One thing I try to do is read stuff from people whose job it is to do stuff. What I read from transportation people is that for dense urban areas cars are inefficient at loading and unloading. And self driving cars are the worst.
My rando observation is the few times something has gone really wrong on BART traffic is bad enough that it'd be better to take the day off. Ditto if a truck overturns on one of the bridges. And the latter happens way more often than the former. Reminds me after the Loma Prieta earthquake the bay bridge was out for a month but BART was running 12 hours later.
By “transportation people” do you mean rail fans or avid cyclists? It’s an easy mistake to make - civil engineers with a more favorable attitude to cars (or even to rail) are more likely to be employed and therefore relatively quiet than rail fans or cyclists, who spend their time doing advocacy.
My rando observation is the few times something has gone really wrong on BART traffic is bad enough that it'd be better to take the day off. Ditto if a truck overturns on one of the bridges. And the latter happens way more often than the former. Reminds me after the Loma Prieta earthquake the bay bridge was out for a month but BART was running 12 hours later.