful name-calling often seen on other local websites. So if you've got a great idea that will add to the conversation, please send it in. If you're trolling or shilling for a candidate or initiative, forget it.

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