Comment by cowsandmilk
7 days ago
But that’s not what history shows us. The subway with the second most ridership in the US is WMATA. How did they get there? By going big with their plans in the 1960s. All the systems that thought small in that era (MARTA, BART, LA Metro) have much lower ridership to this day.
There is a good basis to this. Every new mile and station you add to a system compounds on the size of the system. The 11th station connects you to 10 places. The 51st station connects you to 50 places. Build small and you never get the critical mass needed to see widespread adoption.
What is the small aspect of BART? They have ten-car platforms and all that. ETA: the Internet thinks DC Metro platforms are 100 feet shorter than BART platforms.
BART has substantially less urban trackage than DC and cities have much higher transit ridership.
A more DC-like BART probably would have prioritized the second Transbay Tube and Geary Subway over the line to San Jose. BART did throw out the Geary baby with the bathwater when Marin County left.