If you live in the Bay Area or are planning to be one of the nearly 16 millions travelers who visit us each year, then have I got a useful website for you. Beer By BART began less than a year ago, created by two San Francisco natives, Steve Shapiro and Gail Ann Williams. The site is a labor of love for the pair, who I was fortunate enough to meet at the Bistro’s Double IPA Festival yesterday.

Since mass-transit is all but non-existent where I live (and where the annoyingly self-centered NIMBY ethos keeps anything from improving), I hadn’t run across this before. But in many parts of the Bay Area, BART is a convenient and relatively inexpensive alternative to driving. In these days of draconian laws brought on by overzealous neo-prohibitionists, this a very valuable resource. So far, there are thirty places mapped out with all the information you need to get from a BART station to your destination, including how long your walk will be from BART. For each it’s roughly one-quarter mile. If you see four shoes on a listing, you know it’s about a mile to the brewpub or bar. The list on the main page is divided by station, and the list is starting to include what bus to take to get you to a slightly more remote, but worthwhile place. Nice job!

This is my first pick for “Website of the Month,” which I’ll begin featuring on the right sidebar. I get so many link requests and have so many in my blogroll, that I want to highlight the best ones I come across.