[jerlam]

As an occasional BART rider, the changes they've made since the pandemic have been in the right direction. I'm mostly indifferent to the new trains and payment cards, but they've increased the frequency so that missing a train doesn't mean you can be waiting for over 30 minutes, which can be longer than your entire trip.

The main problem which BART cannot fix is that the trains usually don't go to where you want to go.

[sagarm]

BART can fix that by building dense mixed use -- office, commercial, and residential -- around their stops.

[pj_mukh]

They are doing that in East Bay [1] on BART owned land. They had been blocked so far by the most virulent NIMBY trash leading to some of the most scathing coverage [2]. Most have been unblocked and are under construction. The one still being blocked is Ashby BART because of (say it with me folks), a "HIsToriC flEa MARkeT" (that mostly sells stolen goods)[3].

[1]: https://www.bart.gov/about/business/tod

[2]: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/30/magazine/housing-berkeley...

[3]: https://www.berkeleyside.org/2024/09/17/berkeley-ashby-bart-...

[bee_rider]

Ok but “historic flea market” cannot possibly a real reason; this must be a parody. What’s the real reason (I won’t click the links due to the cognitive risk of having this ridiculous story confirmed).

[Lammy]

> What’s the real reason

My links are worth clicking:

http://radicalcartography.net/bayarea.html

https://goldenstatswarrior.substack.com/p/the-great-migratio...

[jyounker]

BART can't do that. The cities can do that.

[somanyphotons]

I think that's part of the problem, bart stations should be the centerpiece of a really dense (micro)neighbourhood

[lotsoweiners]

Lol. That sounds like you’re saying “well the neighborhood sure is shit but at least we’ve got good public transit”.

[immibis]

have you ever lived in one of these places? Big cities in Europe are made entirely of them. They're pretty cool.