Why BART Should Be Free

Photo Credit: Pi.1415926535

The Bay Area is arguably the most economically unique region in the United States. Most metropolitan areas only have one city center and suburbs that sprawl somewhere between 20 and 50 miles in every direction of it. The San Francisco Bay Area has three city centers: San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. On top of this, many of our suburbs double as job centers that directly compete with our urban cores. Palo Alto on the Peninsula, Cupertino in the South Bay, and Walnut Creek in the East Bay all have the type of corporate white collar employment opportunities you’d expect to see in major cities and then some.

And we certainly pay a price for all of this prosperity. Our housing costs are among the highest in the nation. The San Francisco Chronicle recently announced the arrival of “permanent traffic.” That means rush hour traffic, but instead of specific times, all of the fucking time. Our bridge tolls now cost $8, and are set to gradually increase to $10.50 by 2030.

Considering the fact that we’re getting squeezed on every end, shouldn’t we get something? The answer is yes, yes we should. And I think that something should be none other than our local pride and joy, Bay Area Rapid Transit, more commonly known as BART. Or The BART if you’re not from here.

Bay Area Rapid Transit is public transportation. That means it’s transportation that is funded by the public and for the public. I don’t know if you have been paying attention, but we’re the fucking public. BART currently gets 75% of a 1 cent sales tax in participating counties. I’d be happy to increase it a penny or two to never have to pay for the fucking train again.

On top of that, BART owns a ton of land. They are already considering selling some of it off because of their current budget crisis. If they partnered with developers an build housing on the land, they could have recurring income. Also, using money from the extremely high bridge tolls around the Bay Area could help towards making BART free.

And before you go off on a fiscal responsibility tangent, BART spends a ton of fucking money to prevent fare evasion, significantly more than fare evasion costs the system. It also opens BART up to lawsuits because most of the time BART police end up harassing people of color. Not only for fare evasion, but for a myriad of things, and in the worst of cases, these interactions can turn deadly. BART PD’s reputation is so fucked, there’s even a major motion picture about them shooting an unarmed black man while handcuffed right after screaming the ‘N-word’ with the ‘hard R.’ I’m not trying to be sensational. That shit really happened. Why the fuck are we funding that? To stop someone from stealing $6 of their own tax money? Really?

I understand that if it’s free, there is potential for crowding and misuse. Maybe it should only be free to local taxpayers. If you live in or if you’re employed in the Bay Area, that would automatically make you eligible for a regional transit card that allows you to ride the system for free. Tourists and other non-locals would pay the standard fare so they’re contributing to the system. Maybe we increase the tax a few cents to cover any potential budget issues. Makes sense, right?

I hear people in the Bay Area say they want equity of opportunity, well here’s one of the ways to achieve that: equitable transportation for all. Because freedom of movement in the place you’re from is important.