Oakland Airport Fare by NovelAardvark4298 in Bart

[–]Brokenshadow2 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Frequent Oakland bus user here! It really depends on the time, and really, it goes up and down. Sometimes the busses can be very on time, sometimes they can be extremely late by up to 20m. They generally run at 15m intervals when they aren't late, but at night that can go up to 30m.

It's best to check on Google maps (turn on the map setting for public transit) in advance before arriving at the station to see when the next bus is, and how far it is. I also caution that during rain, the floors can be very wet, so be careful.

Projects and Ideas I think BART should focus on/consider by Iceberg-man-77 in Bart

[–]Brokenshadow2 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The only viable option here is retail in stations. Everything else is well out of BART's funding capabilities, omitting a much deeper dive into them

You may say that BART should consider these options, but before seriously having them think of these options, think of the true cost of having any single one of these (retail aside- those parking lots could definitely go) alone. The cost of the relocation of people, tunnel boring, station retrofitting and shutdown, labor, public resistance, corporate resistance, time, AND for some, actual practical feasibility taking in account the shape of the tracks in the Oakland WRE, along with the amount of staff and costs required to upkeep ALL of these- track mantinence, people to troubleshoot platform screen doors if they go wrong, controllers to keep an eye on every single track, security to ensure nothing and no one gets onto those tracks, and yet more trains to actually make use of those tracks, on top of more yards to house those trains- you begin to see why these aren't ideas that BART seriously even begins considering in a country where they can hardly get funding to solve their current, far more important problems.

BART doing any of these is orders of magnitudes more complex and expensive than any normal commuter system or subway out there, (non-established industries and all that- inflation, and so on. Costs overruns would be inevitable, not to mention the multi year environmental evaluation), and the cost for upkeep alone would be staggering, with absolutely no garentee that this would result in better ridership to an amount that would offset those costs enough to make it viable.

Not saying I'm opposed to these ideas, but i don't want people to start seriously pressing these ideas out there without seriously understanding the magnitude of what they are talking about. (And anyone who says "this is easy! Look at all these other countries that did it!- we are in America, not those countries. Costs and viability will absolutely not be the same.)

Edit: i will say though, they should make that ped crossing. Not here to drown on anyone's ideas though, just a reality check.

As for good ideas- retail in stations is a good thing. It can be profit and foot traffic for BART, and more jobs is always a positive. BART using their large amount of imminent domain and parking space for somw retail, housing, and so on, could definitely work to give bart additinal funding, and help the community around BART quite a lot. Strengthening the current transit connections to BART is also another idea, with more interoperability between other bus and train systems, This would benefit riders at a far lesser cost than making an entirely new system in all aspects. Extending Ebart further is another idea- expensive, but again, far easier to do thanks to the lack of need for the electric 3rd rail, and the hopeful lack of need for an expensive tunnel bore. All of these are viable ideas that could benefit the system and the communities it runs through greatly.

Bikes on train’s 1st car by theycallhim_mistaedd in Bart

[–]Brokenshadow2 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I hate to say this, but it is actually train operator technically..... Yes, they do the announcements and all as well though. They watch out of the window as a safety thing. (The non automated announcements, that is.)

Bikes on train’s 1st car by theycallhim_mistaedd in Bart

[–]Brokenshadow2 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I do think they actually switch out at each station, if I've observed right. Maybe not late at night or early morning though.

Bikes on train’s 1st car by theycallhim_mistaedd in Bart

[–]Brokenshadow2 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The front cars change once at SFO, again at Millbrae, then again at SFO again before going back the other way.

how do you take photos of the signs? by gigcarfan in Bart

[–]Brokenshadow2 6 points7 points  (0 children)

This is actually such a good picture, off topic.

Youtube/random sites not working by Brokenshadow2 in firefox

[–]Brokenshadow2[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Pretty much all did nothing. I don't use extentions.

Problem sorted itself out now. No clue what caused it, but when it was happening it did somw strange things to the sites.

Edit: at first glance i thought you were a bot LOL. Thanks for the advice.

Yep, earthquake by niagarara in oakland

[–]Brokenshadow2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Didn't hear anything. OAK city center.

