[VancouverMan]

It's reasonable to judge a transit system based on its worst stations. If those happen to be the stations that a traveler will be using, then what's going on at those stations will have a significant impact on that traveler's experience.

[Karrot_Kream]

Sure but those stations generally don't have "nice folks" (hate using that term, given that I grew up in an area that would be avoided by these nice folks, but most on HN are generationally upper-middle class so) living near them. 16th and Mission is the exception because of the rapidly gentrified Valencia street, but Civic Center is very much not where upper-middle class folks live. The BART station nearest to me is clean and nice. Proximity to BART generally increases property values and rents.