You can still lounge to your heart's content across an entire row of BART seats — at least for now. The vote on whether or not to impose fines of up to $500 on individuals occupying more than one seat has been postponed to allow the ordinance to be tweaked to specify just who exactly will be subject to the fines.

Despite the assurances of the ordinance's author, BART Director Joel Keller, the Chronicle reports that some on the BART board expressed concerns regarding its language. Specifically, that if passed as is the ordinance will allow BART Police to both target homeless people sleeping on empty cars and your average Joe/Jane napping on a late-night ride home from work. Oh, also, that riders might use this new ordinance as an excuse to harass other riders.

“If we can’t get specific on this being on crowded trains, there’s no way I’ll support this,” KRON 4 quotes BART director Rebecca Saltzman as saying. “I’m concerned about how it will be implemented, not necessarily by our law enforcement but by the public.”

No need to worry about us, BART Police Chief Kenton Rainey told the BART board at yesterday's meeting. “We’re not going to get out there and start arresting people and issuing lots of citations,”. However, Rainey also pointed out some possible unintended consequences of this measure — namely "more train delays, conflicts with the homeless and possible use of force."

Which, honestly, makes a lot of sense. Imagine what impact this enforcement could have on crowded cars stuffed to the gills with stressed-out commuters! The imagination runs wild.

The proposal would make a first offense $100, a second offense $200, and any offenses thereafter within a five-year period $500. A vote on the revised ordinance is tentatively scheduled for the next full BART board meeting on Thursday, March 25.

Previously: BART Director Proposes $500 Fine For Seat Hogs

Loungers, luggage-bearers, and other folks who spread out into more than one seat beware: If BART Director Joel Keller has his way, seat hogs might soon face fines of as much as $500.

According to the Chron, Keller has frigging HAD IT with riders on packed trains who take over much-needed seats with their feet, belongings, or other stuff that they should keep to themselves. So he's proposing an ordinance, to be enforced by BART police, making it illegal for BART riders to occupy "more than a single seat when it would prevent others from sitting down."

People with medical conditions or of a size that requires multiple seats would be exempted from Keller's proposed law, which wouldn't be enforced on trains that "have an abundance" of empty seats.

Offenders would be hit with a $100 fine for their first offense, $200 for their second strike, and $500 thereafter. Heck, for those fees, you might as well charter a limo for you and your backpack and spare yourself the indignity of BART in the first place!

Keller, who represents eastern Contra Costa County, says "he was motivated to draw up the ordinance when he boarded a train and found a sleeping young man sprawled out over four seats near the door" and "realized that even if he summoned police, they could do nothing but rouse the seat hoarder and ask him to sit up."

“In the past, when we had plenty of seats, it was not as serious an issue as it is today,” Keller told the Chron.

“But with ridership growing and seats becoming a much more desirable commodity, we have to make sure they’re available and avoid them being taken up with backpacks, luggage or someone using two seats to lie down.”

It was last April that BART admitted that their trains were insanely crowded, and confirmed that they'd stay that way until at least 2017. Since then, BART has tried to manage the problem by removing seats to make more room for standing passengers and announced an effort to encourage off-hour commuting with points for some sort of virtual game.

And now this, Keller's effort to legislate what should be common courtesy. And before you ask, Keller wants you to know that this isn't a law directed at homeless people. He tells the Chron that, yes, “There are homeless people on our trains taking more than one seat, but there are also people with backpacks, with luggage, with other things occupying seats. This is not an effort to target or harass anyone, merely an effort to make seats available.”

“We always expect that, when we ask law enforcement to enforce ordinances, they use good judgment,” Keller says, and if it looks like BART cops are focusing on homeless folks when they enforce it, he'll "seek to have it reconsidered."

Keller will be presenting the proposed ordinance to the full BART Board at their meeting this Thursday. The public is welcome at these meetings, so if you want to show up in support/opposition to this proposal, be at their Board Room at 344 20th Street at 9:00 a.m. Thursday.

Previously: The Rush-Hour Crush On BART Will Continue Unchanged For At Least Two Years
BART Seeks To Gamify Commute In Bid To Ease Congestion

Mystery solved! Probably! Thanks our perceptive readers, we have learned what was maybe on the mind of the lady we posted about yesterday, the one who was gently blocking access to an empty seat. Also, we've learned that SFist readers are violent, flatulent racists.

Here's what she was probably thinking: "In my country of origin, I learned that public transit is lousy and over-crowded. So if I want to get off of this rumbling deathtrap someday, I must be forever perched, cat-like, by the exit." Or something to that effect.

Thanks to tomate4369 for pointing out a cultural aspect to this seat-saving strategy that simply hadn't occurred to us; and thanks to our other commenters who pointed out that special accommodations may be required by the very tall, those with leg injuries, and the very demure ladies who wish to avoid a potential groping.

Also, to the bilious individuals who gleefully report banging seat-savers in the head with purses and subjecting them to digestive winds: consider practicing some anger-management, and consulting a gastroenterologist.