Public Transportation

Here's Why You Should Love Having Bikes on BART

Heads up, BART riders: the cyclists are coming. Once again, BART has decided to temporarily drop its rush-hour bike blackouts and open its (often dysfunctional) doors to pedalers for the morning and evening crush. As seasoned BART riders already know, bikes of the ungainly, unfoldable variety are u ... More >>

Prepare to Pay More to Ride an Already Miserably Crowded BART Train

It seems that last year's record ridership on BART didn't do much for us passengers: Not only are the trains still unbearably crowded, but those additional bodies haven't staved off fare increases. BART informed the public that it's now proposing a 5.2 percent fare increase for 2014, raising the a ... More >>

BART to (Finally) Ban Peeing and Pooping Criminals From Riding its Trains

If you have had it with those miscreants who use BART trains as their own personal bar, you know the place where they drink, pee, and fight with strangers, well, there is some hope. BART informed its passengers that it will implement a new law that should finally give passengers a cleaner, safer, ... More >>

Here's What BART Is Doing About Those Miserably Crowded Trains

This probably isn't news to you, but your BART ride to and fro is becoming increasingly uncomfortable. That's because too many of you are relying on BART to get around; the agency is reporting record ridership that just keeps growing, particularly during peak commute hours (7 to 10 a.m. and 4 to 7 ... More >>

BART Idiot Hall of Fame Facebook Page Documents Badly Behaved Passengers

If you ever actually wanted to experience the demise of humanity, look no farther than the Bay Area's public transportation system, where you will find passengers who poop in their pants (and on the train seats, escalators, etc.), riders who dedicate that last seat for their luggage, and drunks who ... More >>

Here's How to Navigate the Transitpocalypse Coming This Weekend

San Francisco is expecting throngs of people to descend on the city this weekend, and when we say throngs, we mean tens of thousands of human beings milling around our compact city.While Mayor Ed Lee says there's no need to worry about traffic jams, we still think you have good reason to doubt him o ... More >>

BART Art: Agency Bypasses Locals in Renovation Plans

BART Riders Seem "Optimistic" About Bike Fridays

BART took its first stab at journalism today with this man-on-the-street report detailing how riders felt about today's first Bike Friday, where cyclists were allowed to bring bikes on board BART trains during rush hour. We know as BART riders there's a lot of mixed feelings about whether bikes shou ... More >>

Muni: Our Transit Agency Has Neglected Maintenance for Years

Muni: "Glad Bag Bus" Yanked Out of Service

Today's cover story is about Muni's broken vehicles and the broken system that leads mechanics to "fix" them with plastic bags, duct tape, and rubber bands. The rolling symbol of Muni's long-term neglect of maintenance needs is Coach No. 5427, which has been motoring through city streets since at le ... More >>

BART Gets New Seats That Won't Soak Up Bodily Fluids as Easily

Some of you might have already noticed that your BART ride seemed a little less like a trip to a porta-potti. That's because BART so proudly announced today that it has started to rip out the nasty, fecal-soaked wool seating on some train cars and replace it with easier-to-clean vinyl seats. The tra ... More >>

BART Protests: When Will They Stop?

That's one way to stop the protests​While protesters plan to gather again tonight and attempt to disrupt the evening commute (there's word they will be riding on the trains) -- BART is hoping new legislation wending its way through Sacramento will criminalize some protesters' actions. Tonight will ... More >>

Suicide Halts BART Trains

Suicide at BART ​The evening commute will be sad and slow. A woman apparently committed suicide this afternoon at the Ashby BART station in Berkeley, bringing trains to a screeching halt. Jim Allison, spokesman for BART, told SF Weekly that the northbound train was coming into the station at about ... More >>

BART GM Dorothy Dugger's $1M Payout: What Could That Buy?

