During an evening session of the BART Board of Directors last week, they revisited the question of how to design BART’s Fleet of the Future. With a ten-car trial to begin internal testing later this year, what would those cars looks like?

We are pleased that a reasonable compromise has been worked out that addresses the need for a BART that is truly accessible for all.

Since June 2014, when the Board decided to delay the decision, a lot of work had been done to address two central questions around bike access on BART: How will the bike spaces be designed and how many bike spaces per car will there be?

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been getting input from our members, coordinating with the BART Bicycle Advisory Taskforce and Bike East Bay, and most importantly, working with the newly-elected Director Nick Josefowitz to support a trial that will help answer those two questions. Thanks to Director Josefowitz’s motion, a new option was introduced, which passed with a close 5-4 decision. The second BART Director from San Francisco, Tom Radulovich, also supported this motion. San Francisco’s third BART Director, Zakhary Mallett, did not support the motion. We thank Directors Josefowitz and Radulovich and appreciate their leadership in supporting a bike-friendly, accessible BART for all.

The motion will test whether the new bike parking design – a rack to hold three bicycles – is preferable to the existing bike space design. It will also test whether having two bike spaces is preferable to just one.

With so many options, there is still work to be done to figure out the exact details of how the ten-car trial will go into public testing in late 2016. Luckily, there’s plenty of time until then, and we will continue working with BART staff to ensure that the BART Fleet of the Future has adequate space for people bringing their bikes onboard.