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BART Board to meet Thursday, Aug. 14
The BART Board of Directors will meet Thursday, Aug. 14, at 9 am at its usual location in the Board Room at Kaiser Center in Oakland. The meeting can can be viewed on a live webcast at bart.gov/board The agenda for the meeting includes a review of the Quarterly Performance Report, BART's "report card" on
BART to participate in the Great California ShakeOut 2017
BART will participate in the Great California ShakeOut earthquake drill tomorrow, Thursday October 19, to test our emergency response systems and to help raise public awareness of the importance of having a plan and being prepared. At 10:19 a.m., BART staff will trigger our early warning earthquake system to
BART holds small business outreach meetings
BART le invita a asistir a una reunión de difusión sobre programas para la Pequeña Empresa. Si desea mayor información o descargar la notificación sobre la reunión haga clic aquí. BART kính mời quý vị tới tham giự buổi họp tiếp ngoại về Các Chương Trình Doanh Nghiệp Nhỏ. Để biết thêm thông tin và tải tờ thông
STATEMENT: By BART Board President James Fang
Regardless of the outcome of the criminal trial, BART has always taken responsibility as a civil matter for the terrible tragedy that occurred on the platform of the Fruitvale BART Station on the morning of January 1, 2009. A young man lost his life because of the actions of a former BART police officer. It
BART projects record ridership to SFO this week
BART is projecting 64,000 people will take advantage of its direct train-to-plane connection at San Francisco International Airport during the Wednesday to Monday peak travel period. This would be the highest airport ridership since the station opened in 2003. The previous record set was 62,000 riders during
BART Walk and Bicycle Network Gap Study
Final Report Available Download the completed BART Walk and Bicycle Network Gap Study: BART Walk and Bicycle Network Gap Study (PDF) Appendices (PDF) Project Overview BART’s Board-adopted Station Access Policy (2016) has a goal to advance the region’s safety, public health, and greenhouse gas (GHG) and
BART expands wireless access to Transbay Tube
BART customers who subscribe to the major mobile phone companies can now use their mobile phones and wireless hotspot devices to make calls or surf the web as they go under the bay between San Francisco and Oakland. Over the weekend Sprint, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile turned on their networks inside the
BART runs special All-Star service
BART will provide longer trains for fans attending the 2007 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at AT&T Park in San Francisco Tuesday, July 10, 2007, including extra event trains after the game. Longer trains will also operate for the All-Star FanFest at Moscone West Convention Center. To get to AT&T Park
BART is the best for your Bay Area commute
With high gas prices, rising bridge tolls and unpredictable traffic jams making Bay Area commutes more hectic every day, BART continues to be your best option for getting to work. Commuters can use http://www.bart.gov/, the best online resource for official BART information, for help getting to work on time
BART Connects: BART gave a civic architect “a sense of what was possible” for urban design
Howard Wong pictured at Powell Street Station.
Do you have a favorite BART memory or story to share? Email a short summary to BART Storyteller Michelle Robertson at [email protected], and she may follow up to schedule an interview.
Howard Wong was born and raised in San Francisco, and like many locals, he depended on public transportation to travel. He remembers well the “old, shaky streetcars and rickety buses” that ferried citizens around the region, and so too, he remembers that it “wasn’t always a pleasant experience.”
A few years after BART opened, he graduated with a master's degree in architecture and design from UC Berkeley. In the program, Wong and his classmates studied the new BART system – its design, its construction, its principles. “It was the biggest project around,” he said. “And it gave you a sense of what was possible.”
When BART first opened in 1972, Wong, who was living in Berkeley, used it mostly to travel around the East Bay. That is, until the Transbay Tube opened in 1974, and he took a joy ride from Berkeley into San Francisco.
“Going through the tunnel for the first time was quite an experience,” he said. “Your ears pop, and it feels like you’re rolling really fast. It gave you the sense of entering this new Space Age era of transportation.”
Wong’s experiences on BART left a lasting impact on him. He said the transit system helped shape his “democratic sensibilities on urban design."
“No matter your class, you had a sense that you were getting special treatment when you rode the trains,” he said.
“You really felt like you were a part of this democracy of benefits,” Wong continued. “You're sitting on a train with all the commuters who seemed much more affluent with their suits and ties and briefcases, but you’re right there on that train with them.”
Wong went on to work for a series of Bay Area architectural offices before he was hired as an architect for the City and County of San Francisco.
Wong still remembers his trips from North Beach to San Francisco State, where he earned his undergraduate degree, by way of the old surface M streetcar, a ride that took at least an hour each way. He said when the BART tunnels were built under Market, as well as the Muni Metro tunnels above them, “it was revolutionary.”
He also noticed that after BART opened, smaller bedroom communities quickly transformed into prosperous suburbs – a metamorphosis he attributes largely to the transit system, which enabled suburbanites to easily and affordably commute into San Francisco. He also noticed more businesses, especially higher-end department stores, set up shop along Market Street.
Now retired, Wong remains an avid BART rider. He often takes the train to explore cities outside his hometown as well as to regular haunts around Mission Street and the Berkeley campus. As of late, he’s taken BART to visit Fremont, Orinda, and Walnut Creek. Recently, he rode BART to Berryessa/North San Jose Station to check out the San Jose Flea Market, which he learned about from a BARTable article.
In his 51 years of riding BART, Wong said the public is essential in ensuring the system is around for generations to come. He encourages Bay Area residents to not “forget about transit.”
“You don’t have to take it all the time, but ride it every once and awhile,” he said. “It takes advocacy and support, as well as revenue to improve local transit and to keep it running. The public can help give it a boost, too.”
About the BART Connects Storytelling Series
The BART Connects storytelling series was launched in 2023 to showcase the real people who ride and rely on BART and illustrate the manifold ways the system affects their lives. You can follow the ongoing series at bart.gov/news.
The series grew out of BART's Role in the Region Study, which demonstrates BART’s importance to the Bay Area’s mobility, cultural diversity, environmental and economic sustainability. We conducted a call for stories to hear from our riders and understand what BART means to them. The call was publicized on our website, social media, email blasts, and flyering at stations. More than 300 riders responded, and a selection of respondents who opted-in were interviewed for the BART Connects series.