BART EZ Rider Program

Somehow my payflex card on file «disappeared» even though I had made absolutely no changes from my end and had been using the same autoload/​payment method for the previous 6 months. This resulted in numerous parking tickets issued by Bart police with no recourse. Thanks for the service!

There’s not much to say about BART EZRider — I have a decal hanging from my rearview mirror and it simplifies the payment process at the different BART stations that have a parking fee (probably all of them, but I don’t know that for sure).
I can say that I called after hours one business day and did not leave a message. Much to my pleasant surprise, I received a call back first thing the very next morning. In some cases that may have been unnecessary, but I did in fact still have a question. The gentleman that returned that call was very pleasant and helpful.
I applaud that BART for working together with Clipper, I hope they take it one step further at some point so that there isn’t a necessity to have two separate accounts.
While all of this seems simple, I do admit that initially, I didn’t understand that there would be two separate accounts and that created an inconvenience for me for the first few days of commuting on public transportation. I take the majority of the responsibility for that, but I add that the folks at Clipper didn’t share that I would need a separate account — I bring it up because there could possibly better information on the sites that make it a little more clear.

Yes EZ Rider is convenient but prior to August 3^rd the auto load was very expensive. Now it’s been adjusted to charge every 30 days instead of every 6 weeks which now makes it affordable.
The only other thing that is not good is: one time I got dropped off at Bart but I still scanned my clipper card by accident to pay for parking so I called up EZ Rider customer service to try and get it reversed and I was told at this time they don’t have a system to process reimbursements so you just loose your money.

BART was my first real introduction to San Fran and what I really learned is BART is cray-​cray! But I kind of liked it because it definitely was an experience I’ll remember for the rest of my life. My entire journey was primetime-​sitcom worthy.
From the airport I slowly made my way to the BART station and as I was just about to pass a line of kiosks I realized those kiosks held my ticket to ridding. It’s actually a pretty cool system where you put money on a card and it charges the paper card as your exiting you destination. I’m not sure what happens if you didn’t put enough moola on your BART card… I suppose you’re just stuck in limbo in BART purgatory until an employee comes to release you.
Just as I was walking up to the only train in the station, the conductor popped up leading me to the first car. When I first hopped on, I was glancing around I noticed a man that was digging deep in his nose for some treasure and I did that weird thing where you start to look away because you’re sure the stranger is completely embarrassed that someone did in fact see them picking boogers, but then I realized he was looking me dead in the eyes as if to say, «I pick my nose on the BART everyday and what?!» And nothing. Do your thing dude, I’m just soaking it all in. As I seated myself it became very apparent that the man seated a few seats from me was mentally impaired and quite a few passengers actually moved as far from him as possible. Even though this man was yelling throughout the whole trip I felt as though he wasn’t actually a threat, just boisterous. And the drunk guy stumbling towards the front of the car while leering over every passenger he came face to face with reminded me that seating wise I could do worse than the guy screaming «Chaka Khan! Chaka Khana, is that you?! You look so good, Chaka! I haven’t seen you in ages! Okay, love yah guuurl! Call me!» at the lady with a well maintained afro and killer high-​heel boots.
But the real reason I probably will take a taxi or Über the next time I’m in the area is because of my tiny bit of claustrophobia that became very apparent to other passengers as I started breathing heavily when the the train completely stopped in the middle of the tracks in a tunnel without an exit in sight. Yeah, basically my nightmare. We were informed via intercom that or train went offline and our conductor was waiting for permission to take over manually. It Rioja while before we were on our way, but eventually we started going and ever creek and crack made my heart beat a tiny bit faster.
Like any subway system, it’s cheap and fast. So if you don’t have a fear of being confined and exit-​less, you’ll do just fine. I will say it doesn’t come across as the safest mode of transportation, but I didn’t see anything that was absolutely unheard of… there were just a lot of personalities aboard. A lot of personalities.

when are we going to discuss, as a city of adults, how shamefully embarrassing and inept it is that the bart cant run past midnight?
Other major cities? 24 hour transit for decades now… us? we just cant seem to muster those 4 extra journeys until opening.
thus we close our bars at 2, tell people not to drink and drive, and close the public transit at midnight. we hurt our own nightlife economy by not giving our friends across the bay a reliable way of getting back (without being on the 3 am crime bus that gets you home at 6 am)…
I don’t think I am asking a lot of San Francisco? Just keep it open??? So we can get around? I am not sure if I’m supposed to have a car here or not… while the message is clear elsewhere in other metro cities. You live in LA. get one. You live in NY? nope.
Here? uhhhh… i hope you like sidecar? über?
Some might say I’m asking too much, I’m personally just embarrassed.
When are we going to get together and demand not to have a bed time as a city, and that maybe we are big kids now?

A great program! Think FastTrak, but for BART. I’m sorry to see it go, but hopefully Clipper will be as reliable and convenient.
Program gets –1 star for the $ 5 replacement card charge, though, after it broke. With all the money I’ve dumped into the BART system, the punitive charge is annoying.
Now how’s about extending that free WiFi service into the non-​downtown-​SF stations???

