Passenger Trains > BART ride should get better, in three years

or so say the powers that be in the BART administration.

A rider complains that announcements on the train are difficult to understand, that signage in the station is poor and often obscured, and that there are no signs in the entry area to let you know which train is arriving.

Wait three years is the reply, although station improvements are underway as time permits. New cars are on the way, and the sound, announcements, signage of upcoming stations, etc should be better.

Another rider complains about Google buses blocking pedestrian access at a BART station under renovation. The rapid rise in Google hiring has stirred much anger among other commuters as Google provides a wide range of amenities for its employees. Google is a perpetual point of anger and class envy as employees are treated extremely well by their company, and their private buses etc are seen as evidence of this treatment.


http://www.mercurynews.com/mr-roadshow/ci_25566099/roadshow-bart-ride-should-improve-when-new-cars

Not a fan of google or the tech elite but if you look at where the California budget is funded, don't think you want to kill the golden goose.

Bob

I give GOOGLE a ton of credit for paying the full costs of hiring and using private buses to move their employees. Why isn't this choice being celebrated?? The protesters have it all wrong and are being very childish about GOOGLE. If all those employees drove, it would just be more gridlock.

Good job, GOOGLE! Thank you for doing your part to reduce traffic congestion! Screw the protesters--just keep on busing.

coach Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I give GOOGLE a ton of credit for paying the full
> costs of hiring and using private buses to move
> their employees. Why isn't this choice being
> celebrated?? The protesters have it all wrong and
> are being very childish about GOOGLE. If all
> those employees drove, it would just be more
> gridlock.
>
> Good job, GOOGLE! Thank you for doing your part
> to reduce traffic congestion! Screw the
> protesters--just keep on busing.

I am not disagreeing but the theory is the same about private schools or charter schools and though I don't agree I can see the point.

Bob

robj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Not a fan of google or the tech elite but if you
> look at where the California budget is funded,
> don't think you want to kill the golden goose.
>
> Bob

You mean from property tax revenue increase from real estate speculation fueled by undisciplined buyers who think money grows on trees? If you're talking about corporate taxes, there are plenty of ways Google and other Silicon Valley companies have found "loopholes," like parking lots of cash overseas.

If Google is using their private buses to take advantage of tax breaks to provide "public" transportation to employees, there's an ethical (but not legal) issue here. That tax break was designed to encourage usage of public buses, BART, light rail and other transit agencies. Google is supposed to help area's ridership numbers to the agencies can justify getting more funding, for example.

If Google buses allowed non-employees to ride them for a fee, then it might not be so bad, if you think about it.

Buses, the way they are run here is a joke. I had to go from Martinez Amtrak to nearby Pleasant Hill, I literally could have ran the distance quicker and as conveniently. The efficiency of county transit shows itself to be little more than a union full employment system. If you want a union fine, but when union priorities supercede doing the job, I have a problem with it. Good for Google to take advantage and challenge the status quo! Maybe it will lead to an end to the corruption will in this union owned state.

Posted from Android

If California doesn't want Google or Tesla or Facebook, and other high tech companies, I'm sure many other states and foreign companies would be happy to have those nasty, high tax paying jobs. And those awful buses that get in peoples' way.

All I want is for those huge, very profitable corporations
to pay their fair share of federal and state taxes. Once
that happens, I have no problem with Google running nice
buses for their employees. I just want the rest of us to get
treated fairly, too.

coach Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I give GOOGLE a ton of credit for paying the full
> costs of hiring and using private buses to move
> their employees. Why isn't this choice being
> celebrated?? The protesters have it all wrong and
> are being very childish about GOOGLE. If all
> those employees drove, it would just be more
> gridlock.
>
> Good job, GOOGLE! Thank you for doing your part
> to reduce traffic congestion! Screw the
> protesters--just keep on busing.

There is always a flip side. My stepdaughter and her husband reside in the Mission District of San Francisco and they complain about the issues cited in these two articles.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/12/geeks-google-bus-social-problem-san-francisco

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2014/01/visual-study-just-how-bad-tech-shuttles-are-san-francisco/8221/

Cheers,
Jack