August BART ridership keeps growing, bolstered by weekend events, Tap and Ride launch, and UC Berkeley BayPass rollout

BART ridership saw steady growth this summer with August ridership up 10% compared to a year ago, a reflection of the ongoing success of BART's efforts to enhance safety, cleanliness, and customer experience, including the new fare payment system Tap and Ride.

Tuesday, August 26, was BART's third-highest ridership day since 2020 at the time, with 210,818 exits. This record was soon bested in the first two weeks of September, which experienced BART's first and second highest ridership days since 2020 (219,918 exits on September 10 and 213,313 exits on September 9).

Weekend ridership continues to trend upward with Saturdays in August seeing an 11% increase over a year ago and Sundays an 8.1% increase. These increases were bolstered by major events, including a three-day Dead & Company residency at Golden Gate Park, Outside Lands, and the Bay FC vs. Washington Spirit match that sold out Oracle Arena.

A big win for customers was the launch of Tap and Ride on August 20, which gives BART riders the ability to pay adult fares at BART fare gates using contactless-enabled debit or credit cards and mobile payment methods. Tap and Ride trips accounted for 6.5% of total BART trips after the payment system launched in late August. Weekend Tap and Ride usage was higher than weekdays as tourists and infrequent riders took advantage of this new feature. Twenty-four percent of entries at SFO Station were paid for using Tap and Ride after it launched.

Also in August, San Francisco city workers began returning to their downtown office and local schools returned to session. With the start of the fall semester at UC Berkeley in mid-August, Clipper BayPass ridership more than doubled from the previous August as the all-in-one transit pass rolled out to the entire Cal student body. In March, students approved a referendum that increases annual student fees to provide 50,000 undergraduates and graduate students with unlimited travel on Bay Area transit agencies for two years.

Additional ridership information is publicly available here.