The Bay Area Rapid Transit Authority (BART) is expanding its parking payment and its pay-by-app carpool program, both available through BART’s official app, to five stations and 19 stations, respectively.
The daily fee parking payment program is now available at Antich, West Oakland, Hayward, South San Francisco and El Cerrito del Norte Stations, with plans to expand the feature to all stations in phases throughout 2020.
With the daily fee parking payment through the app, riders can park at the five stations and then pay on their phones to avoid waiting in line to pay for a stall.
The new payment feature marks a milestone in BART’s efforts to modernize BART’s parking payment and enforcement systems and address longstanding wishes from riders throughout the system.
“The app offers an improved customer experience and is in direct response to riders asking for a seamless way to pay for parking quickly and easily,” said BART Chief Information Officer Ravi Misra. “The official BART app has allowed riders to plan their next trip and provide comprehensive information in one place. We’ve continued to improve the app, rolling out exclusive features and making adjustments prioritized by user feedback.”
Paying for parking is easier than ever
The new daily fee parking payment feature allows riders to pay through their credit card, debit card, Venmo or PayPal account. Riders can choose paying individually for each parking transaction or creating a wallet which will deduct parking fees from the balance. The wallet will automatically load $25 each time the balance drops below $5.
Before using the new daily fee parking payment feature, riders will need to download the latest version of the official BART app, create a profile and enter a Clipper card number and a parking payment method (credit card, debit card, Venmo or PayPal account). After parking, riders will need to pay for their daily fee parking before they tag into the station with the Clipper card registered with the official BART app profile.
Previously daily fee parkers had to memorize their stall number, wait in line and pay with cash or use the same paper ticket they entered with or BART’s EZ rider program. These options remain available.
Carpool program expands
The program is now available at 19 stations.
The program debuted in June 2019 at four stations. The new program allows riders who carpool to a station to pay for parking using the official BART app and park in the permit section of the lot where spots don’t fill up as early as the daily fee section.
BART says the app payment feature is a significant step towards modernizing BART’s parking payment and enforcement systems. The app accepts credit cards, debit cards, Venmo or PayPal and doesn’t require waiting in line to pay for a stall. The new program cracks down on carpool cheats by verifying the carpool is valid by requiring both riders in the carpool to enter the fare gates after making the app payment.
“Our initial test stations have proven to be a success with data showing about 225 carpool payments each day with the carpool verification system working as designed,” said Board President Bevan Dufty. “Not only are we encouraging carpooling to BART which increases ridership and takes cars off the road, but we are using the program to test app-based payments.”
Having an app-based payment process improves the rider experience, says BART. At stations without the option, riders must currently wait in line to pay with cash or set up an EZ rider account, load it with funds, connect it to their Clipper card and get a hang tag for their car. BART plans to expand the app parking payment in phases to all riders in 2020 but is offering it to carpools first to promote carpooling to stations. The Carpool to BART program will continue to roll out to additional stations in 2020.
