Here's something we never thought we'd celebrate: BART trains are actually getting crowded again during rush hour. Between soaring gas prices and the slow march of return-to-office mandates, ridership is climbing — and that's genuinely good news for a transit system that spent the last few years hemorrhaging riders and begging for bailout money.
But there's a catch. A lot of people apparently forgot how to ride a train.
The biggest offense? Backpacks. Specifically, the people wearing them in shoulder-to-shoulder cars like they're solo-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. Every oversized North Face strapped to someone's back is basically a wrecking ball in a sardine can, taking up the space of half a person and clipping everyone within a three-foot radius.
The fix is simple: take it off, hold it low, or wear it on your chest. You don't even have to put it on the floor. As one Bay Area commuter put it, "Simply take your backpack off on BART or Muni — you don't have to put it on the nasty floor, just wear it on your chest or hold it in front of you down by your legs. Also, scoot down and stop crowding the doors."
And while we're at it — the Bluetooth speakers. Please, for the love of all that is decent, use headphones. Nobody on the 5:15 to Berryessa wants your SoundCloud DJ set at full volume. One local rider summed it up perfectly: "Listen to music on headphones or earbuds and not play it out loud, because most people don't want to listen to it."
Another commuter noted this is "common sense in Asian countries and back on the east coast" — and they're right. World-class transit systems work because riders hold up their end of the social contract.
Look, BART recovering ridership is a fiscal lifeline. Every fare paid is one less dollar the agency needs to beg from Sacramento. But ridership only sticks if the experience doesn't feel like a contact sport. BART management has spent years and billions on infrastructure and safety initiatives with mixed results. Maybe the cheapest improvement doesn't require a single tax dollar — just a little common courtesy.
Welcome back to public transit, everyone. Now take off the backpack.