BART's lost $958,000 isn't in the lost and found​Nothing is more awkward than a breakup taking place on public transportation. Except, of course, a public transportation breakup. Earlier this year, BART's board voted, behind closed doors, to dump high-priced general manager Dorothy Dugger. It turn ... More >>

BART GM Dorothy Dugger Resigns with $1M Severance Package

Dorothy Dugger​BART General Manager Dorothy Dugger announced her resignation from the transit agency today, and will leave with close to $1 million in pay as part of a severance agreement, BART officials said.Dugger's resignation comes after BART's board of directors voted to fire her in February. ... More >>

Party Time on BART! Cheaper Fares, Cleaner Cars in July

We're rich! But only in July​ BART is magic: just a year after threatening to throw the Bay Area into transit gridlock with a workers' strike, the transit agency is thinking up ways to share an unexpected shower of riches with the huddled masses crammed onto trains, also known as customers. That' ... More >>

Feds Imperil Central Subway Funding, Demand Proof it's No Boondoggle

Jim HerdWoosh -- gone?​Mayor Gavin Newsom and his public transit chief Nat Ford had the chance to hold an elaborate groundbreaking earlier this month for the $1.6 billion Central Subway light rail project. But a letter from a  top federal transportation bureaucrat suggests the festivities may ... More >>

BART Board Member Describes BART as 'Pyramid Scheme'

...Step three: Profit!​Like many transit advocates SF Weekly contacted this week, BART board member Tom Radulovich was relieved that the feds yanked $70 million from the controversial Oakland Airport Connector project, with the funds instead heading to Muni, BART and the Bay Area's other cash-stra ... More >>

For contract talks, BART and its unions take the information superhighway

SF Weekly Letters

BART Erases Graffiti About Oscar Grant's Killing

By Lauren SmileyIt seems riders' camera phones are BART's second worst nightmare these days. Second, of course, to Johannes Mehserle, the BART cop involved in the shooting death of Oscar Grant III on New Year's Day. BART officials bemoaned in the Chron that the footage captured by passengers of the ... More >>

New Year's Eve BART Running Till 3 a.m. for $6 R-T

Sucky MUNI Probably As Good As It'll Get — an SF Weekly analysis

Big BART Brother

The transit system's bosses know when you're sleeping, know if you're awake ... or singing Christmas carols

Who do you trust less to run your transit system? MUNI, or the City?

Missed Connection

The multiuse Transbay Terminal project may have shrunk into a really expensive bus station

Clang, Clang, Clang Went the New Subway

The billion-dollar Central Subway transportation plan may collapse under its own expanding weight

Gimme Shelters

After mortgaging our future in an orgy of budget-related borrowing, the Legislature hatches new orgiastic plans: sleazy tax shelters

Death, Maiming, Money, and Muni

The enormous costs -- human and financial -- of bad drivers and lax discipline at the San Francisco Municipal Railway

Best Driving School for Transplanted New Yorkers

Apex Driving School

Unnatural Gas

"Environmentalists" make bad transit worse by insisting Muni buy alt-fuel buses

Training Daze

In the absurdist musical The Transit Rider, public transportation becomes a metaphor for life

Runaway Train

Why is Muni in such a hurry to win approval for a blindingly complex, potentially risky, $1 billion plan to privatize the city's rail fleet?

Visionary Thinking

The "X Plan," a draft of Muni's hopes for the future, offers a glimpse of transit utopia

Pop Philosophy

BART considers late-night trains, DNA reopens, Napster smooches Metallica

Letters

No More Free Ride?

Sierra Club wants BART parkers to pay

Letters

Letters

Mecklin

Rewarding Failure

Streetcars that are too wide, long, and heavy (136 @ $3.5 million per). Bus engines that don't fit and are scrapped (20 @ $116,000 a pop). Manhole covers that take 10 engineers and three months to design (cost: $243,000). Muni's management has produced su

A Million Here, a Million There ...

Rewarding Failure

What's really wrong with Muni? For starters, one third of its employees don't show up to work, causing systemwide delays and costing the agency more that $20 million a year in overtime. First in a two-part special report

Take BART, Please

We make Henny Youngman answer hard questions about regional transit and his mother-in-law

The Grid

Letters

The Grid

The Grid

Letters

Willie's Wild Ride

The Transport Workers Union contract with Muni is up for renewal, and TWU boss Larry Martin says that anybody who wants to roll back the union's cush work rules, lucrative salary structure, and handsome trust fund is a "racist" and can go to hell. Meet t