December 11, 2023
Passenger

MTC, BART Advance Clipper® BayPass Pilot Program

Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is the first employer to sign up for Clipper BayPass, the Bay Area’s first unlimited regional transit pass, according to San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART), which is jointly managing the pilot pass program with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC). Starting Jan. 1, 2024, UCSF’s 6,000 employees can ride free for one year using any of 25 transit agency systems.

MTA and UCSF on Dec. 8 finalized a partnership agreement, making UCSF the first employer to join Phase 2 of the Clipper® BayPass pilot program, BART reported. UCSF’s goal is to make public transit more accessible to employees in the university’s lower salary tiers.

MTC and BART expect to complete similar agreements with other employers in the months ahead, BART said. The Clipper BayPass will be made available to as many as 20,000 individuals at up to 10 different companies, institutions or public agencies during this phase.

MTC teamed with BART and other transit agencies* to launch Phase 1 of the Clipper BayPass pilot in August 2022. The purpose of the program: to study the impact of a single pass that can be used for unlimited access to all Bay Area rail, bus and ferry services, with the exception of San Francisco’s Muni cable cars, according to BART. Clipper BayPass to date has enrolled approximately 50,000 people, including residents of several affordable housing complexes managed by MidPen Housing; students at Santa Rosa Junior College; and randomly selected students at San Francisco State University, San Jose State University and the University of California’s Berkeley campus.

According to BART, Clipper BayPass participants have used their passes for more than a combined 2 million transit trips in the first year of the pilot, August 2022-August 2023. Usage data indicate these riders take some 40% more transit trips than their nonparticipating peers and transfer between systems 74% more often, the agency said.

Aside from allowing travel at no charge, the Clipper BayPass functions like any other Clipper card, according to BART. Participants use their Clipper cards—either traditional plastic cards or Clipper cards on their smartphones or Apple Watch—to tag on or off at faregates, on buses, on rail platforms, or at ferry ramps. The Clipper BayPass may be used only by participants selected for the pilot program.

“One of the big takeaways from the Blue Ribbon Transit Recovery Task Force convened early in the COVID-19 pandemic is the urgency of making Bay Area transit simpler and more seamless,” MTC Chair and Napa County Supervisor Alfredo Pedroza said. “Clipper BayPass is giving us real-world data on the role fare coordination can play in meeting those goals. We’ll use this information to help shape the development, pricing, and implementation of one or more new multi-agency passes or fare caps that eventually will be used by vastly more riders.”

“In just its first year of existence, Clipper BayPass already is establishing itself as a shining example of regional coordination among Bay Area transit agencies,” BART general manager Bob Powers said. “Clipper BayPass is giving us a vision of the future of Bay Area transit and shows if we make transfers between systems more seamless, ridership will increase across the board.”

”This is an exciting project that has the potential to help our staff with their commutes, keep our transit system sustainable, and contribute to our communities by reducing the number of cars coming to our campuses,” said Erin Gore, Senior Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration at UCSF. “We hope this will become a model for other employers across the Bay Area.”

* Pilot program participants use Clipper BayPass for unlimited travel on: