BART director wants to fine seat hogs $500
Everybody has a transit pet peeve, and BART Director Joel Keller is aiming his pet-peeve-o-meter at seat hogs everywhere. According to SFist, Keller is proposing an ordinance whereby BART police could fine you for taking up more than one seat with your stuff. Right now being rude is not illegal, but with this new rule, offenders could get fined $100 the first time, $200 the second time, and up to $500 for repeated seat hogging, according to the Chronicle.
Keller told the Chronicle that this policy is not targeted at the homeless, but was prompted by rude behavior by some young’un he saw on BART:
He said he was motivated to draw up the ordinance when he boarded a train and found a sleeping young man sprawled out over four seats near the door. He realized that even if he summoned police, they could do nothing but rouse the seat hoarder and ask him to sit up.
Now, I know you guys hate seat hogging as much as the next person. I mean, look at these seat hogs being rude with impunity:
Photo by Tiny Rides
Photo by @caltraindiaries
Santa, even you?
Photo by @bwinegarner
Should BART be able to police what should be common sense? If you want to give your two cents to the BART board, Keller will be presenting the proposed ordinance at 9 a.m. Thursday at 344 20th Street in Oaklan.
Top photo by BART rider L.C.
One swift & hard nut shot should cure him.
I can see it now, some ass is going to be taking up multiple seats get in to an agruement with other passanger a fight breaks out the cops r called cops have to physically break up the fight, ass sues Bart for excessive force, Bart pays out, citizens lose
The picture in the Chron this morning was egregious. Some kid took up two whole facing seats, four places total, plus the floor, packing his bags on the way to SFO.
Lol even if no one else is using them?
What if it’s empty? Are people only going to be fined if they’re taking up needed seats?
Sarah Gonzalez you can fine that guy w the toolbox!
Jeebus; I don’t want to sit on them, let alone lay on them.
Favorite BART moment. When Mack asked a stranger for a snack!!!
The water on the seat, (n judah) i carry paper towels, plastic bag, lol. Those old scary ppl get all bent out of shape when their bs gets called.✌
Why not a security escort off the train instead? $500 is just too much, and I don’t think intimidation with the threat of a $500 ticket is going to be enough to stop seat hogging
Why not just a community service order or something? How long are yalls commutes.
The war against the homeless population continues in SF. Who else do you think does this and how do you expect them to have that much money to their name? So add it to the tickets they have for sit/lie laws until someone decides they need jail time for unpaid tickets.
So the BART board, that already had fake security cameras for years, and doesn’t have enough BART police to handle security at the stations & parking lots, now think they can deploy their police officers to handle this? Priorities people! (along with common sense & polite manners to ask someone to move if the seat is needed). A note on the luggage issue – while people should be considerate, it you run service to airports (both OAK and SFO in this case) you’re going to have people with actual luggage on the trains!