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BART, Books and Brain Cells
Monday, June 16, 2008 4:59 PM  

Anyone who buys groceries or patronizes certain fast-food eateries has probably noticed vending machines where you can rent a BART passenger getting book from vending machinemovie for $1 a night.

Now commuters in the San Francisco Bay Area can check out books when riding the Bay Area Rapid Transit from an ATM-like machine - and it's free for all library card holders of the Contra Costa County Library.

The first in the nation to offer riders free books to read on the train, BART says its Library-a-Go-Go machine will stock about 400 fiction and non-fiction titles and will be accessible during BART hours. Patrons can keep the book for three weeks.

The book vending machine is made by the Swedish manufacturer Distec. Here's how it works. Simply hold the library card in front of the barcode reader at the top of the screen, select a book on the computer display, and a robotic arm grabs the book and dispenses it in a plastic case. A due date receipt also slips out.

BART officials said this makes sense since commuters in the Bay Area average the second longest commute in the nation.

Above is a photo of a BART passenger checking out a book from the new vending machine installed at one of its stations.

The Pittsburgh/Bay Point station was the first of four BART stations to offer books in a vending machine at the end of May. Click here to watch a video news clip from BART.

So while we in Houston are left to bring our own reading material for bus or train - or plug in with iPods - San Francisco transit users can borrow a book at the last minute and keep those brain cells stimulated.

Posted by Mary Sit
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    • Comments

    DominicMazoch said:

    Might work at West Oaks or Greenspoint Malls.  the trip is so long you can get a harry Potter novel in one trip of the 82 or 56!

    # June 16, 2008 7:54 PM

    don said:

    You wouldn't be able to concentrate on a book with all the ear splitting beeps and idiotic messages on the Metro train.

    # June 16, 2008 8:20 PM

    DominicMazoch said:

    Don:

    I've reconsidered.  The so-loud-they-can-wake-up-the-dead children on the 56 would not allow anybody to read.  They make the METRORail anouncements sound as quiet as a Trappist Monastery!

    # June 16, 2008 9:42 PM

    wi11ie said:

    Willies mouth has been duct taped by ME!!!!

    Shellie ;)

    # June 16, 2008 10:19 PM

    ChloeMireille said:

    That's kinda neat.

    AND NO, I DON'T THINK HOUSTON SHOULD HAVE ONE JUST BECAUSE SAN FRANCISCO DOES!

    As long as they have a library card, they should be able to use the machine. It'll keep every Tom, ***, and Harry from running off with the book and avoiding fines.

    # June 17, 2008 9:19 AM

    Mary Sit said:

    Just deleted a generic photo of books and added a photo from BART of a passenger checking out a book from the transit agency's new book vending machine.

    # June 17, 2008 10:19 AM

    Cedric Collins said:

    Why would anybody even think of trying to read anything on the buses/trains?  Sonner or later, you're not going to succeed at it!!!

    # June 17, 2008 11:41 AM

    Steve Palmer said:

    Having more time for reading is part of the reason I take the bus. I'm in a book club, and I'd say that I do more than half the reading for it while going or or from work on the 26/27. Even with the occasional distraction (usually loud children or someone having a high-volume cell-phone conversation), riding the bus still gives me a good chunk of reading time that I wouldn't get if I were driving my car.

    # June 17, 2008 1:43 PM

    DominicMazoch said:

    People DO read on the 108, al least on the 910 am inbound bus from N. Sheperd.

    # June 17, 2008 10:03 PM

    ChloeMireille said:

    I read on the bus all the time. It's really the only time I have to do it. Occasionally I take the long way to places just so I can put my headphones on and read.

    Now if people would quit bothering me when I'm trying to do so, that'd be nice.

    # June 18, 2008 9:13 AM

    Chris said:

    Too bad I cant read or watch a movie on the 102 because the a/c is broken or the junk bus from the P&R routes, rattles so freggin much.

    # June 26, 2008 2:25 AM
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