Unpopular Opinion: The BART station in Pittsburg, CA, is designed terribly

I reside in Pittsburg, CA. To get to San Francisco State University, I would take the BART train to SF. Currently, I take the BART station in Antioch, CA, but before that I used to take the Pittsburg Center station to get to San Francisco. And I was not pleased with the experience at all, even after riding it for about a year. 

This BART station opened up in May 2018, and it's the second BART station in Pittsburg. The first one was the Pittsburg/Bay Point station, which opened up in December 1996. 

The train ride was fine, but there are issues with the way the stations were designed.

Pittsburg Center station parking lot on Bliss Ave.

Note that you'd have to cross the street to enter the concourse

The entrance to the concourse, surrounded by the bridge

First of all, the BART station was constructed on a pedestrian bridge on the intersection of Railroad Ave and Harbor St (literally on the highway). Due to this, the parking lot was constructed on the other side off of Bliss Ave.; that alone can cause issues because there is little to no security in the Parking lot, making your car a potential target for break ins.  

Secondly, it may cause safety issues. Since the BART station parking lot is located on Bliss Ave. near the Auto repair shops across the road, pedestrians have to cross the street to get to the bridge. Unfortunately, this may be risky as there are many drivers who do not see pedestrians crossing the street, potentially running them over. That has happened to me a few times; I wasn't harmed, but I almost got ran over due to drivers not paying attention to pedestrians crossing. 

Thirdly, when compared to the Antioch BART station and the Pittsburg/Bay Point BART station, the Pittsburg Center station is significantly smaller. There is only one stairway up and down, there are no restrooms, limited space for Parking payment, limited entrance checkpoints, there is no BART Police station, and there is no adequate shading, meaning that if it gets too hot or if it rains, be prepared for an uncomfortable experience while waiting for the train to arrive, as if riding BART isn't bad enough. 

While BART stations are uniquely designed depending on local city ordinance, there's a fine line between making it safe for BART riders and coming up with outrageous designs. The Pittsburg Center station is the epitome of outrageous design. I am not quite sure what they were thinking when they were planning on building a second BART station in Pittsburg, but the end result is not impressive. In my opinion, it was less focused on the safety of people who would ride this train and more focused on aesthetics, which is fine but there should also be an emphasis on safety. 

I am not quite sure what I would do if I were to design the BART station in Pittsburg, but this was not a good idea to build the BART station on top of a bridge, especially knowing how much of a safety risk it may impose to patrons who frequently ride BART. If they wanted to build a second BART station in Pittsburg, what they should have done is build it on undeveloped land, not on top of a bridge. Or, they could have converted the highway into a tunnel so that the BART station (and the Parking) can sit on top of the highway and include safe parking, but I know that this isn't logical to do, and I don't think the City wants to spend money on the construction of it either. These are just some examples of how the BART station could have been built.