So I was just invited to become a part of the Unilocal Elite. I, of course, accepted the offer, and to celebrate my membership into pretentiousness (just kidding!) here is my inaugural review on the BART EZ Rider program as a soon-​to-​be elitist.
Dear BART,
It was about time. As a commuter student things like this make life so much simpler. No longer do I have to fuss over loose change, wrinkled bills, and credit cards — this magical piece of plastic is all I need. I was a bit concerned my card would demagnitize but it hasn’t…yet! Parking at the Millbrae station is a breeze but it would be nice to have special, *ahem* ELITE, parking for people who use the EZ rider card. It also doesn’t make much sense that your parking permit is only valid in one station (to park at other stations you have to fiddle with some keys on the internets). Overall a step in the right direction but things can be improved.

Very convenient! And it can be used to pay for Bart parking!
Right now, I hate TransLink. I gave them one star. I’m giving EZ Rider 5 stars.
Reviewer «Orville J.» sent me a message calling me a «dumbass» because he said he is giving the BART EZ Rider 4 stars when he gave them 1 star. He is the only reviewer to give this service 1 star, yet his review says he is giving BART EZ Rider 4 stars. How «dumbass» can such a person be? Why doesn’t someone like him be more consistent with his reviews and be more streamlined with what he is reviewing?

Love my BART EZ Rider smart card. So easy and convenient to use. Although more than a decade behind Hong Kong’s Octopus Card, a similar system.
I hope that they keep this system in place for people who ONLY ride BART. I know that they plan to adopt the TransLink multi-​transit system, after the 5 month testing period that just started in August. But that card system is not as reliable (read those reviews). I see no reason why they couldn’t keep both systems.

I’ve been living in the Bay for over a year and a half now, and I just barely signed up for this program. I was told before that they’ve had major problems (i.e. not reading the card properly, getting de-​magnetized, etc.). I also thought that I wouldn’t be able to purchase the high-​value tickets. However, I was convinced by Maria D. (
) to finally sign up.
I haven’t had any problems with it so «those» people were wrong. I find it very convient and it saves constantly buying tickets. It’s great for the everyday commuter or even the occassional rider. Now that they have the parking feature, it’s even more of time-​saver. You don’t need to remember your parking stall number, and you have a better chance of catching the train rather than waiting in line to pay $ 1 for parking during the morning rush. I’ve missed several trains because of that.
The best part is that it auto-​loads your card (similar to Fastrak) and you can still purchase the discounted high-​value fares. Once it hit below $ 10, it loads $ 48 of BART value but only costs you $ 45.00. I am definitely happy with my card and much thanks to Maria D.
TIP: The parking feature is deducted SEPARATELY from your BART fare. Once parking hits below $ 10, it auto-​loads $ 40. Also, there’s a ONE-​TIME fee of $ 5 for the card and $ 2 for the parking tag. Your intial costs will be:
$ 45 — EZ Rider card
$ 5 — card fee
$ 40 — parking
$ 2 — parking tag fee
— — — — — — — — — —
$ 92.00 total

I have one of these cards, and it really does make me feel like James Bond every time I use it at a BART station.
(Except when I have to tap the card twice on the reader, which makes me feel like James Bond’s younger, less suave brother.)

Still not perfect, but still convenient.
You can now pay for parking with the EZ Rider card. However, the parking money is stored separately from the BART money, even though I’m only using one card. So when you check your EZ Rider account, you’ll see two separate balances for transit and for parking.
A little trick: sometimes, if you tap your card too fast after the person in front of you pass the fare gate, your card may not register. This happened to me a few times. So, after the person in front of you pass the gate, wait a bit until the gate closes, then tap your card.

I used to love you but today when I swiped you, you didn’t work and I proceeded through the turnstile because it was still open for the girl before me, but no you didn’t read my card and it slammed on my leg — OOOOUUUCH!!! Then the guy behind me already swiped his ticket through the reader, the gates open on his ticket and we both go through… so great, Bart thinks I’m still riding its rains, going back and forth… back and forth… back and forth…

Saves the annoyingness of having to buy $ 20 or discounted (which aren’t worth it that much anyway) tickets all the time. I’ve never had the demagnetized ticket happen to me, so that wasn’t the issue I was trying to solve. Only the constant ticket-​buying (I’m not an everyday BART rider, but I was a 4-​days/​week rider).
Anyway, this makes BART so much more convenient. You can look smug and cool as well as breeze in and out of BART about 1 second faster without having to waste time getting tickets or adding more money onto your tickets. It’s nice that there’s an automatic recharge of your card, BUT I don’t their policy of recharging every time you get under $ 10…I feel like that defeats the purpose of the tiny «discount» they give you.
Also, I recently tried to log into my account online where I forgot my password. After somehow unsuccessfully answering my security questions, my account was locked. I emailed customer service, and they haven’t gotten back to me for over a week. Not cool. I wanted to sign up for the parking thing. My account is still locked.
Very good concept and addition to the BART service. I appreciate it, but look forward to some smoothing out of the kinks in the system. =)
NOTE: If you ever scan your card into a station and then decide that you don’t want to ride BART, DON’T try to scan your card to walk out! It charges you $ 4.90!!! Even if you came in and out of the same station, the system doesn’t recognize that. Just go to the BART teller and let them know that you want to get out so they can give you a voucher.

