In one of my recent posts I gave BART, Bay Area Rail Transit, a hard time for not being the Taipei Metro. Now that I am feeling a bit guilty, let me point out some of the cool things that BART is doing:

- BART credit card: I think this is a great idea. Every transit agency should offer such a rad option. BART offers a credit card for users who can sign up and accrue BART tickets pretty rapidly as they spend normally. Even better, if you’re buying BART tickets with your credit card, it becomes a positive feedback loop. I would love to get this for Boston’s T, the other subway I use commonly. Attention all transit managers -- this is a great idea. It's even more useful than airline credit cards for commuters.

- Library: BART has launched a pilot program at its Pittsburg BayPoint location, teaming with a local library to offer a micro-library for commuters. This particular location is one of the end points of a line, where most commuters are on the train for an hour or more.

- BART EZRider Pass: Normally, you can only load a BART ticket with $20 worth of rides, which means about four trips for an average commuter. With BART EZRider Pass, not only are you issued a durable plastic card users can simply tap on turnstyles, it charges your credit card automatically, always keeping a balance on the EZRider Pass. As long as riders have their EZRider Pass, they don’t need to consciously buy tickets ever again. Users can also link their EZRider Pass to charge their BART credit card,  yielding double BART benefits.

Altogether, though it isn’t Taipei, it is good to see BART offering interesting benefits to attract riders, programs I imagine will only become more popular as gas prices continue their climb.