Exploring the Bay Area may get more exciting for 9,000 SF State students with the two-year roll out of the Clipper BayPass.
While this program has not officially launched yet, students were randomly selected and notified on Aug. 17 to participate in the pilot.
“Limited distribution, which will be based on random assignment, is designed to measure the impact on travel of an all-system pass when compared to students not using Clipper BayPass,” according to the BART website.
But, what does that mean for the selected people?
Students will have access to free transportation via CalTrain, Muni, Sonoma County Transit and all other Bay Area transit through their student ID starting Aug. 22. This extended access will last for at least two years unless they graduate first.
For the students who were not offered to participate in the pilot, not much will change.
“[They] will still have all of the benefits of their current Gator Pass,” SF State OneCard’s Office wrote in the email.
Since its creation five years ago, the Gator Pass has provided free access to Muni and discounted fares to and from Daly City BART station. Last spring, SF State Associated Students advocated for the Gator Pass’ expansion to include San Mateo’s SamTrans, which was implemented at the start of the fall semester.
“It is our hope that this pilot program will advance efforts to expand universal transit access so that we can continue to expand the Gator Pass and offer our students even more transit benefits,” SF State OneCard Office wrote in the email.
Neighboring universities like San Jose State University, University of California Berkeley and Santa Rosa Junior College are also implementing the Clipper BayPass.
The next group to experience the roll out are the select residents of affordable housing units that are managed by MidPen Housing.
