BART paper ticket sales to end in downtown Berkeley and other stations

Maybe some people don’t like using clipper cards because they don’t want to be tracked so easily?

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There’s a nuance. For instance, my cards aren’t connected to a line of credit. Clover’s is registered to our family, though. And that card is special, so essentially all the trip data on the card is tracked.

BART serves many cities and counties, many of which have their own local transit districts. This is a difficult problem to solve, and Clipper does it in a relatively common way; many places in the world have been using singular contact-cards for their public transit systems.

Also, every entry point to the BART system is under heavy surveillance. Not to say that’s okay, just to point out the full theater.

Also also, we definitely want to track the nature of every Clipper transaction. That is invaluable information for our public infrastructure! Just not the individuals connected to those transactions, and not in any way that could be shared with the more fascist departments of government.

I know, sounds like I’m just pointing out a bunch of dialectics and then in maiki-fashion I’ll bounce, laughing all the way! HahahahahA!

Except, I have a solid solution! Based on my decade of experience working with transit agencies around the Bay Area, and living here and being affected by the changing environment we find ourselves in, the solution is mind-boggingly simple: don’t charge for public transit.

Many concerns are addressed: tourism, low-income users, equipment maint., better privacy. :face_with_monocle:

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