Too much begging inside BART trains

[Kenneth M. Lin]

Practically every time I ride BART, someone is selling Street Sheet.

Today, a mother and daughter announced on the train that they needed money
to pay for tonight's motel room in Pittsburg where they have already been
staying for weeks. I have no ideas where they got the money to take BART
because they got on in Oakland and the train was heading toward San
Francisco.

On the way home someone was playing accordion inside the train. His
companion shoved a paper cup in my face soliciting donation even though it
was clear that I was busy doing the Sudoku. They got off at West Oakland to
catch the train going back into the tunnel in order to hold the passengers
hostage where they cannot get off.

I also saw a car dropping off a passenger at a bus stop at Del Norte
Station. There's a sign clearly saying that no cars are allowed there but
hey, rules are meant to be broken, right? And people continue to pick up
and drop off passengers in the front parking lot of the same station and
they park their car wherever they feel like without any regards to the fact
that they are blocking the traffic and the cars behind them have no ideas
whether they are stopping temporarily or they'd be there for a while.

[Peter Lawrence]

On 1/21/13 4:33 PM, Kenneth M. Lin wrote:
>
> I also saw a car dropping off a passenger at a bus stop at Del Norte
> Station. There's a sign clearly saying that no cars are allowed there but
> hey, rules are meant to be broken, right? And people continue to pick up
> and drop off passengers in the front parking lot of the same station and
> they park their car wherever they feel like without any regards to the fact
> that they are blocking the traffic and the cars behind them have no ideas
> whether they are stopping temporarily or they'd be there for a while.

Is the drivers behavior at the Del Norte station that unsettled (or
unpredictable) that regular commuters can't figure out which cars are
waiting to pick up someone (or drop off someone) and react accordingly.

I usually use the Union City BART station, and it's quite easy to tell which
cars are waiting for passengers and which ones are not depending where they
are parked or idling.


- Peter

[Kenneth M. Lin]

"Peter Lawrence" wrote in message news:keakr5$acf$1...@dont-email.me...

At Del Norte, the passenger pick-up/drop-off area is behind the station and
apparently some people think it's too much work to drive all the way there
and opted to do so in the front parking lot. (The front lot has no open
area for such purposes and each time a car is stopped, it's hold up the
traffic.) During the commute hours, there are cars parked all over the
place waiting for someone to get off the trains and many wouldn't budge if
you honk to tell them that you want to back out of your parking spot and
they are in the way.

It's bad because I can never tell whether the car in front of me has stopped
because there's a stop sign and it will be moving after a second or it'd be
a while until they finished unloading the passengers. One time a woman got
off and she had to grab the baby stroller from the trunk and she was slowly
setting it up BEFORE she opened the back door to grab the baby. That only
took about two minutes, enough for me to miss my train because I was pinned
there.

They did put "No Stopping" signs but clearly people thinks that it's still
acceptable if the engine is running. The signs ought to have said "no
passengers pick-up or drop-off in this lot."

[Peter Lawrence]

On 2/2/13 5:24 PM, Kenneth M. Lin wrote:
> "Peter Lawrence" wrote in message news:keakr5$acf$1...@dont-email.me...
> On 1/21/13 4:33 PM, Kenneth M. Lin wrote:
>>
>> I also saw a car dropping off a passenger at a bus stop at Del Norte
>> Station. There's a sign clearly saying that no cars are allowed there but
>> hey, rules are meant to be broken, right? And people continue to pick up
>> and drop off passengers in the front parking lot of the same station and
>> they park their car wherever they feel like without any regards to the fact
>> that they are blocking the traffic and the cars behind them have no ideas
>> whether they are stopping temporarily or they'd be there for a while.
>
>> Is the drivers behavior at the Del Norte station that unsettled (or
>> unpredictable) that regular commuters can't figure out which cars are
>> waiting to pick up someone (or drop off someone) and react accordingly.
>>
>> I usually use the Union City BART station, and it's quite easy to tell
>> which cars are waiting for passengers and which ones are not depending
>> where they are parked or idling.
>
> At Del Norte, the passenger pick-up/drop-off area is behind the station and
> apparently some people think it's too much work to drive all the way there
> and opted to do so in the front parking lot. (The front lot has no open
> area for such purposes and each time a car is stopped, it's hold up the
> traffic.)

That's too bad. At the Union City BART station, the front and the sides of
the parking lots are wide enough that cars can park or idle there without
blocking the parking lanes.


- Peter