An incredibly useful
public transportation system, but only if you live in
East Bay. Taking BART vs.
driving saves me
time (no annoying McArthur Maze or toll plaza to the
Bay Bridge),
money (parking in
the city is horrible), and
sanity.
BART Police do a pretty good job keeping the
bums out of
the system, and the
trains are usually
on time.
It's not perfect though. Little things like trains breaking down can cause terror in the system for hours. The escalators at the Montgomery station never seem to work. No, I don't care if "all station elevators are currently in service, with the exception for the 48 elevators out of service for overhaul. I will list them now." And I swear the eastbound female computer voice and the westbound male computer voice are having an affair.
BART is nice if you want to go to downtown San Francisco, downtown Berkeley, Oakland Colliseum or airport, or Concord (not to be confused with the concorde). An extension is almost completed to link SFO to the system, and I fear that it will be linked to the Pittsburg/Bay Point, which will increase ridership on that line from the current 115% to maybe 150% or 200% capacity. And they'll have luggage. Oh joy.