What is BART?

Perhaps you've never visited the San Francisco Bay Area before. Perhaps you live there. In any case, you'll quickly discover that driving is hell. Many people choose to take BART instead of driving, and it's a logical choice considering that in many cases, it's cheaper to take BART than to pay for parking in San Francisco. For schedules, fares, and a system map, visit the BART Website. However, there are many important things which BART's website completely glosses over, and are thus a terrible sense of confusion to many first-time riders. This entry will act as a step-by-step guide to not looking like a total idiot while riding BART.

Step 1: Parking

Many BART stations provide parking facilities. Unless you're participating in the morning commute, don't expect to find a parking spot anywhere within the parking structure between 9 AM and 5 PM during the week. There are of course a few helpless souls who will drive madly around the parking structure for an hour and a half in the hopes of finding a parking spot, and which you should stay clear of unless you want a nicely smashed in body panel. Most stations will have an area set up for non-commuters where no one is allowed to park between 7 AM and 10 AM. If you still can't find parking, then park near the station and walk.

Step 2: Buying a Farecard

Although one would come to beleive that in today's society, purchasing items from vending machines would be an easily understood process, this is not the case for many people. BART's fare system is based on distance traveled, and so a magnetic farecard is used which tracks how far you travel and thus can charge you the correct fare. There are three types of farecard vending machines at most BART stations, all with their own quirks.

IBM

The IBM machines are the oldest and easiest to understand of the bunch. They have an IBM logo on the lower left hand corner of the machine. There are two types of machines: a change machine and a ticket machine. When you put a $1 bill into the change machine, it will provide you with three quarters, two dimes, and a nickel, allowing you to make any combination you need for exact fare. The ticket machine takes nickels, dimes, quarters, and $1-$20 bills with the exception of $2 bills. These machines do not make change of any sort. Do not be afraid to buy slightly more fare than you need, as you can always use remaining fare on a farecard towards the purchase of a new farecard.

First, if you have an old farecard that you'd like to upgrade, stick it into the farecard slot (the rightmost slot) on the machine. The machine will suck it in and display its remaining value on quaint 1971-era vacuum tubes.

Second (or first if you're starting without an existing farecard), stick money in the machine. Again, the value of the new farecard will be displayed on the vacuum tubes. As of this writing, the maximum amount you can put on one farecard is $40.

This next step is very difficult. Press the large blue button labeled ISSUE NEW TICKET. These machines have been in constant use since 1972, and so the text is likely to have been worn right off the button. In any case, it's the blue button to the right of the CANCEL button. Once you press it, a new farecard will pop out of the machine. Printed on it will be the value stored on it.

Cubic-Western Data

The Cubic machines, which have a Cubic logo on them, are rather similar to the IBM machines. The difference is that the Cubic machines (a) give change up to $4.95, and (b) break more often.

[more coming soon...]