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BART, An Overpriced Nazi Babysitter
a personal account of being fucked by BART
Many of my early childhood memories consist of constantly being barked at by adults even though I was trying to play it safe.
There was the time I gave this girl a haircut at my babysitters, the time I poured dishwater on my mom as a playful surprise, and the time I got my babysitters panties in a bunch for not eating my spaghetti in the proper way to name just a few incidents.
Friday was sort of like being 5 or 6 years old all over again when I tried to use Bay Area Rapid Transit(BART) for the first time.
As I made my way down to MacArthur BART a huge wall appeared consisting of ticket gates and these strange looking metal boxes that take your money. At $1.65 for a 1 way to East Oakland and 1.80 from Ashby, I was going to have to tell my prospective housemate that even though her couch was $250/mo it'd be cheaper to just avoid BART alltogether and live within biking distance from where I volunteer in North Oakland and Berkeley.
After feeding the evil robot a $5 bill (cause I didn't have change and can you get change from these machines?), I made my way down to the Coliseum station. There, a bewildered me was stopped and told by a gate monitor that I need to put my bike on the side area, go through the gate, then pick it up on the side. Whatever.
Later I thought I was just being a regular pedestrian going up the escalator when I was flagged over by some rich cop who asked me for id. He quickly contacted HQ with the news story: He had caught someone with a bicycle on the escalators, and proceeded to read off my passport info. Gosh, what a thug! Well, I got away with it in LA and didn't even cause any chaos. Not in this town. Luckily, since this claustrophobic hobo didn't have a record there was no fine or worse. I was just given a manual on BART bicycle rules.
Then on my return trip I set off a gate alarm again cause I didn't have the proper amount of change on the card I used. So I bought another $5 card. Yet when I went to the gate monitor booth a robot explained that I can not get change back for the money I didn't use on the ticket (even though I'd been refunded a couple hours previous by an employee at Coliseum). Instead she said that what I can do is use the ticket again for another ride. Umm, no thanks. I'll donate or sell my cards to someone who can afford to use BART.
Wouldn't it be a lot more efficient & easier for most everyone if public transportation was like a socialist sidewalk: fully paid for by progressive taxes? If after the revolution, the ticket machines, herd gates and cattle prodders still exist, we'll need to get some dynamite for the coming days. Haul their shit to a museum.
There was the time I gave this girl a haircut at my babysitters, the time I poured dishwater on my mom as a playful surprise, and the time I got my babysitters panties in a bunch for not eating my spaghetti in the proper way to name just a few incidents.
Friday was sort of like being 5 or 6 years old all over again when I tried to use Bay Area Rapid Transit(BART) for the first time.
As I made my way down to MacArthur BART a huge wall appeared consisting of ticket gates and these strange looking metal boxes that take your money. At $1.65 for a 1 way to East Oakland and 1.80 from Ashby, I was going to have to tell my prospective housemate that even though her couch was $250/mo it'd be cheaper to just avoid BART alltogether and live within biking distance from where I volunteer in North Oakland and Berkeley.
After feeding the evil robot a $5 bill (cause I didn't have change and can you get change from these machines?), I made my way down to the Coliseum station. There, a bewildered me was stopped and told by a gate monitor that I need to put my bike on the side area, go through the gate, then pick it up on the side. Whatever.
Later I thought I was just being a regular pedestrian going up the escalator when I was flagged over by some rich cop who asked me for id. He quickly contacted HQ with the news story: He had caught someone with a bicycle on the escalators, and proceeded to read off my passport info. Gosh, what a thug! Well, I got away with it in LA and didn't even cause any chaos. Not in this town. Luckily, since this claustrophobic hobo didn't have a record there was no fine or worse. I was just given a manual on BART bicycle rules.
Then on my return trip I set off a gate alarm again cause I didn't have the proper amount of change on the card I used. So I bought another $5 card. Yet when I went to the gate monitor booth a robot explained that I can not get change back for the money I didn't use on the ticket (even though I'd been refunded a couple hours previous by an employee at Coliseum). Instead she said that what I can do is use the ticket again for another ride. Umm, no thanks. I'll donate or sell my cards to someone who can afford to use BART.
Wouldn't it be a lot more efficient & easier for most everyone if public transportation was like a socialist sidewalk: fully paid for by progressive taxes? If after the revolution, the ticket machines, herd gates and cattle prodders still exist, we'll need to get some dynamite for the coming days. Haul their shit to a museum.
For more information:
http://autonomist.blogspot.com
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damn childish rant. Start thinking of others besides yourself. It is the beginning of growing up. Then maybe you will not feel like your 6 years old still.
