Bay Area Rail Map

[kevin_standlee]

From a mailing list of SF fans who are also transit buffs comes a good map of Bay Area Rail Transit in the style of the London Underground Map.

I like the map. Like the LU map, it sacrifices absolute geography for clarity, which means the scale is distorted in places, but it means you can see how to get from A to B by transit, if possible.

Comments

[controuble.livejournal.com]

I thought that's what all the BART maps in the stations looked like. Is this different (other than having a lot more stations than it did when I was last out in the bay area)?

[redneckotaku.livejournal.com]

I thought San Francisco was a very untransit friendly area. I am surprised at how much transit including Amtrak there is in the area. IN Metro Baltimore, I wish I had more transit. The only transit I have is a local bus service, MARC (the Caltrain of MD) and Amtrak.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Oh, there's a whole lot of transit in the Bay Area. But it's very poorly coordinated, with a veritable Balkan States of Transit -- dozens of transit operators, all with their own separate agendas and a "Your children must die so that mine may thrive" attitude.

As you can see, it's actually possible to circle San Francisco Bay proper by rail only, but it takes a lot of transfers and can only be done a few times a day, with the weak link being the section between Hayward and San Jose. I could, for instance, take the Amtrak Capitol north to Oakland Coliseum, BART to Millbrae Caltrain (or BART to Embarcadero then Muni Metro to 4th & King Caltrain), Caltrain to San Jose Diridon (or to Mountain View, then VTA light rail to Santa Clara Great America ACE/Amtrak), then ACE (or Amtrak Capitol) to Fremont.

I live within an easy walk of the Fremont Centerville station -- one wall of my apartment complex's parking lot adjoins the station's parking lot -- and, as you probably know, walk down to the station many evenings for the exercise.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

You didn't think that red line running between San Francisco (4th & King) and San Jose (Diridon) was a BART line, did you?

For comparison, see the official BART System Map. And -- I take it you didn't realize it -- it includes a whole bunch more transit that isn't BART, including the Amtrak Capitols, ACE, Caltrain, Muni Metro, and VTA light rail. BART's own maps, if they ever show those forms of transport, tend to behave as if they're irrelevant.

And anyway the diagram style is very different -- LU-style maps have rules about never showing more than 45-degree bends, for instance. See the Wikipedia Article about the Tube Map for further discussion of this style.

[controuble.livejournal.com]

Oops - sorry, I didn't realize this was a Bay Area Rail map - I kind of skipped over that part thinking you were just expanding the BART acronym.
The official BART map is done in a similar style, but there are a couple of greater-than 45 degree bends, and when I looked at it, I see that one line does go beyond Daly City now (which none did last I was out there), and didn't Concord used to be the end of the yellow line?

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I don't know when you were last in the Bay Area, but yes, the BART system has been expanded in the past 10-15 years. The Concord line was extended to Pittsburg/Bay Point, the SFO/Millbrae extension was built, and the Dublin/Pleasanton line was built.

BART's map attempts to stay geographically accurate, which is why there are so many wiggles in it. Tube-style maps sacrifice geographic accuracy for diagrammatic ease of use. Contrast the standard Tube map with a geographically accurate Tube map to see the difference.

[controuble.livejournal.com]

Actually, I was out there last July, but we didn't use the BART. My grandmother used to live in the Bay area (in San Francisco, the Clairmont district of Oakland, and then in San Leandro) and I think the last time I visited her was in '88 or '89. She moved to IL in '90, so I didn't have an excuse to go any more. I always found the BART very easy to use.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

BART is easy to use. Trying to go anywhere else BART itself doesn't serve can be a little challenging. See my comment above about the Balkan States of Transit in the Bay Area. The idea of integrating transit seems to be a Funny Foreign Idea that is not in fashion in these parts.

Things are better than they were ten years ago, but only a little bit. For instance, you still can't get from the Capitol Corridor/ACE line to San Jose Airport unless you do a very cumbersome double transfer. You used to be able to do it from ACE, but they no longer stop at Santa Clara/El Camino Real station, and won't for years until the station is rebuilt. (The underlying reason appears to do with the track layout and who owns which track -- Amtrak/ACE trains interfere with Caltrain trains if they cross over to a track with a passenger platform.) It was bad enough when you had to use a bus transfer the way you do to/from Oakland, but a double-transfer is too much for me, and I'm a transit enthusiast.

[timill]

At first glance, the key says that this is all BART. It could do with (say) a break line or a new heading (OTHER?) above "Caltrain" to distinguish the two.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Good point, and one I hadn't noticed when I first saw the map, because of course I already know all of these systems.

[howeird]

Very pretty, but it is missing the VTA light rail line to Milpitas (Great Mall).

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

It's line 901 and is on the map. Not all of the light rail lines' stops, either on VTA or Muni Metro, are shown.

[howeird]

Well, sort of. I guess the Bay ending around Palo Alto threw me off. ;-)

[tkunsman.livejournal.com]

Cool map. Almost makes me want to plan atrip to the bay area now.

[cynthia1960.livejournal.com]

Thanks, this is helpful.