[1][2][6]: 34 Stokes joined the Bay Area Rapid Transit District as its first employee, in the role of Director of Information.
In that role, his primarily responsibility was to develop and carry out a comprehensive information program about BART's rapid transit plan and its benefits for the Bay Area.
[1] His information campaign has been credited as a contributing factor to the BART construction and funding plan being approved by voters in the three-county Proposition A referendum on November 6, 1962.
[1][2][4] In 1963, Stokes became General Manager of the BART District, an appointment that would generate controversy due to his lack of technical and engineering background.
In February 1972, three engineers went public with safety concerns they had about BART's automatic train control (ATC) system that had been contracted out to Westinghouse Electric Corporation, after several months of raising the issues internally.
[10][11]: 118–143 Subsequently, some of these concerns would prove well-founded as BART had a number of ATC-related accidents and near-accidents, leading to investigations by the California Public Utilities Commission, the National Transportation Safety Board, a separate blue ribbon panel, and others.