Quote:
Originally Posted by viewguysf
Could we move this discussion to a more appropriate thread please?
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...176750&page=82
It's somewhat ridiculously imature to argue about mass transit crime in a San Francisco versus East Bay cat fight, especially when BART is a rather disgusting version of what it once was no matter where it's rolling. |
No "versus" intended (nor did I inject that issue when I initially mentioned the recent upsurge in BART crime and its possible effects on the future of the system). Both transit systems are in trouble and crime is part of the reason. SF Business Times carried another article this week about Muni's loss of ridership:
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranc...-planning.html . There are many reasons for it, but I can say in my case the perception of danger and rank unpleasantness of the experience is part of it. I have at least one non-car-owning friend in SF who will no longer ride Muni at all, relying entirely on walking and Uber/Lyft. BART is at risk of the same phenomenon and what's most disconcerting is not the crime itself but the cavalier, uncaring approach of management on both systems toward it. At its current level, it could be suppressed if there were the will to do so.
The question for this thread is has BART maybe gotten too big for its ability to be properly managed. San Francisco's representative on the BART Board, Bevan Dufty, was on TV the other day expressing doubts about any BART expansion to Livermore based on the need to use available funds to better maintain and manage the existing system. I am changing my own mind about this. I use to think the more ground BART covered, the better. I'm not sure now. And let's suppose the downtrend in public perception of these systems persists. As they lose public support and eventually, if not yet in BART's case, ridership, what happens to the "transit-oriented" development based on their continued effective functioning? Will people want to live next to and depend on a dysfunctional system?
Consider (and this is at a time when car owning has been made steadily less convenient and traffic has gotten much worse):
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranc...-planning.html