[jakelarkin]

agree with most of the other comments in this thread, but would add

- BART is an extremely filthy and dangerous transit system by any 1st world standard, and I say this as a lifelong transit rider.

- Oakland, Berkeley, & Richmond govs/regs are business unfriendly & tech hostile. It's a traditionally poor working class area undergoing massive housing displacement & the political class is all old money or non-profit types.

[e40]

- BART is an extremely filthy and dangerous transit system by any 1st world standard, and I say this as a lifelong transit rider.

This is hysteria. I have many coworkers who ride BART on a daily basis for 15+ years and not a single reported incident from any of them, other than stinky homeless people that very rarely ride during peak hours.

[jakelarkin]

http://www.ktvu.com/news/bart-investigating-3-violent-deaths...

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/BART-s-approval-...

slightly depends on your entry/exit stations but I would regularly see crack/heroin use, defecation, deranged meth heads screaming and/or picking fights. I doubt I am alone in this.

[enahs-sf]

Definitely not Hysteria. I have inhaled second-hand crack smoke walking up the stairs at Civic Center, watched a man defecate on a crowded train, and saw a person get stabbed in the past 5 years of riding BART. It's not this bad in NYC or LA and I couldn't even dream of seeing things like this in Europe or Asia.

[praneshp]

> I have many coworkers who ride BART

Have you personally taken BART on a consistent enough basis? I took it two days a week for a significant length of time and calling it filthy is not hysteria at all.

[i_am_nomad]

Seconding a couple of other replies here: it is not hysteria. In the 20 years I've lived in the Bay Area, BART has gone from tolerable to completely revolting.

[jon_richards]

I don't ride it often and haven't seen any violent crimes, but I've seen police remove quite a few people. Last time we had to wait a while as the police asked the guy to pick up his own used needles.

[briandear]

On BART: in 2017: 428 Violent Crimes: 293 robberies, 130 assaults, 5 rapes(!!). In 2007 -- 245 violent crimes.

Ridership has increased 22% over the past decade, however violent crime has increased 75% over the same period.

[jmtulloss]

Fascinating. I'd love to read more... Where did you find these stats reported?

[sincerely]

I grew up in SF, now live in Toronto and spend a lot of time in NY. Pretending that Bart/MUNI arent on a completely different level than other major cities is ridiculous.

[superbaconman]

As an out of state resident who needs to ride that train to get to the airport thanks for the warning. I'll keep my wits about me.

[baby]

> This is hysteria

I've taken public transit all my life and I'm scared every time I take the bart :/

[omegaworks]

>It's a traditionally poor working class area undergoing massive housing displacement

Kind of makes you wonder why the existing folks are hostile...