BART Needs a Lifeline

Image c/o Suzette Leg Anthony/ Shutterstock

By Edith Cuevas
Visiting Opinion Columnist

​

The commute from the East Bay to San Francisco is one no one enjoys. Idling in hours of traffic, paying for expensive gas every week, and on top of that an expensive toll. Thanks to Senate Bill 1, $5.4 billion of our tax dollars are invested in infrastructure projects such as road repair, bridges, reducing traffic delays (freeway expansions), freeway repairs each year. Expanding the freeways is not going to aid congestion at all if that was true I-680 and Highway 4 would be clear commutes. Only $350 million of the funding from Senate Bill 1 goes to additional funding for public transit fleet improvements.
 
Public transit then becomes the solution. Instead of investing in expansions, we should be investing in the purchase of more trains and in the funding of more staff across all BART stations. We should make it more accessible by building more stations. Expanding the freeways is something we have tried to do, but has not worked, so it is time to move onto a solution that will work. In cities such as London, the underground is accessible all throughout the city, is relatively cheap and very safe to use. 
 
There is no excuse as to why California can’t do the same. Being the 4th largest economy in the world, the Bay Area has the highest GDP output of the entire state. Our infrastructure should reflect that. A better public transit system would also ease the amount of emissions being emitted into our atmosphere. The typical person in the United States emits about 16,000 tons of emissions into the atmosphere per year. Riding in an electric train would cut this average significantly. 
 
Another issue that must be addressed to attract more riders is the issue of safety. BART has been implementing a new policy that would bring in community ambassadors and officers to BART trains, and they should keep implementing this policy so that it is widespread to all stations. Of course, that would require more funding, which would be possible if we revert some of the infrastructure budget directly to public transit. 
 
Contra Costa County has been a big advocate for commuting on BART. The county offers a program called 511 Contra Costa for students attending a school within county borders (St. Mary’s included), residents, and anyone who works in the county to receive a free $20 clipper card or a free $20 bikelink card. The county also offers a reimbursement on e-bikes for residents, ranging from $150-500, depending on the city of residence. 
 
So no, we don’t need any more freeway expansions, what we need is a better public transit system that is accessible to all and is efficient and enticing for riders. Convenience is important for Californians; our public transit system must be able to keep up with this need. 

​