Evaluation: All-Access Pass Sparks Big Jump in Transit Use

The newly released Clipper® BayPass Phase 1 Pilot Program Evaluation Report indicates that college students with access to Clipper BayPass took nearly a third more transit trips and made more than twice as many transfers between transit agencies than their peers who only had access to their schools’ preexisting institutional transit passes for the period from August  2022 through June 2024.

MTC, in conjunction with all Bay Area transit agencies participating in the Clipper fare payment system, launched the Clipper BayPass pilot program in August 2022 to study the impact of a single pass that provides Bay Area residents unlimited access to all bus, rail and ferry services in the nine-county region. Phase 1 of the pilot provided unlimited access to a group of 51,300 individuals at four higher education institutions—San Francisco State University, San José State University, Santa Rosa City College and the University of California, Berkeley—and 12 affordable housing properties in the Bay Area. 

In survey responses collected during Phase 1 of the pilot, more than 90% of individuals eligible for Clipper BayPass at partner universities reported that access to the pass made them more likely to take transit and to visit new locations in the Bay Area. These responses were borne out in the data, which indicate that during the first year of the pilot, students eligible for Clipper BayPass took 30% more trips on average than their peers who only were eligible for the preexisting institutional pass programs at their schools.

Students with access to Clipper BayPass also transferred between transit operators more than their peers without Clipper BayPass. During the first year of the pilot, Clipper BayPass student participants transferred between transit operators 163% more on average than their peers who were not eligible for Clipper BayPass. 

Phase 2 of the Clipper BayPass pilot launched in January 2024, with the all-access pass now being sold to interested organizations who would like to offer the pass to employees, students or residents. As of May 2025, there are 11 partner organizations paying to make Clipper BayPass pass available to some 39,000 patrons. These include UCSF, San Francisco State University, Alameda Transportation Management Association, the City of Menlo Park, the City of Palo Alto, Foon Lok East (MidPen housing), Kiku Crossing (MidPen housing), Open AI, Robinhood, Piedmont Gardens, and the San Francisco Airport Commission. When UC Berkeley’s approximately 45,000 students become eligible for Clipper BayPass in August 2025, the total number of individuals eligible for Clipper BayPass will increase to approximately 82,000. 

The Clipper BayPass pilot continues to seek additional participants, with a particular interest in organizations in the North Bay and Contra Costa County. Interested organizations are encouraged to complete the Interest Form.

Clipper BayPass participants have used their passes for more than a combined 6 million transit trips to date.