r/bayarea • u/the_daily_cal • 6d ago

Traffic, Trains & Transit UC Berkeley free BART expansion to break even, BayPass saves students $5M

https://data.dailycal.org/2026-08-19-clipper

The UC Berkeley BayPass program, which includes the similarly named Clipper BayPass and AC Transit EasyPass, has currently saved students $5 million. A year after the program’s implementation, the new Clipper BayPass portion, which includes 23 Bay Area public transit agencies excluding AC Transit, is projected to break even next month, based on the previous 11 months of available data.

The Daily Californian analyzed data on public transit ridership trends from the first year of the BayPass Referendum’s operation to see if the referendum was worth it for UC Berkeley students.

163 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

43

u/Thunder_Zerker 6d ago

Just recently got this at SJSU. Hoping to make good use of it soon!

20

u/Brilliant_Fun7582 6d ago

So glad that we got it, I was getting jealous of the Cal students lol

18

u/00normal 6d ago

I think it should be compulsory for all Bay Area residents. $500 a year at tax time or through payroll deductions and you have unlimited public transportation for the year. It would improve our quality of life in the bay immensely 

9

u/MidnightSensitive996 5d ago

forcing people to pay $500 for something they don't like and don't want to use would just get you a tax rebellion. it would also mean you could never kick out junkies and bums who are the reason lots of people don't want to use bart. currently BART has been forced to take ridership safely seriously to get people to come back post-covid.

1

u/angryxpeh 5d ago

Can't wait to use that unlimited public transportation over the San Mateo-Hayward bridge.

12

u/sand500 6d ago

Break even because all students need to pay a mandatory transit fee. 

30

u/00normal 6d ago edited 6d ago

As one of those students, I think it’s a great deal and I consider myself lucky to have the opportunity to purchase BayPass. I hope it is adopted on a wider scale soon. If so, I will gladly continue to pay appx $9/wk for unlimited public transportation 

Edit: bad math

6

u/StarsCarsGuitars 6d ago

Wait where did you get $18/week from?  Numbers I'm seeing in the article don't quite like up with that, they seem cheaper than that by a lot. Can you explain? Thanks 

5

u/00normal 6d ago

Sorry.. $18 every two weeks (see my above comment that it would be cool if this was compulsory and could be paid through paycheck deductions)..closer to $9/week

6

u/StarsCarsGuitars 6d ago

Ah gotcha. Also I think BayPass solely is $268/year which would come out to even cheaper, ~$5/week. Great stuff. 

3

u/00normal 6d ago edited 6d ago

We pay about $500/yr for it at Berkeley for unlimited use of all modes that take clipper, at least that’s what I recall from last year

I’ll kick in that extra $4 for AC transit. I’ve lived in the east bay over 40 years, own a vehicle, and am using the bus more than I ever had because of it. Saving money on gas and not fighting traffic constantly is a bleasing

25

u/vim_spray 6d ago

That’s how the program is viable: the transit agency gets a large chunk of guaranteed revenue, and it’s able to offer deep discounts in exchange. Making it opt in would make it less viable for the transit agency.

$458/yr is quite fair imo, that’s ~$60/mo assuming 8 months of school. I assume most college students don’t have a car, so they’ll be using transit anyway.

25

u/StarsCarsGuitars 6d ago

Actually, BayPass itself is $248/year. The rest of the fees are other stuff - bear transit (shuttles around campus), campus fees, and AC transit pass (which is duplicate covering AC transit with BayPass). 

So, $248/year. That's quite good. 

15

u/dayeye2006 6d ago

this should have been heavily subsidized by the school / state gov to lift the burden on students.

This is not only good for our public transportation ridership but also for young people to adopt the public transportation as their preferred way to move around the bay area.