Institute of Urban and Regional Development

The Bay Area Rapid Transit system (BART) has many characteristics of a huge social experiment—in vivo, as it were. Key element in a bold scheme to structure the future of the San Francisco region, BART was to stem the much-feared decline of the older metropolitan centers, while helping to give coherent order to the exploding suburbs. By offering a superior alternative to the automobile, BART was to make for congestion-free commuting. If successful, it would provide a model for rationalizing transportation and metropolitan development elsewhere.