Clipper 2.0 is estimated to save regular riders who commute daily on SF Muni and BART thousands each year.
Clipper 2.0, the long-awaited update to the ubiquitous rideshare payment system and method, went live in the SF Bay Area yesterday — bringing a host of modernized conveniences.
First and foremost, riders will no longer need a dedicated Clipper Card to authorize payment through. Clipper 2.0 brings with it Tap-to-Pay, allowing riders to pay with, in addition to Clipper Cards, authorized debit and credit cards, whether in physical forms or inside digital wallets.
Discounted rates for seniors and children, increased speed of transaction, and discounted transfer rates — San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency (SFMTA) will still honor its 90-minute free transfer period, and will also roll out. Riders using digital Clipper cards saw immediate benefits… while those with physical iterations were quietly upgraded over the past few weeks.
In the Clipper 2.0 upgrade, a welcome and beneficial acclivity was introduced: 30-minute “grace periods” when leaving transit stations. This means that if you were to, say, Clipper Card into a BART Station, only to realize trains weren’t running or were significantly delayed, you could exit the station without being charged. For some, that means a savings of over $7 when needing to leave a station prematurely or to putz around while waiting for a delayed train.
The cost savings of Clipper 2.0 are substantial. Various redditors on r/bayarea did some napkin maths and found their individual savings commuting to and from work alone, using just BART and Muni, could be hundreds each year — or, in some more extreme cases, thousands.
BART continues facing a fiscal cliff with an estimated budget deficit of $330 million. The savings afforded to riders by the launch of Clipper 2.0 seem at odds with recouping that deficit, but BART notes that Clipper 2.0’s financial and convenience benefits will entice more people to ride BART, increasing the transit agency’s ridership.
Although Caltrain will eliminate its modest Clipper Card discount on January 1st of next year, this savings calculator from HikingByTransit will tally up how much you can save using Clipper 2.0 for trips.
Feature image: Courtesy of BART
