Edit the listed fare in the post is nearly 4x the actual fare.
As it turns out it doesn’t actually cost that much on regular transit, there’s an AIRPORT SURCHARGE because it’s an “airport train”.
If she’s not going to an airport (the pictured station is in SF and not SFO) this is just strait up wrong. As a regular BART rider who’s used transbay service for years BART can’t tell what trains you ride. They bill purely on the entry and exit station. I’ve pulled some transfers that on other systems would be wildly expensive to work around occasional systemwide issues without increased cost.
Within SF it costs the fixed Muni rate which is a lot cheaper. It is disturbingly fast and reliable especially as parts of the system date from the Nixon administration. It can be annoying to get to and from though.
Edit: The furthest fare from Oakland (Coliseum) to the station in the photograph (Montgomery) is 5.20. Using the OAK connector does bring it up to 12.65. Going to SFO from Coliseum is 12.10. Going for some reason airport to airport is 19.55. Not sure where she got $16 from.
BART, Muni and others are staring down the gun of drastic cuts right now due to COVID gutting their finances. The feds won’t help and the state is preparing to have the budget gutted by the Trump administration and is looking for things to cut that won’t hurt (these generally don’t exist). I find more expensive programs unlikely right now.
I’m just hoping BART doesn’t collapse at this point