Since BART loves to spend money studying its problems, the transit agency is going to be spending $410,000 on a study to figure out what they can do about over-crowding in Embarcadero and Montgomery Stations at rush hour. The study won't be done until spring 2016 but I can tell them the answer to the problem right now, for free, in October 2014: run more trains.

As the SF Appeal reports, BART realizes that "During its peak periods, almost half of all riders either board or exit at the Embarcadero and Montgomery stations, where the platforms are the smallest in the system."

They say they've already made some small fixes, like removing useless, "bulky" items from platforms like broken payphone kiosks. But the ultimate solution may be to reconfigure and rebuild the stations altogether, putting extra platforms on the opposite sides of either track, rather than having eastbound and westbound passengers have to share only the center platform — meaning that doors would then open simultaneously on both sides of the train for easier boarding.

There is still the problem of the system being overtaxed in general, and it's already been reported this month that one big reason BART riders are finding so many overpacked trains is that so many train cars have been out of service, and BART's been running fewer 10-car trains as a result.

If you're one of the many thousands of people who use Embarcadero or Montgomery Station on a daily or weekly basis, you should fill out one of their surveys — here's the Embarcadero one, here's the Montgomery one.

For more info, here's BART's one-sheet on the study project.