In the 1950’s and 60’s plans were drawn up to build an extensive rail network that would create a ring around San Francisco Bay connecting all the towns and cities in the region. It was an ambitious plan fitting an optimistic era of large projects.Jake Coolidge

Below is a rendering of what that system would have looked like if it had actually been built.

Jake Coolidge

But this was also the height of white flight to the suburbs. Cities were in decline. The middle class was keen to escape anything that even hinted at the urban crime, pollution, and racial strife of the day. Local opposition successfully stopped BART from being built in most of the proposed suburbs. Instead, funding was limited and public money flowed to a highway network that looks almost exactly like the old rail plan. BART was limited to a bare bones system that connects San…