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In July, BART released the Role in the Region Report, a comprehensive study of BART's impact on the Bay Area illustrated by new analyses, data visualizations, and powerful personal narratives. Over the coming weeks, we'll be sharing some of the key insights from the report in a series of Role in the Region articles here on bart.gov. Click here to read the first story -- on BART's role in reducing regional traffic -- click here for the second story, which explores BART's contributions to the economy.

We encourage you to read the full report - click here - and visit the project webpage at bart.gov/roleintheregion. 

Today's post examines BART's impact on the regional economy. See the full report for methodology.

BART is one of the greenest ways to get around the Bay Area and taking public transit is one of the easiest ways to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions.

Consider these facts:

• Transportation accounts for 38 percent of California's greenhouse gas emissions.
• Driving releases 42 times more greenhouse gases per mile than BART. 
• Every BART train car moves as many people as 76 automobiles.

California has a 2045 target date to achieve carbon neutrality and help prevent the worst impacts of climate change. The transition to zero-emission vehicles alone will not happen fast enough to meet state and regional climate goals.

What BART Riders Say…

“I think BART makes the world a better place. It provides an economy of scale, is better for the environment, and allows for more urbanization in the region.”  

Samantha Greenstone, High School Student at Orion Academy in Concord

Without BART, there would be a daily increase of 780,000 to 1,560,000 miles driven, which is equal to 2,000 to 4,000 cars driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Removing an equivalent amount of greenhouse gas emissions would require planting a new San Francisco-sized forest every two years to offset the extra carbon dioxide.

100 percent of BART’s contracted electricity supply has been greenhouse gas emission-free in recent years, and BART is helping transit agencies operating buses achieve their electrification goals with battery charging at BART stations. BART continues to find new ways to lower emissions; our September 2023 schedule change, which introduced shorter trains and only Fleet of the Future train cars running for the base schedule, resulted in a 15% reduction in energy used per day. 

What BART Riders Say…

“To me, BART is a sustainable way of life. When I take BART, I feel like I’m doing my part."

Rider from San Francisco, CA

Taking BART and other public transit options is one good thing anyone can do for the planet.

Learn more about BART's sustainability practices and read the 2023 Sustainability Report at bart.gov/sustainability.

Meet BART on the pitch for a special Oakland Roots match celebrating transit at the Oakland Coliseum on Saturday, July 26. 

Before kickoff at 1pm, BART invites you to join a fan parade from Coliseum Station across the bridge to the stadium. To get in on the fun, meet BART staff at the station near the bridge between noon and 12:30pm. The parade will begin at 12:30pm. 

The Roots are also offering a special discoount. Use the promo code BART to save 20% on Roots tickets for this and all other Roots games.

Purchase discounted tickets to the match here.  

The BART Title Game match will be played against Orange County SC at the Oakland Coliseum, just steps from BART’s Coliseum Station. The Oakland Roots compete in the United Soccer League (USL) Championship, which features 24 teams across the United States.  

Similar to the Oakland Ballers’ recent Public Transit Night, the Roots’ BART Title Game will feature BART throughout the afternoon. Planned BART activities include the fan parade, photos with the BARTmobile, and surprises. And did we mention Oakland rapper and singer Kamaiyah is playing the BART Halftime show? 

Driving ridership through sports partnerships  

The BART Title Game is part of BART Marketing’s efforts to boost ridership and foster stronger ties with local communities through strategic partnerships. BART partners with over 250 local organizations annually, helping to significantly expand the reach of our messaging. These partnerships come at no cost to BART and promote that taking BART is fun, in addition to being convenient, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly. 

Since the pandemic, ridership on nights and weekends is growing faster than commute ridership. While people may not be going into the office as often as they used to, they are going to games, shows, museums, and other fun events that can only be experienced in person. Our partnerships lean into this.  

Discover more BARTable fun at bart.gov/bartable and check out our Rider Guides page with tips for how to get to local sports and entertainment venues by BART.  

On Saturday, August 8, BART Deputy General Manager Michael Jones invites riders to explore the inner workings of BART and the equipment that keeps it running for Tool Time with the BART Deputy General Manager, in the Fremont Station north parking lot from 10am to 12:30pm. 

The free all-ages event will be held beside an active construction area, where BART is currently working to replace a vital interlocking nearing the end of its lifespan. The "Machines of BART," a series of equipment and vehicles BART uses to build, maintain, and run the system, will be on display for the day, giving families the rare opportunity to see things like high railers, a vactor truck, a speed swing, and other cool tools up close, with staff on hand to answer questions. 

