BART announced the launch of a program that lets riders who carpool to certain stations pay for their parking spots through the transit agency’s app.
Carpoolers at the Dublin/Pleasanton, Orinda, Antioch, and Warm Springs stations will be able to pay for parking through the official BART app and park in the permit section of the lot.
BART officials said they will test the new program at the four stations before rolling it out to others later in the year. The agency also plans to extend the app parking payment to all riders in the future.
The app accepts credit cards, debit cards, Venmo and PayPal.
BART will verify carpoolers who pay through the app by requiring both riders in the carpool to enter through the fare gates.
Other carpool programs BART previously ran will end and parking lots formerly designated for carpoolers will be converted into permit spaces, according to BART.
“This new program modernizes the payment process, something our riders have been asking for, and incentivizes riders to carpool by giving them access to permit parking areas, helping free up parking spaces for
others,” BART board vice president Rebecca Saltzman said in a news release.
“Carpooling to BART takes cars off the road, helping keep our region moving while also reducing emissions. About 5 percent of our riders carpool to BART and we want to encourage others to try it and then make it a part of their daily routine,” Saltzman said.
Carpoolers (3 or more) should get free parking and maybe a discount on their tickets, since they’re bringing extra business to BART. The management board is a bunch of thoughtless, overpaid goofs; and the union workers are just as bad.
Why should they get free parking? You want a volume discount for three people who would have ridden BART anyway? They already get a discount on the parking when the three people split the fee.
Did your crystal ball show you the three would have ridden anyway? Doubtful, in my book. The only sure way to get 3 vehicles off the bridges and Bay side freeways is to incentivize.
Saltzman forgot to add that using the lots will help save the planet from certain manmade anthropogenic death, and payment to BART is viewed as a worthy indulgence.
As silly as your contention is that we are all going to “kill the planet” if we don’t carpool, isn’t your phrase “certain manmade anthropogenic death” redundant?
If it’s anthropogenic it is already caused or produced by humans…. aka “man made”.
Charging for parking puts BART costs a little higher than driving (gas, tolls & parking, depending on the neighborhood). Add the fact that BART takes more than twice as long and ask yourself why take BART? People would simply drive.
Car pooling to BART is ludicrous. Do they think neighbors are on the same schedule to the same destinations?
Driving is way more costly when you take into maintenance, depreciation, and pro-rated registration, insurance, auto club fees, etc.
Not exactly, concord ygnacio,
If you have a car, you are already paying for registration, insurance, and auto club fees. So pro-rating those expenses is only relevant if you are deciding whether to own a car or to use BART exclusively. Most suburban Californians can’t get by without a car, even if they do use mass transit on a regular basis.
@Cowellian: I disagree. What you are saying would like be having a roommate, but having him or her paying only for the additional utilities he or she caused the bill to go up by. Instead, it is usually split evenly in most situations. Likewise, insurance, registration, etc. needs to be pro-rated. That is how the IRS does it too when you claim deductions for using part of your car our house for business expenses.
OK, so you don’t understand fixed costs.
Dr. J: Yes, my silly comments were indeed redundant and superfluous as well as man-made, and I was repeating myself. Like some politicians.
When people carpool, they use only one car.