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Podcast: A trailblazing woman who brought inclusion and reform to BART calls it a career
Transcript below: HOST: "There are few people who can claim a career path like the one followed by Tamar Allen. Over a span that stretches across four decades Allen has worn many hats ranging from police officer to Assistant General Manager. Allen has played a critical role in some of the largest projects in
BART seeks public help in case of man found unconscious at Civic Center Station
The BART Police Department (BART PD) is seeking BART riders who used the Civic Center Station on Friday, March 9, 2012, and may have seen something unusual involving a Caucasian, six foot male with brown hair and hazel eyes. The BART PD is seeking the public’s help to find out what happened to this man who
BART Statement on Ca. Public Utilities Commission decision related to 2013 fatal accident
BART is currently evaluating the October 11 th Decision by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) regarding the tragic deaths of two workers along the BART tracks on October 19, 2013. BART has worked with the CPUC and others to identify and address all potential causes of the accident. BART
New Fremont dog park opening latest milestone for BART Warm Springs Extension
By Xuan Lam BART Website Intern At the opening of the new dog park in Fremont Central Park on Wednesday, a cacophony of howls and yips from assorted canines mixed with excited chatter and laughter from dog owners. When the ribbon was finally cut by Fremont Mayor Bob Wasserman and BART Board Director Tom
Platform details now included on BART Trip Planner results
To make planning BART trips and using the BART system even easier, platform details are now included in Trip Planner itineraries, giving riders confidence that they are waiting for their train in the right spot.
The information will be especially helpful for riders who are making platform-to-platform transfers, for example at MacArthur Station as reflected in the before and after images below. The Trip Planner itinerary calls out how riders will transfer from the Yellow Line train at Platform 4 at Macarthur Station to an Orange Line train on Platform 2.
Riders will also be able to see if a train is using a different platform than normal, a tactic used during delay scenarios when trains may need to run on different tracks.
“BART is making changes to ensure navigating transit is as easy as possible as part of our efforts to improve the customer experience and increase ridership,” said Alicia Trost, BART Chief Communications Officer. “New riders and those who use BART infrequently will now have this critical platform information that will make their journey more seamless.”
Before: Without platform details After: With platform details
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Platform numbers are posted on concourse signage at major decision points as well as on the platforms on directional signage and digital signs.
Concourse signs Platform level signs
The platform level data is now also available for third-party apps to implement through BART’s Developer Program.
Riders invited to Sept 27th evening BART Board meeting on system safety
UPDATE: This board meeting will be livestreamed and recorded for future viewing. Rider safety will be the focus as the BART Board of Directors holds its Thursday, September 27 th meeting at 5pm at Pittsburg City Hall. The BART board voted in August to hold a special night meeting in a suburban location to
BART unveils new swing style fare gate and dramatic savings for systemwide rollout
The Richmond BART Station now has a newly designed accessible fare gate prototype to test BART’s next generation of faregates. The new design is the result of months of innovation by BART staff that has reduced the cost estimate for replacing fare gates across the system from $150 to $90 million, a 40%
BART Board conditionally earmarks $2.5 million for additional station along eBART extension
A future additional station along the eBART extension could receive a $2.5 million boost thanks to a vote Thursday by the BART Board of Directors. BART Directors voted to earmark $2.5 million toward the cost of a Pittsburg Center Station at the intersection of Highway 4 and Railroad Avenue. BART’s
BART adds trains, opens early for May 20th Bay To Breakers Race
Extra trains also on deck for baseball fans BART will provide special service for the world-famous Bay to Breakers race in San Francisco on Sunday, May 20th. Most trains will begin running two hours earlier than the regular 8 a.m. Sunday starting time. BART will provide train service from all East Bay
Local artists' sound sculpture turns BART trains into music
Local artists built the instrument, but BART plays the music.
Transbay Tubes is a sound sculpture created by an intergenerational trio of Bay Area artists that recently debuted at tiat gallery in San Francisco as part of a time.place exhibition.
The sculpture is tuned to the rhythm of the BART system. It listens continuously to live train data from 511.org, and each time a BART train enters the Transbay Tube, the artwork answers: A light flashes the color of the train’s line, and one of three tubes generates a resonant hum. Train by train, the movement of BART is translated into a subtle, unfolding score.
The piece is composed of a small light that shifts between red, yellow, and green and three tubes of different lengths. Inside, electronics pull live data from 511.org, cueing the sculpture to activate as a train enters the Transbay Tube. First, the light flashes, then one of the tubes generates sound.
“The Tube has a voice we’ve always heard but never really listened to,” said shm garanganao almeda, who came up with the idea for the piece. “With Transbay Tubes, that voice is no longer background noise; it’s a song beneath the city.”
Shm connected these ideas to code, collaborating with local artists Oliver DiCicco and Sudhu Tewari. Sudhu built the circuitry that translates the 511.org data and activates the sculpture. Oliver designed and constructed the musical tubes, known as Rijke tubes, which produce sound when electricity runs through a coiled wire, heating the air inside. As the hot air rises to the top of the tube, cold air floods the bottom, creating convection currents that vibrate at a certain frequency, generating a tone.
Transbay Tubes reframes the experience of riding through the Tube. Every rider is part of the composition. Infrastructure becomes instrument.
“When I’m on BART, I feel like I’m part of this vast movement of people,” shm said. “With this piece, I wanted to make that movement audible, to show that every journey is a note in a larger composition.”
The Transbay Tube is one of the world’s most groundbreaking, remarkable feats of engineering. Yet for most riders, it registers as little more than a brief stretch of darkness between stations. The sculpture forces viewers to slow down, to envision the invisible, to reconsider the routine.
Working on the sculpture gave Sudhu “this crazy sensation of having a really deep connection to BART,” he said.
“I was sitting there at my kitchen table waiting for the trains to come by, and shm and I were working at the same time so I’d text them, ‘OMG, I just saw a train go through.’ And they would say, ‘OMG, I just saw a train go through.’ It was like a friend lamp that connected us because we were paying attention to the BART trains in real time.”
During the time.place exhibition opening at tiat, the effect of the sculpture was visceral. As people clustered around the sculpture, they shifted their behavior, pausing conversations mid-sentence every time a train activated the piece.
While they waited for the next train, people talked about BART: where they ride, what lines they take, how the system shapes their daily lives.
“Transbay Tubes provides a lesson in anticipation and patience,” said Oliver. “And it made the Transbay Tube feel alive for those of us in its presence.”
By the time you step away from Transbay Tubes, BART feels different. Not just a way to get from one place to another, but a rhythm, a pulse, a shared experience unfolding in real time.
“Public transit is about connection,” shm said. “This piece makes that connection sensory.”
Tiat gallery’s time.place exhibition concluded in April, but the artists are already imagining a larger iteration of the sculpture – this time with four tubes to incorporate the beloved-though unintentionally omitted Blue Line – and searching for new spaces to exhibit.
Future iterations will stay true to the ethos of the original: infrastructure as art, motion transformed into light and tone and sensation.