San Francisco is known for many things: many kinds of civil rights activism, tech companies, and for having an outrageous number of people living on and around the peninsula. I hadn’t thought much about public transportation while planning to move to Oakland, California. But that became an undeniable aspect of living here once I began driving through the area. Enter the Bay Area Rapid Transit system (or BART for short.
BART is a complex system of subway trains that serve as an artery for the Bay Area. The real artery are the ridiculously complex system of interstates that form a type of webbing around the city. I once thought Los Angeles was bad… But according to people I meet, don’t get caught in afternoon traffic, which occurs daily between 2-6pm.
Since I now live here in Oakland, I figured I should get used to the subway system. After all, I’ve commuted around New York City a few times. How difficult could this be?
This past Saturday was my first chance to go from Oakland into San Francisco. The first thing I needed was a Clipper card. The entrance I went to didn’t even have a kiosk, so I had to walk to another one. There were several kiosks, though the first one I tried didn’t function properly. Once I had the card in hand, I went underground. And the escalator went past the first set of tracks.
I was surprised that there are two levels. This allows for four trains to simultaneously operate at the same time. So knowing which set of tracks to go up or down is crucial.
Once on that first car, I stood next to one of the sliding doors. I wanted to have a front row view of the places we would zoom past. And at first I wasn’t disappointed. Then we went underground. So I had to put my phone up. I wouldn’t get to record going across the Bay Bridge like I expected. That was all in darkness.
Here’s where things may not be as exciting, let me go ahead and tell you. I had absolutely no plan to go anywhere specific. This was because I wanted to allow mistakes to be made; and boy-howdy do I have an odd sense of direction when it comes to subway systems. Maybe it’s because, up until now, I’ve never lived in a city with a decent transit system. Memphis only has buses, which aren’t very reliable in my opinion.
I stopped at the Mission District first. Since I had no prior idea of what I could do there, I quickly hopped back onto the subway. And I hit the Financial District. There I got to see the first trollies (too crowded, will go another time), a couple of people evangelizing on the streets (they have powerful speakers), Chinatown, and even a couple of the piers. I’m not very active, but it was a lot of fun walking around listening to music or a podcast and just looking around. My Apple Watch said I walked about 7 miles, which I think it included the train rides. Still, that’s several miles of walking!
I only made one mistake getting back home. The lower tracks seem to be the correct terminals in order to get between San Francisco and Oakland. But that’s what this trip was for: to make mistakes and learn from them. And since I’m autistic (see previous blog entries), this was nerve-wracking at times. But with my noise-cancelling headphones and focus on the maps, I got through this easily enough. This first time was fairly confusing, though I think I’ll get used to it quickly enough as I go more often.
There’s still so much more to say about BART. The good, the bad, and the ugly. But for this first go-round in the metro area, I’d say this was a success. This first trip makes it so much easier to travel; for me and for friends and family that visit.