Nevada and Bridgeway Streets, Sausalito 94965 (never built)
In the original designs for Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), this corner was to be the first stop in the North Bay on the Marin train line that would have run from downtown San Francisco to San Rafael or perhaps even much farther north. The bus stop that currently occupies the corner of Nevada and Bridgeway could certainly be lauded for its high-style design, with interior lighting and protection for waiting bus riders. But the design is not much comfort for bus-reliant people in car-centric Marin, who will note that the buses here stop just once an hour during weekdays and less frequently on nights and weekends.
The promise of BART predates contemporary articulations of “transit justice,” which is the overarching idea that social and racial justice should include accessible mobility for all people, regardless of age, ability, or income, while also not exposing communities to air pollution. This is very much what regional planners initially promised the people of Marin in the 1950s, and multiple studies had shown that the Golden Gate Bridge would be capable of supporting the trains. But in a move to maintain their own agency’s power, and worried that public transit would cut into their district’s lucrative tolls from the bridge, officials from the Golden Gate Bridge and state highway division killed the plan to run BART north. A quiet campaign over several years convinced planners that the proposal was unfeasible. Public outrage was not enough to stop their schemes to wall off Marin county from the city, and by 1962, BART’s plans officially dropped the North Bay from development.