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Sam Johnson sports a tattoo of the BART system map on their bicep. 

When Sam Johnson sees someone lost in a BART station, they roll up their sleeve and show them a bicep. 

Etched five layers deep into the epidermis of Sam’s left arm is a tattoo of the BART System Map. It’s Sam’s first and only tattoo, and in a pinch, it comes in handy.  

“I’ve helped a bunch of people figure out where to go,” Sam said. “I point to my arm and say, ‘We’re here in Concord, you’re going to transfer to this station, then ride along here, and get off at this station.’” 

It’s a practical tattoo but also a piece of art, an homage to the Bay, a love letter to transit. And let’s be honest, said Sam, “It looks good on me.”  

Sam grew up in El Cerrito and now lives in Concord, where they’re studying technical theater at Diablo Valley College. Sam still remembers being six years old and waiting for their Youth Clipper card to arrive in the mail. They still have the card – a memento of BART rides past and how much they’ve grown. 

Sam took BART all the time as a kid with their mom and brother and then on their own when they didn’t have a driver’s license and just wanted to get out.  

“Sometimes things in my house were not super fun and awesome,” they said. “Being able to get on BART and go somewhere was comforting.” 

Sam felt safe in a BART station, where they knew a train would never fail to arrive.  

“Every time I saw the train pulling into El Cerrito, felt the wind blowing, the sound of it on the tracks, I felt at home,” they said.  

BART is “the veins of the region" and a gateway to community for Sam. When they were growing up, they were pretty shy and introverted. BART and the requisite interactions with strangers on trains "gave me the ability to be myself.”  

Sam Johnson shows off their tattoo.

“Without BART, I would be less outgoing, less enthusiastic, less able to adapt to new situations,” they said.  

Sam especially appreciates that on the train, they get a brief glimpse into others’ daily lives as well as access to a “shared sense of humanity." 

“We may be in different worlds, but we’re all here together,” Sam said of their fellow passengers. “When I’m with people on the train, I always think to myself, ‘I hope you get home safe; I hope you have a good day; I hope you get an extra long break at work.’” 

So, why the BART tattoo? 

For Sam, it’s a way to “spread the gospel of transit.” They’d been thinking about the tattoo for awhile, and one day, they finally got the courage to walk into Black Sea Tattoo in Walnut Creek with a printout of the System Map. Tattoo artist Earl Pitt took care of the rest.  

In about two-and-a-half hours, after checking multiple times there were the right number of stops on the BART lines, Sam walked out of the shop with an aching, but beautiful, tattoo.  

Thus far, when people see the tattoo, Sam hasn’t had to do much transit evangelizing.  

“Everyone loves it and thinks it’s so fun,” they said. “People go, ‘Is that BART?’ They are so tickled.”  

And Sam is already thinking about the next one: “I’m thinking it will be a tattoo of a legacy train.”  

See Sam on our trains. They're featured in our new BART Connects marketing campaign.

About BART Connects

The BART Connects storytelling series was launched in 2023 to showcase the real people who ride and rely on BART and illustrate the manifold ways the system affects their lives. The subjects of BART Connects will be featured in videos as well as a forthcoming marketing campaign that is slated to run across the Bay Area. Find all the stories at bart.gov/bartconnects.  

The series grew out of BART's Role in the Region Study, which demonstrates BART’s importance to the Bay Area’s mobility, cultural diversity, environmental and economic sustainability. We conducted a call for stories to hear from our riders and understand what BART means to them. More than 300 riders responded, and a selection of respondents were interviewed for the BART Connects series. 

Students in class at Orion Academy near Concord Station.  

Do you have a favorite BART memory or story to share? Email a short summary to BART Storyteller Michelle Robertson at [email protected], and she may follow up to schedule an interview.  

In 2022, Orion Academy moved from Moraga to Concord, largely to be closer to a BART station.  

The academy is a private high school that provides a comprehensive program for gifted students who are neurodivergent. In addition to rigorous college preparatory classes, such as Latin and physics, the 24-year-old school requires students to pass transitions classes that emphasize social and executive functioning skills.  

