Fare-free Clipper card saves students $5M, new BayPass referendum projected to break even

Sydney Wolfe | File

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.

In the 2025 ASUC election, students voted on the BayPass Referendum to grant unlimited fare-free public transit to students. The referendum passed with 90% approval. Prior to this referendum, students had access to AC Transit EasyPass, granting free rides on AC Transit buses. The new BayPass program, which includes Clipper BayPass, AC Transit EasyPass and Bear Transit, provides access to more than 20 transit agencies in the Bay Area with a one-time transit fee administered at the start of each semester.

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. Data was obtained from campus and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which coordinates Bay Area transit.

However, a disproportionate number of rides came through AC Transit EasyPass. When looking at Clipper BayPass in isolation, students have spent roughly $10.7 million, while only taking $10.3 million worth of rides. When including data for July 2026, costs are expected to break even with the value of rides taken, a year after the inception of the program. Some transit agencies have varying fares depending on the length of the trip, and costs were averaged for calculation purposes.

Trips on AC Transit and BART make up about 90% of all trips taken. In total, students have taken more than 6 million trips in the past year, across more than 40,000 active cardholders. As of last fall, 94% of eligible card holders had used their BayPass card.

Ridership trends are not equal across students. While most students take an average of 67 trips per semester, there are some outliers with more than 1,000 trips in the span of a semester.

We built a tool to calculate if the BayPass fee was worth it for you, based on your average weekly ridership trends. Although the tool only includes AC Transit and BART, it can help identify BayPass’s usefulness to you.

This tool was adapted from our original, developed by Andy Chen, Sam Wang and Tyler Wu and created in 2024.

The current BayPass fee is set to expire at the end of summer 2027. To extend it, the student body would have to pass a new fee referendum in the upcoming ASUC elections with a potentially higher fee, after negotiations between the ASUC and the MTC.

“If the campus community votes in support of continuing with the program, we would be delighted with that outcome,” said MTC assistant director of communications John Goodwin when asked about a potential contract continuation.

Studies by the MTC have found that students participating in the BayPass program take 30% more transit trips and make 163% more transfers between transit agencies.

BART is currently facing a financial deficit and is relying on emergency funds that will run out this year. To continue operating at normal levels, BART is counting on the passage of a November ballot measure. This measure, the Connect Bay Area Measure, would implement a sales tax expected to generate approximately $980 million annually. When asked about whether this will affect the MTC’s decision to renew the contract with the ASUC, Goodwin clarified that they are separate issues, but could affect MTC’s goal of broadening the program. “If agencies for whatever reason decide to slash services … that will make MTC’s effort to recruit employers and other organizations into Clipper BayPass more difficult,” he said.

The Clipper BayPass program has demonstrated promising results when it comes to increasing revenue for the MTC. A preliminary evaluation of its Phase 2 pilot program showed that it brought in $1.1 million in additional fares, generated by ridership gains through the introduction of the BayPass program at various universities.

Usually, student referendums include clauses to increase the fee periodically to adjust for inflation. ASUC External Affairs Vice President Selina Mendez noted that she wants to push for affordability and get the fee to be as low as possible. The current transit fee is $236 for a semester, an increase of $7 from the previous year due to slated increases in the price of the AC Transit EasyPass.

“We have a lot of nontraditional students and commuter students, and exploring the Bay Area is something that would increase the quality of student life as well. Being able to leave the Berkeley bubble is something that’s really important to our office, (as well as) making sure that students enjoy being students,” Mendez said.

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