BARTMichael C. Healy
BART
by Michael C. Healy · first published 2013
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2HN commenters
2021–2022first – last mentioned
50% recommend50% neutral
When BART opened in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1972, it became a catalyst for a renaissance in modern rail transit, both nationally and internationally. The concept as sold to Bay Area voters was gargantuan: by adopting aerospace technologies such as microchips for ground transportation, the new computer-operated rail system would bridge counties and curb urban sprawl amid a booming automobile culture. But it all came within a gnat's eyelash of not happening. The question raised by pundits and taxpayers alike was: would this space-age plan actually work, or be the biggest boondoggle in the
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If you're curious about the constraints of BART and the history involved in its development that led to why it is the way it is, I can certainly recommend Michael Healy's book BART: The Dramatic History of the Bay Area Rapid Transit System. https://books.google.ch/books/about/BART.html?id=ubbwDwAAQBA....
on “Train Wheels Are Cones” ↗In a nutshell, for added stability back when it was thought that BART tracks would follow the lower deck of the Golden Gate Bridge: > Michael Healy, a BART historian and the former BART Director of Public Affairs, believes the use of the broad gauge “goes back to when…
on “Why BART uses a nonstandard broad gauge” ↗