BART train delayed? Your fellow riders are mostly to blame

Bad behavior is the leading cause of BART delays, according to new data the agency presented Thursday to its Board of Directors.

The data showed that BART trains were on time around 92% of the time from October through December of last year, short of its goal of 94%.

Crime, unruly conduct or sick passengers were to blame for 37% of trains that were late five minutes or more, which qualified as a bigger drag than malfunctioning equipment, said Tamar Allen, the agency’s assistant general manager of operations.

“That includes medical emergencies, people overdosing, people passed out, people who rush the doors when the train is closing and break them,” Allen said.

By far the greatest contributor was police activity. Twenty-one percent of late trains stopped for a police hold, data showed.

BART Police Chief Ed Alvarez didn’t seem surprised by that figure, telling The Chronicle that his department gets 7,000 calls for service each month.

“That’s a lot,” Alvarez said, adding that 80,000 people use the “BART Watch” smartphone app, which enables the public to discreetly report crimes on trains or in stations.

BART was also grinding through mechanical failures in its new cars and its aging train control system, which accounted for 33% of delays — still fewer than the amount triggered by humans.

The numbers, presented in BART’s second-quarter performance review, followed an anguished discussion among board directors about racial disparities in policing at BART. A separate report from the Police Department showed that roughly half of all enforcement for low-level “quality-of-life” offenses — spitting, eating and drinking, fare evasion, loud music and other disruptions — targets African American riders.

Alvarez sought to assure the board that his department trains officers to rid themselves of biases, but several directors said they were troubled by the disparity.

“Sometimes we look in the mirror and it’s difficult, because we don’t know what we’re going to find,” Director Mark Foley said.

General Manager Bob Powers acknowledged that “any disparity is problematic.”

However, many officials said BART’s quality-of-life issues need to be addressed, and the only solution is to “harden” stations.

“It’s not just fare gates,” BART police union president Keith Garcia told the board. “It’s locking the emergency gates, raising the railings, moving the elevators (into paid areas).”

BART rider Andrew Sullivan agreed. He begged the board to quell the social disorder he sees every day when commuting from El Cerrito Plaza Station to downtown San Francisco.

“I’m not a law-and-order person, but this system is out of control,” Sullivan said. “I’ll be on the street and I’ll see someone having a psychotic breakdown from meth. Then I’ll see them walk right through” the BART gates.

The board approved new, sturdier fare gates in September, with tall panels that would swing open like saloon doors similar to the ones at Muni. But BART has yet to identify $150 million in funds to swap out its existing 600 gates.

Powers has promised to make the installation of new gates a priority.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan