'Screen Door' Pilot to Be Installed at Oakland BART Station

The 12th Street station in Oakland, California will provide an initial test of a rail transit safety technology known as screen doors. Screen doors are rare in the United States, but not in other parts of the world.

1 minute read

February 23, 2018, 12:00 PM PST

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Subway Screen Doors

A version of screen doors in place on the Tokyo subway. | Steven Vance / Flickr

Funding from the $3.5 billion Measure RR is allowing BART to test out "screen doors" on the platform at the 12th Street BART Station in Oakland.

"BART is looking at screen doors as a long-term way to deal with overcrowding at Embarcareo [sic] and Montgomery stations," reports Roger Rudick. "The idea is with the screen doors more people can squish onto the platform without the risk of someone falling onto the tracks." 

Screen doors are in place most famously in Paris and in many other parts of Europe, Asia, and South America. But no North American transit systems (of the non-airport-people-mover variety) have adopted the technology yet. According to Rudick, screen doors in other countries are also paired with driverless trains. "It’s hard to imagine that screen doors, if they succeed, wouldn’t lead to serious calls for BART to go driverless too, at least on some lines for part of the day," writes Rudick.

Tuesday, February 20, 2018 in Streetsblog SF

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Get top-rated, practical training

Wastewater pouring out from a pipe.

Alabama: Trump Terminates Settlements for Black Communities Harmed By Raw Sewage

Trump deemed the landmark civil rights agreement “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy.”

April 13, 2025 - Inside Climate News

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

April 16, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Black and white photos of camp made up of small 'earthquake shacks' in Dolores Park in 1906 after the San Francisco earthquake.

The 120 Year Old Tiny Home Villages That Sheltered San Francisco’s Earthquake Refugees

More than a century ago, San Francisco mobilized to house thousands of residents displaced by the 1906 earthquake. Could their strategy offer a model for the present?

April 15, 2025 - Charles F. Bloszies

People walking up and down stairs in New York City subway station.

In Both Crashes and Crime, Public Transportation is Far Safer than Driving

Contrary to popular assumptions, public transportation has far lower crash and crime rates than automobile travel. For safer communities, improve and encourage transit travel.

April 18 - Scientific American

White public transit bus with bike on front bike rack in Nashville, Tennessee.

Report: Zoning Reforms Should Complement Nashville’s Ambitious Transit Plan

Without reform, restrictive zoning codes will limit the impact of the city’s planned transit expansion and could exclude some of the residents who depend on transit the most.

April 18 - Bloomberg CityLab

An engineer controlling a quality of water ,aerated activated sludge tank at a waste water treatment plant.

Judge Orders Release of Frozen IRA, IIJA Funding

The decision is a victory for environmental groups who charged that freezing funds for critical infrastructure and disaster response programs caused “real and irreparable harm” to communities.

April 18 - Smart Cities Dive