BART

So, someone's proposing a flat fee of 2.50, whether you ride as far away as San Francisco or as close as the next stop.

Personally, I prefer London's system of zone map, meaning we segregate the Bay Area into several zones. As long as you stay within the zone, you will pay a low fee, but it increases when you cross into another zone, like Zone 2 or Zone 3.

I can envision our Bay Area, with Zone 1 (San Francisco) at the center, Zone 2 (South San Francisco and Oakland), Zone 3 (Berkeley-Richmond Concord-BayPoints and San leandro-Hayward-Fremont).

What would be peculiar is that if you're going from San Leandro to Berkeley, you're crossing Zone 2, but getting back into Zone 3. Depending on BART policy, they could count it as crossing 2 zones, or as staying in one zone.

Other ideas apparently proposed is paying $1.50 for short distance, $2.50 for medium, and $4.50 for long distance.

I'm not sure I like that idea, but anything's better than our current system, which is so needlessly complicated. Look! There's no pricing plans that you can look up.