16 January 2006

BART carries anti-choice ads

Up in the Bay Area, the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) trains and stations are carrying a series of anti-choice advertisements, from December 26 through the end of January. Many riders in this progressive region are upset, and have responded by defacing or destroying the ads.

I was alerted to this by the folks at Democratic Underground.

This wouldn't surprise me down here in Los Angeles, where Republican suburbs and conservative immigrants make the anti-choice movement quite powerful. But San Francisco and Oakland are a different story.

Perhaps BART is simply catering to its ridership - the Financial District Republicans who are pretty much the only ones able to afford BART's sky-high fares on a daily basis. Unless BART changes its policy regarding advocacy and political ads, I will not ride BART the next time I am in the Bay Area. I will drive, even though my car is expensive enough to say that I can afford BART's fares, and driving in San Francisco is a pain in the neck.

San Francisco Chronicle article