Quote:
Originally Posted by Pedestrian
With some of the recent crime incidents and BART's defensive/passive attitude toward them, I now have second thoughts about riding BART that I never had before, especially in the East Bay.
There's no excuse IMHO for not having working cameras in all cars and completely covering all platforms, and there should be at least a pair of BART cops in all stations at all times the system is operating. I recently had some out-of-town visitors and I really worried about advising them to take BART (with luggage) from Oakland airport because the Coliseum Station has been a focal point of "incidents".
|
I ride BART multiple times per week through Oakland, and have never had problems or seen anyone else have problems. I have seen some bad shit on muni recently though, and countless incidents over the two decades that i've been regularly riding it. Are you afraid of riding Muni? If not, you shouldn't feel bad about BART either. Muni has a lot of non-functional cameras too, for the record.
The real reason BART crime is always in the news right now is not because it's at epidemic levels or anything like that, but because there were a couple close-together high-profile incidents so it's a hot topic for the media (mob-style robberies, which FYI have also happened multiple times on Muni recently, but with less media attention). Also, Civic center, Powell, and the Mission District BART stations have just as much sketchiness going on as the sketchiest Oakland BART stations. Of course it's always good to be aware of your surroundings, and to keep your eyes peeled, but don't fall victim to media hysteria and go thinking that it's unsafe to ride BART in the east bay, while it's somehow perfectly fine in SF.