Medicare transit discount benefits now available with credit/debit payment - but not yet in Bay Area

On November 26, the California Integrated Travel Project announced in its newsletter that low-income Californians who qualify for Medicare can get access to transit discounts when they pay with a credit or debit card. This capability was made available earlier for people who qualify for CalFresh, as well as seniors and veterans.  

The next important feature in the works, planned for the end of the year, is to enable people who qualify for disability discounts with their agency to get access to the discounts when they pay with a credit or debit card. According to Cal-ITP’s development website, the software development is complete, but the feature hasn’t yet been fully rolled out to transit agencies to use with customers.

The Bay Area is planning to roll out an Open Payment feature with the next generation Clipper system this coming Spring (the date is not yet finalized). The feature will allow people to pay for transit with a credit or debit card. However, when Open Payment is first made available, it will only work for full adult transit fares.  Bay Area residents will not yet be able to access the discounts to which they are entitled when they pay with a credit or debit card. People will only get their discounts when they pay with a Clipper card or Clipper app.

As we understand it, once the Open Payment capability is rolled out, it would then likely be possible to add the capability for seniors and people with disabilities to get access to their discounts when paying with a credit or debit card.

At the November meeting of the Clipper Executive Board, the Bay Area Cross Disability Allies Coalition, which focuses on improving and coordinating accessible transportation for people with disabilities and seniors in the Bay Area, sent a letter encouraging MTC to explore technical feasibility of using these features, and to add these features following the release of Clipper 2.

The Bay Area is already starting to plan for new features after the first release of Clipper 2. At the last couple of meetings of the Clipper Executive Board, the transit executives who serve on the board discussed plans to roll out features that help riders pay for sports and entertainment. 

Since planning for the next set of Clipper features has already begun, and Cal-ITP will offer a robust access to discounts for seniors and people with disabilities, it is in line with the stated equity goals of MTC and agencies to pursue making the discounts available. And if this is not done, we foresee a customer service issue where seniors and people with disabilities will be frustrated that they don’t get access to their discounts if they happen to pay with a credit/debit card.

The next Clipper Executive Board meeting is on December 16. If you’d like to see Clipper 2 provide access to discounts for people who pay with a credit/debit card, you can make a comment at that meeting. Or you can send an email to  info@bayareametro.gov, with a subject line Clipper 2 discounts.