With today’s groundbreaking announcement that BART is testing out new seating for its next fleet, we decided to find out exactly what the Bay Area commuter crowd thinks of those lovely fabric seats.

The verdict: disgusting, unsanitary and far too absorbent. Despite their plushness and width, most were more concerned that BART’s seats act as bacteria storehouses.

What do you think? Should BART switch to hard plastic seats like the ones on Muni, or stay with something comfortable?

Here's our video:

The speakers, in order of appearance, are:

Sam Pendar, mortgage investigator from San Francisco

Kristen Hall, left, urban designer, and Erika Murdock, right, travel blogger, both from San Francisco

Carrie Nee, records clerk from San Leandro

Erik Bell, information technology specialist from Oakland