“I don’t care how good you are at math and science, if you can’t keep track of assignments and turn them in on time, you’re going to fail,” said Dr. Kathryn Stewart, the founder and Executive Director of the academy.  

More than half of Orion Academy’s students take BART to school, located just a short walk from Concord Station. Moving the school near a station makes the academy’s resources accessible to a broader community and teaches students how to independently navigate urban environments, where many will live and work after graduation. 

The Orion Academy campus near Concord Station. 

“My kids are bright, but can you imagine working as a physicist at Lawrence Berkeley Lab and having mommy drop you off each day?” Stewart said.  

Because many Orion Academy students have trouble with visual-spatial processing, driving a car can be overwhelming.  

“So, what is your alternative? Taking public transportation!” said Stewart. She strongly encourages parents to teach their children how to navigate the BART system before the school year starts.  

BART has also become crucial for field trips, transporting students to destinations like the Asian Art Museum, the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, and the Aquarium of the Bay. The school’s van was recently vandalized, so public transportation is the only way to take students off campus, Stewart said.  

This past summer, Samantha Greenstone’s dad taught her how to take BART. She'd used the system only rarely before starting at Orion Academy this past fall, and when she did ride the train, it was always with her parents. Now, she takes BART to school every day by herself.  

Students in class at Orion Academy near Concord Station. 

Greenstone’s commute is slightly unconventional. She lives in Marin, and each day her mom, who works in San Francisco, drops her off at Embarcadero Station. From there, Greenstone catches a train to Concord Station then scooters the short distance to school.  

Taking BART makes Greenstone “feel much more environmentally conscious,” she said. She appreciates its affordability and the fact that she never gets stuck in a traffic jam. Only once has she missed her stop. 

“I think BART makes the world a better place,” she said. “It provides an economy of scale, is better for the environment, and allows for more urbanization in the region.”  

It also makes her dad’s life easier, she said, “and I’ve learned I should be good to my dad.”  

Greenstone intends to become an engineer or physicist. She says she’ll continue to take BART after she graduates, maybe even to travel to her future workplace.  

About the BART Connects Storytelling Series

The BART Connects storytelling series was launched in 2023 to showcase the real people who ride and rely on BART and illustrate the manifold ways the system affects their lives. You can follow the ongoing series at bart.gov/news. 

The series grew out of BART's Role in the Region Study, which demonstrates BART’s importance to the Bay Area’s mobility, cultural diversity, environmental and economic sustainability. We conducted a call for stories to hear from our riders and understand what BART means to them. The call was publicized on our website, social media, email blasts, and flyering at stations. More than 300 riders responded, and a selection of respondents who opted-in were interviewed for the BART Connects series. 

Today, July 26, 2024, marks the 34th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which was signed into law on July 26, 1990. The ADA protects the rights of those with disabilities and is recognized as a watershed milestone for civil rights in the U.S. 

More than 7% of BART riders have a disability (as self-reported in a 2022 survey), including Steven Howell and Vanessa Castro. Steven and Vanessa use BART to get just about everywhere. Says Steven: "[BART] showed me there is life out there."

Hear more from the couple in the above video. 

Earlier this month, Governor Gavin Newsom proclaimed July Disability Pride Month. BART joins our governor in celebrating and recognizing riders with disabilities and the contributions they have made to our transportation system and region. We encourage you to read about Harold Willson, an activist who fought to make BART accessible for all in the 1960s. 

We are continuously striving to make BART as easy to use as possible for every single person who rides and relies on us. Our work is ongoing. Learn more about BART's Accessible Services at bart.gov/accessibility.

A small but growing number of women are entering the ranks of track and structure workers at BART, where they do the same strenuous physical labor as their male counterparts: swinging sledgehammers, welding rail and driving heavy equipment.

They follow in the footsteps of pioneering women who helped on the homefront during World War II, taking jobs in factories, shipyards and other trades, becoming icons like “Rosie the Riveter” and “Wendy the Welder.” Today, they’re not filling in for men away at war, but doing these jobs on their own merits, helping to rebuild the BART system infrastructure. We spoke with four of them one night before their graveyard shift. 

