I’ll also get to riding the Muni Metro and buses with a baby. Let’s start this off easy.

You’re in luck! BART is the easiest baby transporting option. Just a few pointers:

 

1. To take a stroller on BART, you’ll need to use two elevators. One elevator will take you from the street level to the station level. Another elevator will take you from the station level to the platform level.

 

2. Non-downtown BART elevators are easy to use.

Take the street level elevator to the station level. Go through the turnstiles. Then, find the elevator that will take you from the station level to the platform level.

Some of these elevators are even clean! And smell nice! Thank you, BART!

 

3. Downtown BART elevators are shared with the Muni Metro. It can get confusing. 

Civic Center, Powell, Montgomery, and Embarcadero Stations have one elevator for both Muni and BART. When you are in the elevator, you have to press the button for either the Muni Metro level or BART level.

Now, the Clipper Card kiosk right next to the station level elevators is for Muni. If you’re taking BART, ****don’t tag in your Clipper Card at that kiosk****. You’ll get charged twice.

Before you get on the station elevator going down to the platform, tag in or feed your ticket through a BART turnstile, but don’t go through the turnstile. Just let the gate open and close. Turn around and get on the elevator going down to the platform.

If you’re exiting at Civic Center, Powell, Montgomery, or Embarcadero stations, pay special attention. After taking the elevator from the platform level to the station level, you’ll actually already be outside of the BART area — the elevators are located outside of the BART turnstiles. But, don’t leave the station yet! You still need to tag out of the BART system or your card won’t function properly next time. Find the BART turnstiles, and lean across an exit turnstile and either tag your Clipper Card or feed your ticket through. Don’t go through the turnstile, just let it open and close.

This is not intuitive, I know, but that’s the system.

 

4. No taking the Powell Street street-to-station elevator.

I know your baby’s sleeping sweetly in the stroller and the last thing you want to do is wake anyone up. You’re standing on Powell Street, looking at that elevator down to the station thinking, “it can’t be that bad.” You are wrong. It is worse than bad. It is vile. The San Francisco Chronicle has christened it “The Vertical Toilet” for a reason.

If you are really desperate, you can use the elevators in the Westfield Mall to get to the BART station. Go into the Westfield mall on Market Street. From there, navigate to the elevators and take the elevator down to the Concourse Level, then find Sur La Table. You’ll see the BART station just up ahead.  (There is another BART entrance off of the Concourse Level near Nordstrom, but it has stairs.)

As I mentioned in #3, the Powell Street station-level-to-platform-level-elevator is technically free — you don’t need to be tagged in in order to use it. Because of that, it’s also not clean, and I was definitely on it once with a woman who had been planning to use it for purposes other than an elevator ride. But, it’s not the absolute worst, and you can do it if you have to.

 

5. For downtown stations, Embarcadero is your least worst elevator option.

If you just want to get downtown somehow with your stroller, and you don’t really care which BART station you pop out of, Embarcardero is your best bet. Montgomery is do-able but still gross. The elevators at Embarcadero are fine. Don’t touch the walls or anything, but you’ll feel mostly fine about it.

 

6. Children 4 and under ride free.

You can get discounted fares for children between 5 and 12. BART has more details here.

 

7. Once you’re on the platform level, it’s easy to board the train.

There’s a small gap between the platform and train, but this isn’t anything you aren’t used to.

 

7. Once you’re on the train, just make sure your stroller break is on.

I can’t find any information on BART’s site about whether they allow babies to ride in strollers on BART, but everyone does it. We only fold up our stroller if it’s crowded.

During non-rush hour times, there is plenty of room on BART trains for strollers. There is a dedicated space for bicycles that you can use, but you might have to move your stroller if someone with a bicycle boards and needs to use it.