Environmental Impacts of BART and People's Responses

Results are intended for use in Federal transit policy making, in improvement of transit system design, and in simplification of the transit planning process. The study identified specific combinations of BART attributes and characteristics of its surroundings responsible for impacts. Adverse impacts included noise from trains on aerial trackways in quiet neighborhoods and the inconvenience and danger of large volumes of traffic and on-street parking by BART patrons in residential areas near some stations. Environmental benefits were largely visual, arising from the system's landscaping, linear parks under some of its aerial tracks, and encouragement of downtown street and pedestrian environments.