Photography on BART - Wikimedia-SF

28 Jul 2008

Howdy All,
I just thought I'd share a little bit of information with everyone relating
to Photography on BART.  According to the BART permits page (
http://www.bart.gov/about/business/permits/photopermits.aspx ): "If you are
a paying passenger making your way from point A to point B, then there is no
specific prohibition to taking photographs in areas that are accessible to
the public provided you do not appear to be a security threat, involved in a
commercial activity or harassing other riders."  So as a member of the
transit riding public - you can take pictures without a permit.  Though I
suggest if you plan on taking any amount of photos around BART - keep a
printed out copy of this page handy.

The reason I share this is because I had not previously been aware of the
rules, after all it is PUBLIC transit so I treated it as any PUBLIC
location. While I've taken hundreds of pictures on, around and of the BART
system today I had an interesting run in with a station agent.  The agent
asked me what I was doing (after I had taken a picture of the ticket
gates).  I explained to her that I was taking a picture for my own personal
use (me being artsy and all).  She informed me that it was against the rules
(possibly law, I don't remember) to take pictures on any mass transit system
and then threatened to have me arrested, demanded to see my ID... and all
that fun stuff.  I managed to escape the cops or arrest (barely), but that
isn't the point here.

Anyways, I just wanted to let everyone know, since I know I've emailed about
the lack of pictures on Commons of Bay Area topics, and specifically BART
stations. So just be careful if you do take pictures around BART - you might
end up in jail.  (Hey, it's a free country, they can arrest you for no good
reason).

-Jon
[[Commons:User:ShakataGaNai]]