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BARTocalypse? For this reporter, not so much.

While BARTocalpyse was causing major trouble over in Oakland, the commuters at the El Cerrito del Norte BART station at the Richmond border seemed calm. That’s where I was this morning, trying to get to Potrero Hill in San Francisco.

Del Norte is one of the four stations in the East Bay where BART is providing a free roundtrip shuttle to Oakland and SF, and several main AC Transit lines run right by it. That might have helped congestion at the nearby casual carpool line, where there were about 20 cars waiting for riders to walk up.

There wasn’t a lot of tension, as people seemed relieved they could get to work and resigned to the fact it would take a lot longer than usual. I got into the carpool line around 8:15am, and immediately found a car that already had two people-- my first bit of luck. We got on the freeway, which was slow but moving. We zipped along across the carpool flyover to the Bay Bridge. I got my second bit of luck when the driver was nice enough to drop me off just five blocks away from work, instead of in the middle of Downtown San Francisco.

Door to door, it was about an hour—not much different than my usual BART ride! I know others had a tougher time --especially from Oakland-- but my experience wasn’t too bad. I even got a great view of the new Bay Bridge along the way. But then again, I'm not sure how I'm getting home.