It was a scene not uncommon for many straphangers who rely on public transportation to get around in the Bay Area.
A man, hobbled by a recent surgery, was seen sprawled out on the curb in downtown Berkeley, waiting uncomfortably for a bus to come at a bench-less transit stop. Darrell Owens, a local transportation advocate who was neighbors with the man, was livid. “For many years, I had complained about the lack of seating for bus benches in Berkeley and got no response from either the city of Berkeley or AC Transit,” Owens told SFGATE.
On that fateful day in November 2023, he posted a photograph of the man and lamented the lackluster bus stop infrastructure…