4 ms·

I find public transportation in the bay area to quite literally be an intractable problem. I've lived here for 31 years and there's been zero, and I mean zero r

I find public transportation in the bay area to quite literally be an intractable problem. I've lived here for 31 years and there's been zero, and I mean zero real progress. BART received a warm springs extension and a couple (non-connected) airport trams. The highways are largely unchanged (excluding highway 237, maybe) NIMBYs in Palo Alto, Atherton, Menlo Park, etc will block any true expansion or creation of public transit on the peninsula. Reminder: we don't have electrified Caltrain because of Atherton. Hence, I've made a decision - move elsewhere. Literally anywhere else has better public transportation. NYC/Chicago/Los Angeles/Portland/Seattle/Austin/Miami I wish it would change, but your best bet is to simply move closer to work here, if that means leaving your single family home in Fremont to a townhome in Sunnyvale. Another example: There's already rail infrastructure in place parallel to the Dumbarton bridge from Fremont to East Palo Alto / Palo Alto. Plans were in place - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumbarton_Rail_Corridor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumbarton_Rail_Corridor We can't seem to get anything done.

jacques_chester 8y ago
> We can't seem to get anything done. From a distant outside perspective, my impression is that nothing will ever be done, short of a cataclysmic upheaval (political or geographic). The major barriers are that there is no single polity for the Bay Area and that there are multiple rail systems. Small polities resist mergers because they (correctly) deduce that their local wishes will be overridden by a wider collective need. Multiple public rail systems won't be merged. Unlike private rail, they don't have economic pressure to merge and have independent sources of existence (state vs federal legislation, for example).
eganist 8y ago
> NYC/Chicago/Los Angeles/Portland/Seattle/Austin/Miami DC and Chicago are notably absent from your list despite being better than all but one city on your list with public transit. Pay these both a visit. And don't oversell Austin's public transit system :) As an aside, it does fascinate me that DC Metro (WMATA) and BART were built from largely the same pattern and yet DC managed to rehab itself quite significantly while BART hasn't come close. We don't have nearly the same amount of NIMBY going on here, so your correlation might hold pretty well when comparing these two markets specifically.
tntn 8y ago
> The highways are largely unchanged (excluding highway 237, maybe) And excluding ~20 miles of CA-85 built in the late 80s and early 90s.
- crushcrashcrush 8y ago
  Which is an objectively terrible freeway.
saagarjha 8y ago
> Reminder: we don't have electrified Caltrain because of Atherton. Why?
- crushcrashcrush 8y ago
  https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Anti-high-speed-rail-groups-sue-over-Caltrain-6071826.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Anti-high-speed-...

jacques_chester 8y ago

> We can't seem to get anything done. From a distant outside perspective, my impression is that nothing will ever be done, short of a cataclysmic upheaval (political or geographic). The major barriers are that there is no single polity for the Bay Area and that there are multiple rail systems. Small polities resist mergers because they (correctly) deduce that their local wishes will be overridden by a wider collective need. Multiple public rail systems won't be merged. Unlike private rail, they don't have economic pressure to merge and have independent sources of existence (state vs federal legislation, for example).

eganist 8y ago

> NYC/Chicago/Los Angeles/Portland/Seattle/Austin/Miami DC and Chicago are notably absent from your list despite being better than all but one city on your list with public transit. Pay these both a visit. And don't oversell Austin's public transit system :) As an aside, it does fascinate me that DC Metro (WMATA) and BART were built from largely the same pattern and yet DC managed to rehab itself quite significantly while BART hasn't come close. We don't have nearly the same amount of NIMBY going on here, so your correlation might hold pretty well when comparing these two markets specifically.

tntn 8y ago

> The highways are largely unchanged (excluding highway 237, maybe) And excluding ~20 miles of CA-85 built in the late 80s and early 90s.

crushcrashcrush 8y ago
Which is an objectively terrible freeway.

saagarjha 8y ago

> Reminder: we don't have electrified Caltrain because of Atherton. Why?

crushcrashcrush 8y ago
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Anti-high-speed-rail-groups-sue-over-Caltrain-6071826.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Anti-high-speed-...