Off to Singapore, but first . . . BART!

Oh BART, I want to love you. I really do. But you make it so hard. When I was growing up in the ‘80s you held so much promise. As a kid my grandmother would take me for a day on the BART. We took all 3 lines too every single station. When I think about it now, what a cheep date I was. On and off at the same stop? Couldn’t have been more than $1.50. I loved it! 3 lines. Hmmm. I guess that was the problem. Those 3 lines remained stagnant for years. Then suddenly there was an explosion new stations, Concord extended out to Pittsburgh, a whole new line was put in to get folks out to Dublin. At that point I was working in Fremont. I would watch the BART map blossom with new color. The color I was most interested in, however, was gray. Dotted gray to be exact. You see the Fremont line stops 10miles short of my work. For years now there has been a gray dotted line indicating an extension to Warm Springs. In 2000 (2002?) there was a ballot initiative to provide money to complete the extension. I voted. It passed. The money was spent upgrading existing lines. Sure I can ride my bike. Sometimes I do (although very infrequently). The 10mi takes about 30min by bike (there is a bus, but it too takes 30min and comes so sporadically that timing it can be stressful). If I time it just right I can make it from door to door in about 1.5hrs. Compare that to my normal commute of ~45min to 1hr. And then there’s the cost. Something like $6.50 round trip each time. It’s actually cheaper and way faster to drive. Still I do it when I can. Better to be reading and riding than driving, cursing at traffic and polluting. Maybe one day that extension will come. I’m not holding my breath.

So today I am off to Singapore. Usually I hire a car to get me to SFO, but I thought I’d try public transport this time. I remember in Chicago and London that taking the train to the airport was hell of easy. But then those are cities that value public transportation. As cosmo as we in the Bay Area think we are, we are still very much rooted in the car culture we so quickly identify with the dreaded LA. Maybe we hate LA so much because it is a little too close to us for comfort.

But I digress. My journey starts at 9:15 when I call a cab. I’m up in the Oakland Hills and way way to far to walk to BART with all my stuff. There are busses and to be honest I didn’t even concider that. The cab comes at 9:20 so lets call that my start time. Cab to BART: $12.50 + tip = $15. Holy crap! I didn’t clock it but I think the whole journey is only about 3-4 miles. I timed the train pretty well, it comes at 9:30 and I have a nice long wait to transfer at Balboa. Balboa, let’s just stop here for a second. This is the transfer for the train to Milbrea. As I wait 10min for the train I notice the pigeon spikes everywhere, along with, you guessed it, pigeons. This one made a nest in the spikes. Very effective. But wait! There’s more! Every few minutes these tiny little speakers go off with a terrible shrieking that is supposed to sound like a bird of prey. It is literally painful to listen to, if you’re human! Of course the pigeons are completely un-phased. This picture is taken about halfway through one of these episodes. This was possibly the most annoying transfer ever. Well done BART!

So I got there just fine, at 11am. Total journey: ~1.5hrs, $21. If I hired a cab it would have been more for sure, maybe double, but it would only have taken about 40min tops. Hmmm.., tough call.

BART you’re breaking my heart. Will you ever be truly effective? There are so many cases where you’re more of a hassle than driving. Rarely are you cheaper. If wasn’t traveling alone you most certainly would not be. The BART ticket was $5.60. If I’m a family of four that’s $22.40. The whole problem, of course, is not the system ,it’s getting to the system. If BART was walk-able it would be a no-brainer. But there are so few lines and so few stops that it’s rarely the case.

Well that’s my disappointing story about our meager Bay Area Rapid [sic] Transit. Next post from Singapore should be more exciting.

-E