Newsflash: BART Riders Live in the Bay Area's Urban Core

BART has released its one-a-decade census of rider activity. Transit geeks rejoice. BART is even encouraging the statistically-inclined among us to show them things they haven't discovered buried in the data.

Two points from the official intergovernmental web page on the report:

• More walkers and bicyclists. Compared to 1998, more customers are walking or bicycling from home to BART. (The percentage coming to BART by car stayed the same, and the percentage using other transit to connect to BART went down.)
• Access modes vary considerably by station. The percentage of passengers driving alone from home is highest at North Concord/Martinez (72%) and lowest at Powell (1%). Walking from home is highest at 16th St. Mission (81%) and lowest at Orinda (3%).

San Francisco's Exurban Values

I stumbled across this article on two contrastingly walkable exurbs of Washington DC. It's a well written explanation of what makes a place pedestrian-friendly or, more often, doesn't.

In his critique of the archetypically suburban-minded Leesburg, Virginia Bed Adler says:

The problem of pedestrians attempting to cross these roads in Leesburg is so severe that the town government has taken up the issue. The main strip-mall shopping area -- home to a Wal-Mart and outlet stores -- sits on a six-lane highway bypass with vast distances between pedestrian crossings. People who live directly across the road have been known to run across the street rather than hike to the nearest crosswalk. The town decided to curb this threat to public safety not by making it safer to cross but by putting up a roadside fence. So now people jump over the fence to get to the Wal-Mart across the street. -Ben Adler

Sound familiar?