UC Berkeley graduate student Ziad Shafi was surprised when he arrived in the Bay Area and saw that BART trains only have one route through San Francisco. He'd taken metro trains in Prague, Stockholm and Washington, D.C., where the route maps are shaped like spiderwebs — allowing riders to get in striking distance of anywhere in the city. But BART looks more like a tree. He asked: "Why do four of the five BART lines go all the way from West Oakland to Daly City together?" KQED transit editor Dan Brekke gives us some BART history and offers an outlook for what's next for public transit in the Bay Area.

Additional Reading:

• Podcast Episode: You're Really Really Curious About BART (Apple Podcasts)
• Podcast Episode: Why Are BART Trains So Loud? (Apple Podcasts)
• Olivia's Instagram
• Sign up for the monthly Bay Curious newsletter

Read the transcript here.

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This story was reported by Dan Brekke. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz and Brendan Willard. Our Social Video Intern is Darren Tu. Additional support from Cesar Saldana, Jen Chien, Jasmine Garnett, Carly Severn, Jenny Pritchett and Holly Kernan.