A highlight of the day is a live crane demo, featuring the project’s massive Bigge crane -- the second largest of its kind on the West Coast! The demo will take place at 11am.  

Other activities include a BART Police K9 demonstration, BART engineer show-and-tell tables, a Railgoods BART Merch pop-up shop, and more. The event will also give attendees the chance to meet and ask questions of BART Deputy General Manager Michael Jones and members of BART’s dedicated workforce. 

Tool Time will be held in the Fremont Station Parking Lot next to the construction area on the north side of the station, which is currently an active construction laydown area where crews are working to replace the interlocking between Union City and Fremont stations. Interlockings are fail-safe systems that allow trains to safety cross from one track to another. Come see for yourself! 

What: Tool Time with BART Deputy General Manager Michael Jones 

When: Saturday, August 8, 10am to 12:30pm 

Where: Fremont Station (2000 BART Way, Fremont), north parking lot beside the construction area

IMPORTANT - If you are driving and parking, the Mowry Ave./Waterside Circle parking lot entrance will be closed during the event. Enter the north lot from Walnut Ave. or the south lot via BART Way.  

Parking is free at BART stations on weekends. Taking BART is encouraged. 

Free and open to all ages. 

Restrooms and water onsite; wear sunscreen and a hat. 

BART's new Transit Saves 2024 campaign art is featured in the slideshow above. 

Earth Day is an international event held annually on April 22 to celebrate sustainability and raise awareness about environmental protection. At BART, it is an important opportunity for us to reflect on the many challenges our planet faces, including climate change, deforestation, and environmental pollution, as well as the ways we can be part of the solution.  

BART takes special care to acknowledge Earth Day every year because sustainability is a core value of our organization. On past Earth Days, we interviewed riders on trains about their carbon footprints; we created a map highlighting some of the creatures and green features around the BART system; we even put together a BART-themed Earth Day quiz.  

This year, we’re celebrating Earth Day with a new educational marketing campaign that highlights some of the environmental benefits of taking BART. The campaign is now live on the digital screens in select stations and will also occupy the ad spaces in stations and trains. You can see the art in the slideshow below. 

Additionally, this year BART collaborated with the Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation and Trees for Oakland to host a tree planting event. The volunteers, which included many BART employees, planted more than 100 native trees at the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline in Oakland.  

Public transportation is one of the greenest ways to get around, and on Earth Day, BART celebrates that. Learn more about the campaign and the tree planting below.  

Happy Earth Day! 

BART launches second edition of Transit Saves marketing campaign

A panel from Transit Saves 2023.

Today, BART is thrilled to launch the second edition of our Transit Saves marketing campaign with three novel art concepts. We debuted Transit Saves in 2023 to highlight the many reasons public transportation enhances our communities, but there were simply too many ways “transit saves” to include in a single campaign. So, we created another one.  

You can view the new art, which includes updated data from our forthcoming Role in the Region Study, in the above slideshow. As of today, you will begin to see the art around the Bay Area, including in the ad spaces on trains and in stations. Animated versions of the art will be rotating on the digital advertising screens in some BART stations as well.  

Check out our Transit Saves webpage for some quick facts about BART’s importance to the region (environmentally and otherwise) and to view our methodology.  

BART collaborates with local organizations for tree planting event

BART is committed to bringing the community together to safeguard our local environment. 

For Earth Day, BART’s Sustainability Department organized a tree planting event at the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline in Oakland on Saturday, April 20, in collaboration with the Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation and Trees for Oakland.  BART employees, their loved ones, BART District 4 Director Robert Raburn and his wife, Pat, and other members of the community came together to plant 100 trees, including Monterey cypress, Catalina ironwood, hollyleaf cherry, flannel bush, and various types of oak. These trees are native, climate adapted and/or shoreline adapted, and will help sequester carbon that would otherwise contribute to climate change. As you can see in the above Transit Saves art, if we didn’t have BART, we’d have to plant a San Francisco-sized forest every 2 years to offset the extra CO2 emissions. The trees we planted will also provide habitat for animal species and shade for humans and animals seeking relief from heat. 

“It was such a pleasure to see everyone out here doing work that helps fight against climate change,” said BART’s Principal Sustainability Analyst, Michael Cox. “We are all public servants at BART, and we take extra pride in being able to help our community with events like this.” 

Added Alex Pinto, the Community Greening Program Manager at Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation: “I see Earth Day as an important opportunity for us to connect with nature in new ways and learn about the natural world. Putting away our electronics and placing our hands in the soil can be a relaxing and gratifying experience.” 

