Lafayette, California – Most people ride BART to get into the city, or perhaps down to the airport if you’re very ambitious.
I have a totally different use for BART. I use the transit system to easily hop from town to town in the 925. The cost is just a few dollars, it saves you the hassle of parking, and it’s a surprisingly pleasant and efficient way to get around the area.
Imagine this: You’re in Lafayette. You just grabbed a coffee at Philz. Now, you want to do some shopping at Theatre Square, or perhaps catch a movie.
You could get into your car, drive down 24 (fighting traffic if it’s early in the morning), deal with parking, and then repeat the whole thing in reverse.
Or, you could head over to the Lafayette BART station, get out your Clipper card, and ride the train one stop over to Orinda.
BART is fast, especially on this relatively uncrowded part of the line, where it’s only Yellow line trains. Getting from Lafayette to Orinda takes only a few minutes.
And once you’re there, you can enjoy the fact that most of the BART stops in the 925 are extremely conveniently located near the towns they serve.
The walk from BART into Theater Square in Orinda takes about 90 seconds. I find it’s often faster than waiting for the elevator to come up from the lower levels of the Theatre Square lot!
It’s likewise a fantastic way to get to the congested centers of towns like Walnut Creek — again, avoiding parking.
If you haven’t ridden BART in a while, the trains come frequently, and all of the cars are brand new.
Crime is down substantially, and I always feel safe on the train. Trains run until late in the evening, and you can even pay using Apple Pay on your phone if you don’t want to deal with a Clipper card.
It’s a perfect recipe for an easy way to get around the area. Riding a single stop usually costs 2 to 3 dollars. That’s a lot less than paid parking, and again, the hassle you save is well worth it.
If you happen to live within walking distance of a BART station, my little life hack works even better. I usually use my BART town-hopping hack to get around once I’m already in one downtown.
But if you can walk from your house to the local BART station and then hop one or two towns over in just a few minutes, that works even better. You can get all around the area without even stepping into the car!
Of course, you can also hop a little bit further and go to places like Rockridge, or even Emeryville via a short shuttle.
But that really counts as a longer trip. For day-to-day hops, consider BART. You’ll find it’s a surprisingly pleasant, car-free way to get around the 925.
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