UC Berkeley students overwhelmingly vote for BayPass. SJSU and North Bay students work to get their campuses on board.
The movement towards integrated, affordable fares is picking up steam. More organizations are opting into Clipper BayPass, the Bay Area transit pass pilot program providing unlimited travel on all 24 Bay Area transit agencies that accept Clipper cards – and more are advocating for their institutions to get on board.
UC Berkeley pass BayPass referendum
All 45,000+ UC Berkeley students will receive BayPass beginning in the Fall 2025 semester after they voted to approve a ballot referendum by 9:1 margins. Seamless Bay Area had endorsed the BayPass at Berkeley campaign.
This comes nearly three years after BayPass rolled out to 50k students at four Bay Area universities as a pilot program. Initially, BayPass was distributed to all Santa Rosa Junior College students and around 25% of students at UC Berkeley, San Francisco State University (SFSU) and San Jose State University (SJSU) via random assignment.
UC Berkeley students on Sproul Plaza encouraging students to vote for the BayPass referendum. Credit: BayPass at Berkeley Campaign
Credit: BayPass at Berkeley Campaign
BayPass is being jointly administered by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) – the Bay Area's regional transportation planning organization – and BART. The purpose of the initial rollout was to provide MTC and transit agencies with data to better understand how reducing financial barriers would influence ridership and future pricing models for regional transit passes.
The results of the random sample trial period showed that users with access to the all-agency BayPass users took, on average, 40% more trips and transferred 74% more often than their peers who had access to a single-agency pass.
Of the original 4 universities, UC Berkeley is now the second school to expand BayPass to its entire student body after San Francisco State University (SFSU) did so in the 2024 Fall Semester.
SJSU students advocating to continue Bay Pass
Following in the footsteps of SFSU and UC Berkeley, students at SJSU are pushing their university administration and student government to continue participation and expand BayPass to all students. Zyjay Cruz, an undergraduate student at SJSU, said the recent victory at UC Berkeley has been inspiring to them.
“We have been using the victories of the other colleges to our advantage – ‘If they can do it then why can't we’” Cruz said. “It shows that a staggering amount of students want BayPass at other colleges.”
Data from SJSU's student commuter survey found that a plurality of students get to campus via public transit. Solo driving is the second most common mode of transportation.
Mode share breakdown of SJSU students commuting to campus. Source: SJSU Associated Students’ Transportation Solutions Fall 2023 Student Survey
SJSU student Umer Danyal Ghaffar described how transformative BayPass would be for him. “I am an international student and do not have a car,” Ghaffar said. “I do not use rideshare because they are too expensive to use for college and personal purposes. Hence, I am reliant on the VTA buses. Wherever the buses go, I go. Wherever they do not go, I do not go. I've been wanting to explore more of the Bay Area and attend networking events in SF and Berkeley, but the payment for BART or Caltrain prevents me from attending.”
Cruz and Sam Jeffs, another SJSU undergraduate student leading advocacy for the adoption of Clipper BayPass, are currently circulating a survey and petition to students to better understand their current travel patterns and opinions about BayPass. Within a week, some 800 students have already responded to their survey. From that data, some 32% of students said they drive to campus, but 81% said they would be less likely to drive if they had BayPass. 64% of students driving said it takes 10 minutes or longer to find parking – 32% said it takes them 20 minutes or more.
A flyer Cruz and Jeffs have been posting at various bus and train stations that SJSU students frequently use.
“Wherever the buses go, I go. Wherever they do not go, I do not go. I've been wanting to explore more of the Bay Area and attend networking events in SF and Berkeley, but the payment for BART or Caltrain prevents me from attending.” - Umer Danyal Ghaffar, SJSU student
“SJSU would just be a perfect fit for BayPass because we could help move more people to public transit and make public transit more affordable for everyone,” said Cruz. “For example, someone who commutes from Castro Valley would spend over $2,000 a semester but [BayPass] would lower it to $25. As long as you spend more than $25 on transit a semester then you are already saving money, which is why we don't think a fee increase is a huge issue.”
Compare the $50/year cost of BayPass to that of a SJSU academic year parking pass which costs $384, in addition to the other costs associated with car ownership such as gas, insurance and repairs. Jeffs said the University already has a huge lack in parking due to the large number of students who commute via driving.
Among the groups supporting BayPass at SJSU are the Transbay Coalition, Seamless Bay Area, SCC4Transit, Catenary. The Transit App, the Montréal-based organization which provides mobile users with tools for real-time travel, is promoting the SJSU BayPass, and had previously promoted the UC Berkeley BayPass campaign.
Movement in the North Bay
Santa Rosa Junior College expressed interest in renewing its participation in BayPass, but a section of the California Education Code (EDC § 76361) restricts community colleges from implementing transportation fees in excess of $70/semester, as set by SB82 in 2010.
Because the college already has an existing parking fee of $60/semester, they are unable to accept the $36/semester rate for BayPass that MTC offered based on data collected during the initial 2-year pilot phase.
Last year, Napa Valley College students voted by over 75% for "Napa Valley College Bus Passes” granting them unlimited travel on Vine Transit for $8/semester. This is heavily discounted from the typical $55/month Vine Transit pass. Now, the Napa Valley Transportation Authority (NVTA) is working to expand the program so other regional services, like SolTrans, Solano Express, and Vacaville City Coach are included.
Next Steps
If you want to get BayPass via your employer, companies and other institutions are still able to apply on a rolling basis. The interest form can be found here.
In addition to BayPass, our region is working on other fare policies to increase affordability, make it easier to pay, and bolster transit ridership. These include efforts to make the low-income Clipper START pilot program permanent, rolling out the free/reduced cost transfer program, an “open payment” system so people can pay transit fares with their credit and debit cards, and an all-agency fare cap so that anyone who reaches a set dollar amount will enjoy the rest of the transit riders they take during a given time period for free.
Stay tuned to our blog to learn more about these initiatives as more information becomes available.