Stuck in traffic, driven to transit: District Secretary Bob Franklin’s BART journey

Bob Franklin pictured on a legacy BART train in 2012.

Bob Franklin's "BART bug" wasn't planted on a train. Instead, it took root as a little kid in the backseat of a car crawling through Bay Bridge traffic. Idling on a gridlocked highway is dreadful, a young Franklin thought, so why do people willingly subject themselves to this? Even then, he knew there had to be a better way to get around.

It was 28 years ago that Franklin first set foot in BART Headquarters, and in that time, he's made it his mission to envision and implement the "better way" his younger self once dreamed about. He's done so from many different vantage points: temp worker, administrative assistant, department director, elected BART board member, and now District Secretary, a role he's been serving in since May 2025.

"Even before I rode BART for the first time, I knew I wanted to work for BART," he said.

Franklin grew up mostly in Burlingame, and without a BART station nearby, his family relied on driving . An opportunity for his first BART ride finally arrived in 1985, when he took a train from the Daly City stop to Coliseum BART to see Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA tour. He was as mesmerized by BART as he was by the Boss. While Springsteen was "born to run," Franklin was born to ride.

Despite knowing he intended to land in transit, Franklin's professional path didn't follow a straight line. After high school, he enrolled at Stanford University as a math major, ultimately graduating with an English degree (the math courses "got too theoretical," so he switched course).

After Stanford, Franklin explored a range of jobs, all with an environmental slant. He worked at a recycling center, on an organic farm, and later fighting wildfires for the U.S. Forest Service.

Once he hung up his fire gear, Franklin began applying to "any open BART position that looked good to me." He never heard back.

"I knew if I could just get into BART, I'd find where I was meant to be," he reasoned.

Franklin pictured in front of an ad for his BART board campaign.

So he applied through a temp agency that worked with BART and was placed right away in the District Secretary's Office, or DSO, selling contracts and helping produce meeting agendas.

"I didn't know what the DSO did at the time," he said. "It was completely random."

Today, as District Secretary, Franklin runs that very same department, overseeing the facilitation of BART business and democratic processes, managing board meetings, and coordinating communications with constituents, riders, and staff, among other responsibilities.

Franklin knows the DSO well, not only because he leads the office, but because he once sat on the other side of the dais as a member of the BART Board for nearly a decade.

It was 2004, and Franklin was working as an executive assistant to BART's Controller-Treasurer when election season for his BART district rolled around. He decided to throw his hat in the ring.

"I ran because I wanted a bigger say at BART," he said. "And while I loved the director I challenged and he had great policies, he wasn't willing to compromise, so he wasn't advancing his agenda."

Franklin leading a bus bridge during a scheduled work shutdown in the Transbay Tube.

Franklin believed he could get more done, so he took a leave of absence from BART and spent the following eight months campaigning, mostly from the seat of his bicycle. Franklin was all over the place on that bike, be it a Raiders game or a weekend farmers market.

"I was just a constant visual," he remembered. "A lot of people came up to me and said, 'I don't know what you want to do, but I see you working hard so I am going to vote for you.'"

His strategy worked, and in 2004, Franklin began an eight-year tenure on the BART Board, representing a district that stretched from Berkeley to Castro Valley to Orinda.

"It was harder than I thought it would be," Franklin admitted. "All the board members had different interests and reasons for being there. None of them matched mine."

But from day one, his focus was clear.

Bob Franklin's BART paintings

"People loved BART, but they couldn't get to it," he said. "Bus service wasn't frequent. Parking lots were full. People wanted to take BART, but they couldn't get there. So my emphasis was helping people access our stations."

During his time on the board, Franklin started the Sustainability Committee, helping pave the way for BART's use of solar energy. He pushed to televise board meetings and created an access policy that reinvested parking revenue into station communities. One project funded through that policy was the renovation of Rockridge BART Plaza, transforming what had been an ivy-covered area overrun with rats into a welcoming community space.

In 2012, Franklin decided not to run for reelection and briefly set his sights on Oakland City Council. But BART, once again, pulled him back. Not long after announcing his city council campaign, the Director of Customer Access and Accessibility position opened at BART.

"It was going to be politics or BART," he said. "So I chose BART."

Franklin spent the next 13 years focused on the same mission: helping people get to BART. Under his leadership, the department expanded, implemented a modern market-based parking pricing policy, professionalized bus coordination, and led the biggest bus bridge in BART history during a scheduled work shutdown in the Transbay Tube.

Ryan Greene-Roesel, who worked for Franklin during his tenure and has since taken over his role, described him as "unfailingly supportive and kindhearted, with a constant twinkle in his eye."

"Bob defies categorization," she said. "He taught me by example to be deeply empathetic to customers, especially people with disabilities."

Franklin pictured with the Customer Access team. (Bottom left to right: Jumana Nabti, Franklin, Elena Van Loo. Top left to right: Heath Maddox, Mirubenat Obregon, Danielle Dai, Ryan Greene-Roesel, Kevin McDonald.)

After more than a decade in customer access, Franklin felt ready for a change. As he prepared to leave BART for the second time, he received a call asking if he would consider returning to the District Secretary's Office, this time as its leader.

You know the rest.

"It's been an honor to work in public service," he said, reflecting on his many years at BART. "It's made me become more open, transparent, and accepting of different perspectives."

That mindset follows Franklin even when he steps away from his desk, including into his art. When he's not working, Franklin is an avid painter, and BART sometimes plays the muse. On occasion, Franklin sets up his easel at a station and spend hours observing and painting as he takes in the rhythms of the system he's spent his life helping people access.

"I get to see things I normally wouldn't," he said of his plein air painting sessions. "It's helped me learn even more about BART and the people who rely on it."

Painter. Firefighter. Farmer. Board member. District Secretary. A life of varied experiences, always grounded in service to others.