Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Last December, we visited San Francisco. We rode on BART - Bay Area Rapid Transit – to get from the airport to the downtown, and I distinctly remember how every station we passed was empty. Entire stations were complete ghost towns. Even the busiest stations felt quiet. Patronage on BART is well below most Australian cities on a per-capita basis. And that's despite transit in the Bay Area being among the best in the US. You can learn a lot about the worst of a country by judging its best - so that's exactly what I'm going to do in this video.
Credit to Lachie Wappet for helping with editing the script!
BART thumbnail picture by Pi.1415926535 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=133924249
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Fair Use Disclaimer: This video includes short clips from The Simpsons, Collateral, and Modern Family for commentary, critique, and analysis of public transit in the US. These clips are used to illustrate points about culture, perception, and transit usage, and are transformative in nature. All content remains the property of the original copyright holders.
Last December, we visited San Francisco. We rode on BART - Bay Area Rapid Transit – to get from the airport to the downtown, and I distinctly remember how every station we passed was empty. Entire stations were complete ghost towns. Even the busiest stations felt quiet. Patronage on BART is well below most Australian cities on a per-capita basis. And that's despite transit in the Bay Area being among the best in the US. You can learn a lot about the worst of a country by judging its best - so that's exactly what I'm going to do in this video.
Credit to Lachie Wappet for helping with editing the script!
BART thumbnail picture by Pi.1415926535 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=133924249
Check out my Linktree: https://linktr.ee/building_beautifully
Check out my store: https://buildingbeautifully.com.au/
Support me over at Patreon! patreon.com/c/user/membership?u=82269508
Join my Discord: discord.gg/Hg2cMkaedH
Check out my TikTok: tiktok.com/@buildingbeautifully
Fair Use Disclaimer: This video includes short clips from The Simpsons, Collateral, and Modern Family for commentary, critique, and analysis of public transit in the US. These clips are used to illustrate points about culture, perception, and transit usage, and are transformative in nature. All content remains the property of the original copyright holders.