Please join us this Earth Day by learning about the role transit plays in protecting the Bay Area and our planet. Additional information about BART's ongoing sustainability efforts can be found here. And of course, consider taking BART to your destination whenever possible! 

Beginning Wednesday, April 3, you'll hear the voices of some of BART’s biggest fans playing over our PA system. For the second year in a row, BART is celebrating Autism Acceptance Month by participating in the Autism Transit Project, which invites youth on the autism spectrum to record station announcements for transportation agencies around the nation. Jonathan Trichter, who runs multiple schools for children with autism and other neurological differences, spearheads the project.  

The recordings will play at 35 BART stations across the system every hour for the remainder of April. You can find the list of stations and listen to the recordings at the bottom of this announcement.  

“My name is Antoine, and the reason I like BART is because it gets me to my destination without traffic,” is one example of an announcement you may hear.  

Other announcements remind riders of BART rules and courtesy measures, like Bella's: "I love BART because it’s fun looking out the windows. Please remember to keep our train clean and offer your seat to someone in need. Have a fantastic day."  

Some participants kept things simple and gleefully shouted out their favorite things about BART. Said Cameron: "I love BART because they run the next-gen [trains], although I do miss the old boys.” 

In just two years, the Autism Transit Project has become a beloved tradition at BART. It is widely documented that some people with autism have an affinity for trains. Though it’s not entirely known why that is, experts believe the allure could be related to the repetitive and predictable natures of trains, as well as the visually and auditorily stimulating rhythms and patterns they produce as they run along the tracks and pull into stations. 

“Children with autism don’t always come to language naturally, the way neurotypical children do,” said Trichter, who started the Autism Transit Project in 2022. “They grab phrases where they are most focused and may repeat them the same way other kids babble. It is not unusual for the first sentence a child with autism utters to be a regular service announcement at transit stations — something we take for granted every day. For these kids, it is the language they first use to communicate with their family and peers. That’s why this project is so very meaningful to them. I’d like to thank BART for letting these beautiful children be heard. “ 

To record their announcements, participants were invited to BART Headquarters, where the BART Communications team recorded their statements in a soundproof room with professional microphones and equipment. The children also did on-camera interviews after their recording sessions, which will be featured in an upcoming video.

When they weren’t recording, participants listened to presentations in the BART Boardroom from BART General Manager Bob Powers, Manager of Scheduling and Services John FitzGibbon, and Transportation Supervisor Casey Unger. They also rotated between different tables set up around the room, which were run by energetic BART staff. The stations included a table with tactile equipment from around the BART system, including a piece of rail; a dress-up station with real uniforms from a variety of BART jobs, such as train operators and station agents; a crafting table; and a capsule ball machine where participants won BART-themed prizes.  

We hope you enjoy the announcements. 

Announcements 

The child’s name and the stations where their announcement is playing are listed below. To listen, click on the blue hyperlink. 

Antoine – Fremont and Milpitas  

Bella – Castro Valley and Civic Center  

Brian – North Berkeley 

Calvin – Balboa Park 

Cameron B. – 19th St. Oakland and Pleasant Hill 

Cameron C. – Pittsburgh/Bay Point and West Oakland 

Curtis – South Hayward 

Damian – Fruitvale and MacArthur 

Eden – Lafayette and Walnut Creek 

Emmett – 24th St. Mission and Downtown Berkeley 

Isaias – Bay Fair and El Cerrito del Norte 

Joseph – Berryessa and Millbrae 

King – Lake Merritt 

Liam – Concord and Orinda 

Lucy – Glen Park and Montgomery St. 

Max – Coliseum and Powell St. 

Milo – 12th St. Oakland and SFO 

Nita – Rockridge and Union City 

Robert – Daly City and Embarcadero 

Serenity – San Leandro 

On Monday, March 2, BART rolled out new fare gate tones that are more pleasing and audible over station background noise, making stations more welcoming and simpler to navigate, especially for blind and low-vision riders. 

The new “chime” tones play when riders hold their fare media (Clipper card, contactless bank card, or mobile payments) on the reader for an additional second and are intended to inform blind and low-vision customers that the fare gate is open to pass through. An ascending chime plays on entering and a descending chime plays on exiting. 

The chime tone is also easier to distinguish from the beep sound the fare gates generate for errors, such as insufficient funds. This chime tone does not play automatically every time someone taps their fare media as this would create a cacophony in the station and make it difficult to know if a specific fare gate were open.