SHELLEY CULLOTY

“I love my job,” said BART's Shelley Culloty. “I was the first female here in the track department. I started in March 2009 as a laborer and worked my way up to a welder. I came from Union Pacific, I had worked there for about 11-and-a-half years, and I had not worked with any other females there, either, so coming to BART was kind of natural for me. Working around all men, you have to have some thick skin. But if you work hard … you can come in and make a good life. I know it’s provided me a home and everything I could ever want for my children and my family.”

The work was physically demanding but it got easier as it went along, she said.

“I started digging ties, around 20-some ties a day, and worked up to 60-some ties a day. I was at the age of 49 when I started here, starting all over again, and I thought, 'Oh my God, can my body handle this?' And it did. I would go home and be worn out, but then I would come back again the next day to do it again. I’ve always been determined. Also, I was the self-supporting mother of two boys, so I had to do it. I started as a laborer and then a welding position opened up and I went for that." [Welding runs in the family; Culloty’s father was a welder and now one of her sons is as well.]

“When you first start, your muscles might be hurting. But you just keep coming back every day and you get a little stronger and a little stronger and next thing you know, you’re right in there with those guys. As you get stronger and stronger you become one of the guys and sometimes you surpass them. The really cool thing about BART is you have the opportunity to go into different areas. You can become an electrician, a train mechanic, an elevator-escalator technician. I say, ‘Go Girls!’ I’m so proud of these new girls who have come on.”

Thanks in part to workforce development programs with local nonprofit and community-based organizations, there are now four women track and structure workers (out of about 200 workers overall). Each has her own reasons for going into a field that remains male-dominated. All enjoy working with their hands and being out in the field moving around, not stuck behind a desk.

The “new girls” include two track workers, CanDace Goodspeed and Thu Nguyen, who trained at the Cypress Mandela Training Center near Fruitvale BART Station in Oakland.

CANDACE GOODSPEED

“It's been very exciting and interesting,” said Goodspeed, who joined BART in February 2020.  “I started at BART through Cypress Mandela’s pre-apprenticeship program for construction workers. They introduced us to BART, and that's how I got interested in becoming a track worker."

"It’s hard work, but it’s rewarding work," she said. 

“I'm happy to be here, happy to meet new people, new faces,” she said. “For women who are looking into BART track work as a job,  I'd say, be prepared to work hard, be prepared to get dirty, be prepared to know tools, to do a lot of material handling, carrying things back and forth from the truck."

"Be prepared to put your time in and prove yourself.”

“You've got to be tough out there because you're working in a male-dominated area, so you have to show that you can do the job just as well as they can.”

THU NGUYEN

“My name is Thu Nguyen. I started with BART in February 2020. I came through the training at Cypress Mandela and I'm a track worker now. I'm so happy, because I know I can do the job. I feel like whatever the men can do, I can."'

"I believe in balance, and women are part of the puzzle, contributing to the team. We are yin and yang. Women can do hard jobs. If you are willing to learn and willing to do the job, you can be part of what makes the team work.”

“We've been putting pads down for track, changing out pads, checking the track, taking all the old material out. Whatever the next step is, I work hard to be prepared. I'm very happy to be working here at BART."

TAYLOR JOHNSON

“My name is Taylor Johnson, I’m one of the first women in BART’s structures department. I’m an operator, I operate equipment and trucks, on rail, off rail. In my department we do a lot of maintenance --  maintenance on tracks, platforms, all the things that the public uses on a daily basis.”

“I’ve been here since December of 2017. I’ll be 25 pretty soon, so I’m still pretty young. My message fo­r women is, there’s strength in not only numbers but also strength in individuality."

"There’s a lot of jobs you can do on your own. You don’t need so much to ‘fit in.’ You can be yourself and do your job and be just fine. There’s no need to be one of the boys to work at BART. So, come as you are, and work as you do.”

Editor's note: These interviews and photographs were conducted and taken in early February 2020 before coronavirus shelter-in-place orders were issued. The workers posed for portraits at the start of their graveyard shift before heading out to work on the tracks. They are among the many dedicated track workers who are rebuilding the BART system infrastructure thanks to the Measure RR bond passed by voters in 2016.