Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't trust a Houstonian to interpret SF transit! MUNI light rail, subways, and buses handle most shorter trips within SF -- so Metrorail is more comparable to a mix of MUNI plus BART. (It's possible for visitors to the bay area, or even residents of outlying suburbs, to almost completely overlook MUNI trains. I know when I lived in Berkeley, and took BART into SF, I had no appreciation of all the places MUNI went, e…
Alright, so if I'm evaluating the benefits of adding an additional 20 miles of track length to the system, should I added at the low-density edges or the high-density core? How would you evaluate the benefits of the two options? He's said that the core option would get several times more ridership. And I'm sorry you bring up his city of residence. As a Texas-born New Yorker, I'm particularly sensitive to this fallaci…
The link you provided overlooked the key fact that SF has another system that's far more like SF's version of DC's Metrorail: MUNI -- even though the MUNI cars and payment-mechanism doesn't look as much like Metrorail as BART does.
The idea of extending BART to provide more central-city service isn't even considered, because the BART system was created primarily to serve regional, long-haul, city-to-city needs. BART is the LIRR or PATH trains, not the MTA subways, of the bay area.
The internal SF system at the dense core is being extended -- a controversial new 'Central Subway' from Chinatown to CalTrain/SOMA -- and it will be part of MUNI, not BART.
And you pointing out that the California state government isn't high-functioning? Well, that's just mean. Fortunately, as an authentic Tex-Yorker, I have a tough skin and am not particularly sensitive to such slights.