BART’s old fare gates previously used beeps to indicate the fare gates were open because they were among the few sounds the dated technology could produce. BART’s new fare gates, which were installed at all stations in August 2025, can produce a wider range of tones.

Seizing this opportunity, BART staff developed the new chime tone and collected feedback from the BART Accessibility Task Force (BATF), BART Station Agents, and an online survey during a pilot period at three stations.  

Ryan Greene-Roesel, BART Director of Customer Access and Accessibility, is a musician and developed the distinctive chime chords on her piano.  BART’s sound engineers then input the chords into a digital program that let the team generate various iterations before the final iteration was selected.  

“We hope customers and station staff enjoy the new tones as we continue to work hard to improve the BART experience for all of our riders,” Greene-Roesel said. 

For more info on accessibility at BART, visit bart.gov/accessibility.  

(Photos from left to right: Tera Stokes-Hankins at her Station Agent graduation in 1995; Tera handing Station Agent Michael Francis a certificate of recognition at a recent employee appreciation event.)

During Black History Month each February, BART honors the history and contributions of our Black employees, including trailblazers like Tera Stokes-Hankins, the first woman to serve as BART's Chief Transportation Officer. You'll find her "BART story" below. 

Image

Tera Stokes-Hankins joined BART in the summer of 1995 as a twentysomething near-fresh out of college. Back then, she worked part time as a Station Agent at El Cerrito Plaza Station. Today – 28 years later – she oversees not only El Cerrito Plaza, but all of BART’s stations, service and delivery of day-to-day operations, and the agency’s train operations, Station Agents, and Train Operators. Following an impressive six promotions, including one in 2023, Tera now serves as BART’s Chief Transportation Officer – one of the highest-ranking positions within the organization. She is the first woman to hold the title at the organization. 

“What’s kept me here so long? The people, the relationships I’ve built, and the work is fun!” she said speaking recently on a rare break between operational meetings and field visits, during which she makes sure “we’re running the service we have promised the public.”  

She credits her success to a lifelong love of people and her constant striving to be fair and honest.  

“And I couldn’t have done it without my team. They are BART,” she said.  

Tera grew up in Oakland and still lives there with her family. It never occurred to her to apply for a job at BART. In college, Tera majored in computer systems information and business administration. When BART came calling, she was working an entry-level position at the Federal Reserve in San Francisco and figured she’d be there awhile.  

“My father was trying to get a job at BART, and he saw a listing for part-time Station Agents,” she recalled. “That led my mother to tell me I had to apply.” 

Tera got the job and decided to accept the position. The rest, as they say, is history.  

Every promotion since, she’s called her mom to thank her for that initial push to apply.  

“I wouldn’t be here if she didn’t tell me take this job,” she said. 

As for her dad? “He didn’t get the gig,” she said with a laugh.  

Tera’s days are not without their challenges; being the Chief Transportation Officer is arguably one of the most stressful gigs in transit. What gets her out of bed each morning is knowing “that we are providing an absolutely essential service to the Bay Area and the people who rely on us.”  

“My employees are counting on me, and my family is counting on me, too,” she said. “If BART’s not running, that means people can’t get to an interview or an appointment or class. To get up every day and make sure we’re ready to go and putting our best foot forward – that keeps me going,” 

She also credits her husband with helping her stay grounded. 

“It helps me in my day to day to have someone I can bounce ideas and situations off of,” she said. “He tells me when I’m right and when I’m wrong – especially when I’m wrong.” 

BART is a workplace that seeks to support and elevate its employees to achieve their dreams and rise to their professional aspirations. Tera said she has been consistently uplifted by her mentors, BART’s training and educational opportunities, and the many managers who have supported her in her rise through the ranks. 

“Us managers at BART have a lot to offer,” she said, reflecting. “We are just waiting for our employees to come and ask us how to grow and expand their knowledge.” 

Over the past three decades, Tera has hit many of her most major life milestones while working at BART. In her first year at BART, she got married. Not long after that, she had her first child, and later, her second.  

She now does for her daughter what her mom once did for her. 

“I’ll see opportunities and go, ‘Baby, you should apply for this!’” The approach has paid off so far, she said. 

We invite you to read BARTable's suggestions for honoring and celebrating Black History Month here and to explore One Book One BART's Black History Month Reading List, which highlights a selection of books that illuminate and educate readers about the experiences of Black Americans, especially in the Bay Area. 

BART employees: Later in the month, you will receive an invitation via District Announcements for a special Black History Month event hosted by the Employee Resource Group.