The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday in the noon hour.
QUESTION: When was the last time you took a ride on BART?
Talk about it….
2015. I dove to Pittsburg where I sold the car, and took BART back to Concord. Before that, it was 1995 to San Francisco. I’d rather drive, even if BART was nice and clean, I’d still rather drive.
Forty years ago.
Got a job with a 16 minute commute always in light traffic.
I don’t remember. I think it was when my wife and I used it to go from Walnut Creek to SFO. Avoided the traffic and parking fee for three weeks. Got a call this morning from a son who was going to the city sitting in an empty BART car.
I ride the crazy bart everyday. To make the ride enjoyable, I make a bingo card of the crazy things that happen on bart; it is the ordinary to find homeless pass out from drug/alcohol, people dancing for money, gypsies using sleeping baby to ask for money. On a lucky day, I find needle on car seat or people having sex (with or without a partner) on bart. Bart police is pretty much a unicorn cuz they barely show up.
LOL
You produce those Bingo Cards and market them on the trains. Probably make a fortune.
I figured you would find a way to bad mouth LE in your response …
A Bart police is a unicorn …
LOL- your true colors are showing Paul
Can’t remember. At least a decade.
It was in 2019.
My Sister’s wife needed to go to S.F. for an appointment and she was new to living in California.
My Sister won’t step on Bart (GERMS), so volunteer for the trip.
The Boom-Box Dancers & Homeless were a shock to my poor Sister-in-Law.
Never will she go on Bart again.
1 million years ago
@CONCORDEJET…..Was Raquel Welch anywhere to be found in her fur cave woman attire?
2020
My Wife and I took it to San Francisco to have Lunch.
The cars were filthy, they stank, and most of the seats were occupied by the homeless and their “belongings.” Witnessed BART Police walk right past this and not say a word. I didn’t care so much for ourselves but there were some elderly passengers aboard who would’ve appreciated a seat.
We still visit the city often but via ferry. Costs a bit more but it’s a pleasant trip.
BART made their own bed.
DD can I please ask what ferry? Thank you.
Certainly!
We grab the one from Vallejo to the Ferry Building. About a one hour, very relaxing, trip. One trip there was a pod of dolphins that paced the boat for a few minutes. Nice little bar on board too!
.
2015 for a Giants game
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around 1985. bart goes nowhere I want to go.
Have friends who take bart late night to work, each time they describe it as “a frightening experience”.
.
If bart wants ridership to increase, CLEAN UP YOUR ACT, GET TOUGH ON CRIME AND DRUG USE.
DEMs need to FIX problems caused by Prop 47.
This morning. Been a BART commuter for nearly 40 yrs. Yuck lately? Yes. A lot different from when I started riding to SF back in 1983. Only a year and a half to go before I’m done. Still cheaper than driving/parking. But, you definitely need to keep your head on a swivel. Sad.
… 6 or 7 yrs ago – it was scary then, wouldn’t take BART at all now
Not long enough!
About 2-1/2 years ago to visit a dying friend. That was the only reason for me to go to SF let alone on BART.
Fall, 1989. Free parking, Downtown Concord. Went the distance… to Daly City. Got off. Walked a couple blocks. Not impressed. Got back on and came home. It was cheap back then, and the odors were tolerable.
I last took BART about four months ago, not because it was what I wanted but rather I was going to a tourist area and concerned my car would get broken into. BART might get more riders if they sponsored an initiative even further reducing the penalties for car break-ins.
August 2022, late flight back from Florida, took one of the last trains from SFO. There was a group of us, so not quite as vulnerable as traveling alone. One shady guy got on pushing two bicycles, eating cereal out of a paper bowl. Train starts moving and milk sloshes out. I entertained myself by watching the milk migrate around the floor the rest of the ride. Another super shady looking guy comes down from another car, walking slowly and eyeing the car. Kept a watch out of the corner of my eye as he walked past, and onto the next car. A little googling, and the likely answer was drug mule looking for a package hidden under the seats.
Came back on a late flight last month, and elected to pay $110 bucks for a 12am Saturday Lyft ride rather than run the BART gauntlet alone. Last thing I need is to get mugged after a nice trip to Hawaii.
Until Californians decide they want criminal activity punished again, this is the new normal. Nothing will change.
About 6 years ago to SFO to fly to Charleston SC; returned the same way. We either pay to park now or take an airport shuttle if we can’t get a ride to and from SFO. Most of our flights are to and from San Jose now, so we don’t have to even consider BART as an option.
I never have, never had the need or desire to take it.
Before 1990. BART sucks. I haven’t even been to SF for several years. Last time I went I took Uber.
It was either a Raider game or a concert…probably close to a decade. Not planning on any trips in the near future because I am allergic to used needles and urine. I live near Concord BART, ’nuff said.
A year ago.
I thought it would be better than driving into the city for a full day at an office downtown. Unfortunately, there were outbursts by ‘riders’ each way that made many of us very uncomfortable. And then, walking to my car at Concord BART, a guy tried to get through the gate walking close behind me. I stopped short, as I knew what he was up to. He just hopped over another one. Why was I paying over $7, plus parking for this? I hadn’t been on the train since pre-pandemic days, so I was shocked by the ‘tent city’ around the station, too.The next time I had to go to the same building, I drove in and just went to dinner with a friend to wait out traffic. After riding BART for 23 years before the pandemic, I am glad to now have a fully remote job and will continue to drive into SF or Oakland whenever I have work events there.
2011. Had to find the Federal building, timing and obstacles included. Civic Center, cross Market. Find the museum, about face, walk a block to the small orchard. Make a quarter turn right and behold. A block shaped building about Ten stories high. He went there once a week for a couple of years.
Uhhhh is this a multiple choice question?
Pre-COVID, I rode BART 3-5 times a week for Commonwealth Club, museums, theatres, ballet, symphony, and opera. I’m slowly getting back to it. I hear lots of blame thrown at BART for what its riders do–drugs, filth, mental illness, trash, loud music, etc. I am a traveler to cities around the world. I don’t see riders in those other cities with the same inconsiderate behavior. Here I see what some would consider “normal people” putting their feet on the seats. I’ve never seen that or the other filthy behavior in Tokyo, Berlin, Hong Kong, Moscow, Marrakesh, or elsewhere.