NeMon'ess's Journal: BART replacing carpeting with composite

BART Pulls the Rug Out: Agency Will Swap Out Dirty Carpets For Easy-To-Clean Plastic Floors In 80 Of It's Cars Before Gauging Whether To Revamp Entire Fleet

So in the first group there are insensitive people who stain the carpets as they eat and drink in violation of the rules. In the second group there are the sensitive people who are more concerned with how the carpeting looks than how it functions. Functionally carpeting feels softer and absorbs more noise from the loud ride.

Well if the stains are so bothersome, I propose BART keep the carpeting, but change the color to dark mud. This will hide the stains. If the seats are also reupholstered in forest green, the cars will have a natural color scheme so appropriate for the environmentally friendly Bay Area.

composite not such a bad idea

[Salvance]

Really though, the composite flooring doesn't sound like such a bad idea. Even if riders never brought food on board and wiped their feet as if they were entering a home, it would probably need to be replaced every 5 years (instead of the current 3 or so). If composite is only twice as expensive for 4-6X longer life, it's worth a shot. Since it's spray on, maybe it absorbs a little sound as well ...

Re:

[NeMon'ess]

Well yeah, it's obvious what the composite floor offers. I just don't want to give up the carpeting because of some people fouling it followed by others complaining about how it looks.

Carpet on the subway?

[ces]

I have to wonder what the heck they were thinking putting carpet in a mass transit vehicle. It isn't going to stay clean no matter how considerate the majority of riders are. Besides there are just enough drunks and wackos out there to ensure that the floor of a BART car will be seeing more than its fair share of vomit, urine, excrement, and other bodily fluids.

To my mind it is best to have interiors that can be pressure washed and bleached.

Re:

[NeMon'ess]

I can see you're one of those people overly concerned with fashion over function.

I kid.

Re:

[ces]

Hey, I like a nice looking and comfy interior of my mass transit vehicle as much as the next person.

On the other hand I've also experienced the horror of realizing I needed to go home and change in the middle of my commute to work after sitting in something a previous passenger left in the seat.

Cloth seats are great until you sit in one soaked in urine. (or soda, or coffee)

Re:

[NeMon'ess]

Ugh, you went and said that.

I never ever said it's okay for the seats to be nasty. There's a huge difference between the carpets which I'm shielded from by rubber soles, and the seats which may contact bare skin.

BART is still keeping the cloth covered cushioned seats for now.

Re:

[ces]

I never ever said it's okay for the seats to be nasty. There's a huge difference between the carpets which I'm shielded from by rubber soles, and the seats which may contact bare skin.

Well I can only really go by my experiences here in the Seattle area.

None of the transit agencies around here do carpet on the floor of their buses. I think Sound Transit (the local multi-county agency that runs commuter buses, trains, and light rail) has carpet on the floors of their commuter trains. They also use cloth cover