BART held an event to announce the start of "open payments" last August, meaning that riders can now enter the system by slapping a credit card on the fare gates. That's made possible by the roll out of Clipper II, the Bay Area's modernized fare payment system. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission recently announced that the rest of the Bay Area's transit agencies will switch to Clipper II in December. Included in this move is the reduction or elimination of charges for transferring between systems.
"Open payments, which have already been adopted by other transit systems in the U.S., remove a friction point for taking transit and can boost ridership by up to 10 percent," wrote Transform's Abibat Rahman-Davies. "However, MTC didn’t include a system for offering fare discounts to seniors, students, Clipper START users, or others who qualify for discounted fares through open payments."
That's why Rahman-Davies and the advocates at Transform wrote "Fair and Accessible Fares: Economic Justice in Transit," which proposes new ways to ensure low-income transit riders aren’t left behind. From the report:
Clipper, the current fare payment system used by 24 of the 27 transit operators in the Bay Area, is a closed-loop, proprietary system managed by the MTC. A proprietary closed loop system presents many drawbacks, particularly for lower-income riders. Moving to an open payment system where riders can pay with their credit or debit cards presents an opportunity to increase accessibility and banking access for hard-to-reach populations. However, if done poorly, without including discount fare programs or providing banking support services, the move to open payments risks leaving low-income riders further behind.
The study argues that transit agencies, for example, can work with advocates on programs designed to help people who may be struggling to catch up in an economy that's largely abandoned physical dollars and cents:
Operators can act as intermediaries, partnering with financial institutions to help riders get bank accounts. This allows riders to participate in open payments and transit discounts today, and digital benefits delivery and digital transactions more broadly, as much of the economy moves away from cash.
And for people who still don't have bank accounts, the report also suggests that more work has to be done to help people get Clipper cards, which will still be accepted at the fare gates:
MTC should conduct outreach to raise awareness of retail locations where riders can reload Clipper cards, while also increasing the number of these locations and making sure they are geographically distributed. For example, the Temple corridor in Alameda County between 73rd Avenue and San Leandro BART has no locations where riders can load value onto Clipper
The report has several other suggestions for helping low-income people take advantage of Clipper II. Be sure to check it out.
Transform will host a free webinar on Fair and Accessible Fares on November 13, 2025, at 3 p.m. PST. Please register to attend.