The last comment was uncalled for.
I agree with this post. Public Transportation shouldnt be a hassle, but the most appealing source for transportation... but then what do you exspect when this system is created to make you not only want, but need to drive a car.... ontop of buying tons of other shit.
I agree with this post. Public Transportation shouldnt be a hassle, but the most appealing source for transportation... but then what do you exspect when this system is created to make you not only want, but need to drive a car.... ontop of buying tons of other shit.
Older Man, I think you need to read the article again. Yeah, it is my personal
story, but it is also the story of many people. In fact, that is basic to socialism- providing solidarity to the poorest working class people ( who can not afford BART on top of outrageous rents...) and the individual. By providing universal access to BART we can help
most people in the Bay Area, not just me.
Free public transit is cool, though there can still be annoying cops enforcing stupid rules. Some downtowns (Miami is one and I think there are others in the NW) have public transit that you can ride for free, but I don't know of any places that have free transit that ranges as far as BART. BART does serve some afluent communities (especially compared to AC Transit or MUNI), so I'd say that others should be free before BART is.
i got pulled over by a bart cop once eventhough i had a ticket. he thought i was fare evading. he said, "if you don't pay then we don't have a job". bart is going to lay off more people because of the budget woes so the cops are enforcing the fares and cracking down because they don't want to lose their jobs. that is amerika, workers work because they are motivated by fear, whether your a cop or a crack pusher, it's all about fear.
Ashby,Macarthur,Coliseum, East Oakland are all within biking distance.
But I agree, mass transit should be fare free, paid by parking fees, and fuel tax, and bridge tolls.
But I agree, mass transit should be fare free, paid by parking fees, and fuel tax, and bridge tolls.
And sales tax and income tax and property tax etc. If we fund it thru auto use then we'd have to preserve heavy auto use as the funding source.
Biking to or around the Colosium or East Oakland, (e.g. Fruitvale), is totally fucked up and very dangerous due to the automotive monstrosities that are hogging the roads and their drivers who remain totally unaware of cyclists
eb, please watch your mouth!
Free transit is cool, and even some businesses (as cold and calculating as you) advocate for free public transit. Free public transit helps to ensure that workers get to work and that consumers get out and consume.
Public transit (busses in particular) run faster if people just get in and sit down (as opposed to digging for change, etc.) Drivers can focus driving, transit police don't need to waste time chasing gate crashers. There's an efficiency argument here that's hardly anarchic.
Public transit is already heavily subsidized. Why not go all the way, make it free, and remove all the hassles and inefficiencies associated with collection of a nominal fee.
For folks that can't handle the idea of common/free/public goods, I'm sure that some private form of public transit (maybe using those stretch Hummers) can be devised.
Free transit is cool, and even some businesses (as cold and calculating as you) advocate for free public transit. Free public transit helps to ensure that workers get to work and that consumers get out and consume.
Public transit (busses in particular) run faster if people just get in and sit down (as opposed to digging for change, etc.) Drivers can focus driving, transit police don't need to waste time chasing gate crashers. There's an efficiency argument here that's hardly anarchic.
Public transit is already heavily subsidized. Why not go all the way, make it free, and remove all the hassles and inefficiencies associated with collection of a nominal fee.
For folks that can't handle the idea of common/free/public goods, I'm sure that some private form of public transit (maybe using those stretch Hummers) can be devised.
Maybe you would have less problems when you visit a new area to first learn the customs and rules of how people live, work, commute, etc., instead demanding that they conform to yours. BART does have some pretty stupid policies, but some make sense, like having all of the bicycles in the last car (I think, during commute hours there should be a bicycle-only car). But when I rode the tube in London, I didn't bitch at the locals for having to change stations every 5 blocks or walk 10 miles underground to transfer. It's called manners and humility.
Go back to LA. You'll be a lot happier and so will we.
Go back to LA. You'll be a lot happier and so will we.
I'm not "bitching" at the locals. I'm saying that the elected people or unelected bureaucrats who make BART policy are not serving working peoples interest. Also, what makes you think I'm a bourgie bicyclist? The last bike I bought was purchased for $20 from a crackhead in LA. And that's kind of ironic to call me "bourgie" right after I publish an editorial proposing a non-capitalist solution to the problem of BART.
Here's are some standard uses of the word "bourgeois" so you can use it correctly next time, ya:
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=bourgeois
New York has subway cards for $2.10 unlimited rides per day. Something is wrong with BART. You can also bring whatever onto a car that you are willing to fight with the other passengers over pushing into the car - it's all socially controlled. The mayor of the city had a crackdown on people using the 'broken window theory' of policing, which is actually the opposite of what you see in europe where they tolerate low level social issues in order to prevent giving authoritarian power to the state. Anyway, the police were going around ticketing pregnant women for sitting on the subway steps, and my friend for dozing off on a car. The police gave him advice on how to avoid paying the ticket but they had a quota.
First of all: It's the attitude.
I don't care if you're loaded or prefer the free market over free "skool". It's about whose toes your willing to step on. And frankly, many of us who don't ride bikes prefer not to have someone's shit/puke-covered bike tire in our face when we are looking up on the escalator. (and by the way to all: ride your bike on the street and keep the FUCK off the sidewalk, assholes. Or next time I might clothesline your ass when you almost run over that 10 year old kid.)
Granted, it was a one time thing, for you and for the person behind you. But what prevents it from being an everyday thing is something that has been discussed ad nauseum and which is why we don't just let people duke it out. Frankly, New Yorkers have a reputation for being surly because they are forced to duke it (vigilanteism) out on the train, and most Bay Area people would rather spend their energy on more fruitful pursuits, which is why we pass certain laws. (and why we continue to be so innovative, which is why so many people want to live here, which is why....)
Another thing, you seem to forget that there are social rules in a socialist society. Forms of mass rule usually coincide, but many times don't, with social norms. For a good example of this, read "On Liberty" by John Stuart Mill. Just because BART has fucked up rules or doesn't offer day passes, doesn't mean you can throw the baby out with the bath water. A socialist society isn't a free for all, simply because human self-interest and the absolute reliance on social contracts will always override it. That takes compromise, acceptance, and negotiation...not "do as I please".
But frankly, if you really really want to complain, why not take BART to task over the bathroom situation. They have, without public input, closed the bathrooms to the public forever after September 11, 2001. With no explanation, except a bullshit "terrorist prevention" ruse. THOSE GODDAMN bathrooms were a fucking wreck before BART closed them and they were just looking for an excuse. Well, to me, that is not acceptable. And it shouldn't be acceptable to anyone else.
You want to complain? I've given you the perfect lead.
I don't care if you're loaded or prefer the free market over free "skool". It's about whose toes your willing to step on. And frankly, many of us who don't ride bikes prefer not to have someone's shit/puke-covered bike tire in our face when we are looking up on the escalator. (and by the way to all: ride your bike on the street and keep the FUCK off the sidewalk, assholes. Or next time I might clothesline your ass when you almost run over that 10 year old kid.)
Granted, it was a one time thing, for you and for the person behind you. But what prevents it from being an everyday thing is something that has been discussed ad nauseum and which is why we don't just let people duke it out. Frankly, New Yorkers have a reputation for being surly because they are forced to duke it (vigilanteism) out on the train, and most Bay Area people would rather spend their energy on more fruitful pursuits, which is why we pass certain laws. (and why we continue to be so innovative, which is why so many people want to live here, which is why....)
Another thing, you seem to forget that there are social rules in a socialist society. Forms of mass rule usually coincide, but many times don't, with social norms. For a good example of this, read "On Liberty" by John Stuart Mill. Just because BART has fucked up rules or doesn't offer day passes, doesn't mean you can throw the baby out with the bath water. A socialist society isn't a free for all, simply because human self-interest and the absolute reliance on social contracts will always override it. That takes compromise, acceptance, and negotiation...not "do as I please".
But frankly, if you really really want to complain, why not take BART to task over the bathroom situation. They have, without public input, closed the bathrooms to the public forever after September 11, 2001. With no explanation, except a bullshit "terrorist prevention" ruse. THOSE GODDAMN bathrooms were a fucking wreck before BART closed them and they were just looking for an excuse. Well, to me, that is not acceptable. And it shouldn't be acceptable to anyone else.
You want to complain? I've given you the perfect lead.
I agree with yor frustration (I ride a bike, too, and wish that BART went further and cost far less, and that bikes had their own dedcated car, actually I wish they'd give bikes TWO cars)however, it's almost a pitch perfect copy of a David Sedaris rant...I was cracking up as I read this...I'm not being patronizing. I thought this was was one of the funniest things I've ever read on IndyBay
Maybe if you read the simple rules regarding the use of bikes on BART you wouldn't have been bothered. Basically your own stupidity is to blame.
Maybe someone will post a real BART horror story to give you some perspective.
If a bad day gets you labelling public transit with the term "Nazi" then you have problems.
If a bad day gets you labelling public transit with the term "Nazi" then you have problems.
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