Comments on: Bart to Riders: Whatever you do, don’t ride the bus (or other transit)!

By: Tony

Tony — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 18:07:35 +0000

BART’s link to the East Bay Bicycle Coalition’s homepage doesn’t work. Also, the maps on EBBC’s page are not readily accessible for the East Bay west of the hills, they are only sold through bike shops or from EBBC directly. It’s nice that BART gives bicycling as an option though.

Personally, I prefer ACT’s Transbay service with a bike. I just stick my bike on the rack and have a seat, much more dignified than on BART, where I’m standing most of the time. Then there are stairs and elevators to deal with at stations versus a street level bus stop.

By: david vartanoff

david vartanoff — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 04:46:51 +0000

@ Becks, yes many AC routes go to BART stations. However, in my local case, both the Ashby Ave crosstown and the MLK route used to make turns so as to stop directly above Ashby BART. A small issue, but not a favor to riders.
@ Terryer, I don’t expect AC to put on lots of extra service–in ‘97 there was some buzz that AC’s union drivers were not interested in ‘breaking’ their union siblings’s strike.
@ artemis indeed some TB routes are more equal than others. AC has inked a deal to get more comfy buses, BUT they will be VH’s so don’t get your hopes up–they haven’t been designed yet.

Bottom line in my view we need an analog of the New York State Taylor Law–outlaws strikes by public employees. Short term maybe this will finally get telecommuting to a serious level on a long term basis saving tons of GHGs.

By: Becks

Becks — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:20:27 +0000

AC Transit’s buses do not run at full capacity as is. Also, they may be adding extra service. They’ll be posting more info on this if a strike happens.

By: Terryer

Terryer — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:17:13 +0000

511.org says “transit operators have very limited capability to expand service at this time…” I have to think AC is included in this. Maybe BART didn’t want to point us to services that are overcrowded already. http://511.org/bartdisruption/transit.asp

By: artemis

artemis — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:40:46 +0000

My experience with the cushy buses has been that the commute-hour lines tend to have them, and the lines that run more regularly (F, NL, etc.) don’t always—presumably because they’re looping through the day and along longer routes, and thus are using more buses, whereas some of the commute-hour lines just do a couple of express runs morning and evening.

Still, not putting Transbay buses front and center on that page irks me. I’m tempted to post a list of the routes and times—I actually much prefer Transbay to BART when I’m headed to or from places near a TB route, especially in the morning (for some reason the evening bus isn’t quite as speedy, though it’s often still a wash compared to waiting for BART…)

By: Andy K

Andy K — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:27:26 +0000

It is simply amazing that the various transit agencies in the Bay Area are so “competitive” – i. e. non cooperative. We, the tax payer and user, end up getting screwed. BART and ACT are really the tip of the ice burg when it comes to this – think Transbay Terminal/Caltrain vs. HSRA and SF.

By: Becks

Becks — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:25:30 +0000

My understanding from a release from AC Transit many months ago was that the majority of the commuter buses are the cushy ones. But I know that a few of the lines don’t have any of them and other lines only have some. Maybe you just have bad luck?

By: floribunda

floribunda — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:23:54 +0000

“most of the transbay commuter buses are extremely comfortable” — I have to disagree with you on that one! Those cushy dark green ones are comfortable, but you don’t get those all the time — and the other buses are miserable once you get on the freeway! I feel like I need a trip to the chiropractor every time I get off one!

By: Becks

Becks — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:00:24 +0000

Thanks for the additional history David. But there are several AC Transit lines that converge on pretty much every BART station in ACT’s region so it seems like since then the routes have been redrawn to meet up with BART (or at least some of them). I actually can’t think of many ACT lines in Oakland or Berkeley that don’t meet up with at least one BART station.

By: david vartanoff

david vartanoff — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:56:11 +0000

You are spot on about Transbay AC Transit service. Their market share was withering prior to the 97 strike. Since then they have put more effort into the Transbay service including comfy buses and “filtering” drivers to discourage the surly ones from those routes .
That said, there has been bad blood between the two agencies for decades. Way back, BART got AC to bend routes to service stations. Buses even had blue “to BART” light up signage. In the early 90’s that all was gone–routes were redrawn to make connections less convenient, with NO effort to coordinate schedules. In some instances this has spurred growth of private shuttles duplicating segments of an AC route.