Youth transit enthusiasts visit BART Headquarters, share ideas for the future of Bay Area transit

Transit Twitter Besties with BART General Manager Bob Powers, BART Chief Communications Officer Alicia Trost, BART Digital Media Specialist Seung Lee, and BART Youth Engagement Specialist Melody Starling.

It all started with a paper map.

Fern Hahn, a youth transit enthusiast based in Oakland, posted an image of a Bay Area transit map they designed on Twitter, and Ethan Mizzi, a college student from South San Francisco, saw it. The two began direct messaging about “transit stuff,” slowly building a friendship that was rooted in transit advocacy. Things spiraled from there.

“The group started growing on Twitter,” Hahn said. “I don’t really know how.”

Today, the friendship that began with a paper map has grown to become a vibrant, transit-themed Twitter messaging group, aptly called “Transit Twitter Besties.” The group is composed of about 25 people, mostly Bay Area residents, ranging in age from 16 to 35. They chat online about all things transit – and sometimes local politics and life stuff – and often get together to ride transit to various locations in the Bay Area and beyond.

On Thursday evening, BART invited Transit Twitter Besties to gather IRL at BART Headquarters near Lake Merritt in Oakland. Judging solely by the plethora of transit-themed outfits – one individual wore a transit map dress designed by Hahn – something special was happening in BART’s new boardroom, indeed.

Attendees ranged from high school students and software engineers to musicians and photographers. All were united by a common love for Bay Area transit – and a desire to improve it.

Transit Twitter Besties gather to talk transit at BART’s Oakland headquarters.

The evening began with refreshments and snacks and plenty of transit talk before BART General Manager Robert Powers dropped by to talk about his journey to transit management. The question-and-answer session was especially vibrant, with attendees eagerly raising their hands to ask about everything from regional fare integration and future infill stations to the possibility of a second Transbay Tube. Powers answered each question in-turn, with honesty and transparency.

“If we want to work in transit, what are the various paths to get there?” one attendee asked.

Powers paused to think for a moment. He then replied: “Get exposed to a lot of things…And remember, nobody works alone. You’re part of the team.” The group nodded their heads in understanding.

After Powers returned to his office, the group celebrated Hahn’s birthday with cupcakes and popcorn, before the question asking started once more. This time, the inquiries were directed at BART’s Communications Team.

“I’ve been working to create space for authentic youth engagement at BART,” said Chief Communications Officer Alicia Trost. “Youth have their own lived experience and they are often not given the time and attention to share their ideas and concerns about our service. We were already communicating with this group on Twitter, and I wanted to develop a deeper connection to them.”

Jay Sathe, a BART graphic designer and a member of Transit Twitter Besties, said the “collective knowledge of the group is unbelievable.”

 “They are dedicated riders that see the system in a different way, and they routinely come up with innovative ideas to help us improve it,” said Sathe. “At the end of the day, they just want a better system.”

Sprinkled among the questions were frank suggestions for improvements to BART, including its current wayfinding signage and station screens. One attendee suggested lighting up each platform with the line color of the arriving train. Another asked about the bygone Purple Line.

BART General Manager Bob Powers speaks to Transit Twitter Besties.

Once the discussion portion ended, the Communications Team took the group on a tour of BART HQ. They visited BART’s state-of-the-art media room, posing in front of the green screen and with the BART logo, before heading upstairs to peek into Powers’ and Trost’s offices. BART’s TikTok wiz and youth engagement specialist, Melody Starling, who is also a member of Twitter Transit Besties, even got to demonstrate her new BART TikTok effect, to which the group oohed and ahhed.

As the Transit Twitter Besties packed up, their bags heavy with BART swag, we sat down with Hahn and Mizzi to learn more about the group and what it means to them.

Asked to summarize Transit Twitter Besties in one sentence, Mizzi responded with a laugh: “We’re just a bunch of annoying people who like transit and who get together to ride places.”

Hahn said the group started with just three people as recently as last summer. Mizzi took BART from South San Francisco, Hahn took the train from the East Bay, and the two met in the middle, in San Francisco. They specified that they took Muni to get ramen in Japantown.

A month later, Hahn and Mizzi met up again, this time to take SamTrans to Pacifica, where they were researching the Ocean Shore Railroad at the Pacifica Historical Society. As Hahn explained it, the defunct railroad “reached all the way to Santa Cruz and was never completed.”

The group started growing quickly on Twitter – “I don’t know how,” Hahn said. “It just snowballed,” Mizzi added.

Hayden Miller posing in front of the media room’s green screen.

They explained that the group thrives on what they call “discourse.”

“We used to, well, not argue, but debate, let’s say,” Mizzi said. “We’re all friends, but we would be like, ‘Your ideas for transit are bad. You should use my ideas.'”

Topics of discussion include “just about anything,” Mizzi said, “whether it’s fares or what the best type of bus is or if a bus lane would be good on this particular street.”

“It’s kind of developed beyond its original intention, which was sharing our ideas for the future of Bay Area transit,” Hahn added.

When asked what they thought of the BART visit, Hahn and Mizzi were ecstatic.

“This is awesome,” Mizzi said. “I love BART.”

“This is so cool,” Hahn added. “I love BART, too.”

Mizzi said he aspires to serve as a director on the BART Board someday. Hahn said that sounded “really scary to me” and would prefer to work in wayfinding.

Their major takeaway from the night? They both want to work in transit. And most importantly, they want to make it better.