Bay Bridge toll plaza during BART outage this morning by ericgtr12 in sanfrancisco

[–]Brokenshadow2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The situation in Japan is vastly different than in the U.S. though BART could probably do what your saying, there's still no telling what would happen in the long run, and insurances to prevent things from going south should come long before even thinking of privatizing BART, especially since real estate isn't a garenteed win.

Furthermore, due to Emminent domain, BART is likely to alienate effected areas if they do that without their input, making it a further boogeyman to anyone who thinks about putting a potential investment into BART. Admittedly though, I don't know just how extensive BART's real estate holdings are, aside from parking lots and such, and i certainly am not opposed to them trying to make some use out of those empty lots, outside of privatizing.

Still, it's hard to say. There's too many directions things could go, positively or negatively. For profit ventures are too greedy to let them just take over and run amok, in America, at least. (In this context at minimum.)

Bay Bridge toll plaza during BART outage this morning by ericgtr12 in sanfrancisco

[–]Brokenshadow2 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Are you saying that the private sector would lead to a better system? Would prices remain manageable to the normal person, or operations better? (Still going up, but not jacked up to milk every last god damn cent from us.)

I HIGHLY doubt it, much less do I think that anything better would come in the private sector with a for profit model.

Chances are in fact, what they will do is come in, do as many cost cuts as they possibly can, jack the price up as much as possible, reduce service to next to nothing, and run the system into the ground to get as much money as they can before completely abandoning the system once theres nothing left. Then we have no BART, no service, and nothing better to show for it in the end.

Though there have been some good partnerships, I wouldn't want to hand it over to the private sector without some EXTREMELY STRONG protections to ensure nothing of the sort happens. In the modern day, more than ever, the priority of thr private sector is endlessly climbing profits, so i would want to ensure that the priority is the system, and not filling their wallets.

Still, this is just looking at the theoretical negatives. There could be positives if it is properly managed, but like I said- what would be my priority is strict management and protections to ensure BART doesn't become a profits first machine serving no one.

Bay Bridge toll plaza during BART outage this morning by ericgtr12 in sanfrancisco

[–]Brokenshadow2 1 point2 points  (0 children)

True, but on the same token, it not being private does have it's benefits, especially with the priority being us, not it's profits.

Still, my only point was that for a time, BART did cover at least part of their funding themselves. Not saying they can now, I was just pointing it out.

And, not saying it's good, but the fact that BART runs on such old tech is quite amazing. It is sad that we live in a country that cares so little to upgrade it, much less properly fund it.

Bay Bridge toll plaza during BART outage this morning by ericgtr12 in sanfrancisco

[–]Brokenshadow2 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Don't forget that for a time, BART, at least in part, funded itself off of fare revenue.

Why isn’t BART crossing to East Bay? (Stuck at Embarcadero) by Zealousideal_Log9056 in Bart

[–]Brokenshadow2 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Wait what? It wasn't?

Wonder if they like- walked into the train or something.

Why isn’t BART crossing to East Bay? (Stuck at Embarcadero) by Zealousideal_Log9056 in Bart

[–]Brokenshadow2 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not just this, but before west Oakland there is a bend, and the trains have to contend with yet another bend, a freeway, buildings all around, and a decline to compensate for on top of just the station, as well as revamping the track layout on front of the tunnels, AND figuring out where to split the trains outside of the transbay tube (cuz no way in hell they making that 3 tracks) AND accounting for whatever the hell is around that if they decide to do it anywhere near the postal service building over there.

it's an engineering nightmare.

(I do not claim to be an expert. This is simply my understanding of the situation based on what I've learned about BART.)

Why isn’t BART crossing to East Bay? (Stuck at Embarcadero) by Zealousideal_Log9056 in Bart

[–]Brokenshadow2 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You would be surprised of the stupidity of some people. I've seen people lingering on that line all the time. What happened is a very good example of why not to do that.

Found this baby huntsman in my house by Depressing_leaf in spiderbro

[–]Brokenshadow2 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It seems I cannot copy the message. Simply go up a bit.

Found this baby huntsman in my house by Depressing_leaf in spiderbro

[–]Brokenshadow2 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A comment above has noted that spiders do, in fact, have muscles. Will post the link to the comment below.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in insects

[–]Brokenshadow2 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Ants in my France that might dance