Why Doesn't BART Go More Places?

Bay Curious

KQED

History, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.9 • 999 Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2022

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

UC Berkeley graduate student Ziad Shafi was surprised when he arrived in the Bay Area and saw that BART trains only have one route through San Francisco. He'd taken metro trains in Prague, Stockholm and Washington, D.C., where the route maps are shaped like spiderwebs — allowing riders to get in striking distance of anywhere in the city. But BART looks more like a tree. He asked: "Why do four of the five BART lines go all the way from West Oakland to Daly City together?" KQED transit editor Dan Brekke gives us some BART history and offers an outlook for what's next for public transit in the Bay Area. Additional Reading: Podcast Episode: You're Really Really Curious About BART (Apple Podcasts) Podcast Episode: Why Are BART Trains So Loud? (Apple Podcasts) Olivia's Instagram Sign up for the monthly Bay Curious newsletter Read the transcript here. Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You can show your love by going to https://kqed.org/donate/podcasts This story was reported by Dan Brekke. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz and Brendan Willard. Our Social Video Intern is Darren Tu. Additional support from Cesar Saldana, Jen Chien, Jasmine Garnett, Carly Severn, Jenny Pritchett and Holly Kernan.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From K-QED.
0:02.0	Go to many of the world's great cities, and you'll find yourself getting around underground on vast train systems.
0:16.4	That's when the experience of Zayad Schafi, a UC Berkeley grad student living in Richmond.
0:21.6	So I went to college on the East Coast in Richmond. So I went to college on the East Coast in Virginia.
0:25.0	So I went to D.C. and took the metro there whenever I was there.
0:29.0	It was really convenient that you could reach wherever you want, just taking the metro.
0:38.7	When he got into UC Berkeley and started writing Bart, Ziat was a little disappointed.
0:44.2	I just thought that, gee, you know,
0:45.8	it's really hard to get to Prisadeo
0:49.2	or Golden Gate Park.
0:50.5	The Bart lines themselves are not as spread out.
0:54.0	Look at the metro map for Paris, D.C. London, New York, and they all look like spider webs, taking you within striking distance of just
1:06.6	about anywhere you'd want to go in the city. But Bart, it's shaped more like a tree,
1:12.1	with one measly line going through San Francisco.
1:15.4	Ziyad wanted to know why.
1:17.2	Why do the four of the five bars lines go all the way from West Oakland to Daily City. It seems like a mistake.
1:25.6	I'm Olivia Allen Price. This is Bay Curious, the podcast that answers listener questions about the Bay Area.
1:31.8	Today we'll get into why Bart goes where it does
1:35.2	and what the next chapter of public transit in the Bay Area might look like. Support for Bay Curious
1:46.1	Bay Curious is brought to you by Sierra Nevada Brewing Company,
1:49.4	still family owned, operated, and argued over.
1:52.8	Explore their brews wherever fine beverages are sold,
	...

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