You have saved me .03 milliseconds of time every time I ride BART by allowing me to slide right on through. So, in total, you given me 5 min. back of my life. and for that I am eternally grateful to you!!! **Auto-​reload RULES!**
PS/​I love you… lol

Ok, as long as you’re not going to let me have a monthly pass, I guess this is pretty good. I’m a little disappointed that the EZ Rider program basically copies everything that the Translink pass does without the integration between public transportation agencies. Like, uh, ok BART, way to go behind everyone’s back and make something much less useful, even though you’ll eventually support Translink.
From the
website «Your EZ Rider card uses similar technology to the future, regional Translink card, but your EZ Rider card only works on BART. When Translink is made available on BART, EZ Rider card users will be able to switch to Translink, which will work on transit systems throughout the Bay Area. «
Anyway, whatever. It still merits 5 stars because:
— free RFID cards
— automatic reloading (the *only* card I think this is actually useful for)
— discount (I think… right?)
— no more demagnetizing
— when I moved away from SF, they credited my credit card with the remaining balance on my EZ Rider card. Pretty sweet.
And public transportation + cool technology = win

Un-​effing-​believable!
So the contractually-​obligated object of my lust and passion escorted me onto BART this past Sunday, the idea being that if I required a sleeper-​hold during the Transbay Tube segment of the journey, he could generously provide services. I have no recollection of ‘issues’, so let’s just say it was a pretty uneventful journey and leave it at that.
But here’s the part I remember clearly: several peeps were using the new EZ Rider cards at the gates instead of those crummy paper tickets I seem to think I’ve lost the couple of times I’ve had occasion to use them. As an enthusiastic user of the Translink system on Golden Gate Transit buses and ferries, I had hoped I was going to see some indication that it was finally being used here as well – at least there had been plans for this option at some point. Obviously EZ Rider is not the same thing, but if BART has elected to use a different electronic service, I believe I now understand why…
When we returned home Sunday evening, I checked the BART site for EZ Rider card info and decided to sign up. On Monday, I received an email notification that a card was being issued and would be mailed soon. Tuesday the card was in our mailbox. I was able to go back onto the EZ Rider site and activate it – ready for use Wednesday! This was not my experience with Translink, where I had to request the card no less than 3 times before I finally got one, and the activation process took more time before it was ready to use. While I love the convenience of Translink, if my initial experience is any indication of the future of electronic transit payment methods in our area, Translink, among other electronic payment vendors, should pay attention to how well the EZ Rider program is moving along thus far.
Update: bonus points for causing me to hear Steppenwolf some mornings when I tap my EZ Rider card on the gate (’cause it’s true – I AM ‘Born to Be Wild’)…

LOVE IT.
You can sign up for it via online. Anytime your ticket drops below $ 10.00 BART will automatically recharge your card back to $ 48.00 (you pay $ 45.00) through your account.
No more waiting behind slow tourists that can’t figure out how to put quarters into the hole
No more waiting in line for people to subtract $ 0.05. from their ticket, ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding.
All you do is swipe the card over the circular detector (above where you would normally insert your ticket) and the gate opens.
—update—
two months later, card has not yet been demagnetized. ooooh yeah.

Okay, read the BART website and other reviews for the description! I’m just here to sing my praise… Something that finally makes BART suck less!
Fastrak for BART riders — huzzah! While it takes about the same time for me to get through the gates since I’ve got those speedy ticket-​inserting fingers, it still looks pretty awesome. Everyone’s got those flimsy tickets, and I’ve got my EZ Rider in its special plastic case.
I admit that it is a little tough to see the balance because it flashes by so quickly. But you’ll know when you run out because they refill when you hit a certain $ amount anyway — $ 10 or so?
Extra stars for the fact that you get $ 48 of rides for $ 45 — EVERY time. If you sign up early, the card itself is free also. Otherwise, you’ll be charged a fee of $ 5. This is awesome since I hardly ever have enough cash on me, and I don’t have to worry about getting a new card when I run out!
I still have no clue why not that many people use this.

Your probably wondering what on earth BART EZ Rider Program is! Quite simply, it is Fastrak for people who ride BART. No, they don’t strap a transponder to your forehead, they give you a card that is the size of a credit card, embedded with some kind of smartcard/​microchip thingy. On every entry gate, there is a little round pad, that you swipe the card over when you walk through.
When you sign up for the program (currently a pilot program) you give them your credit card number, and they preload $ 48. Every time you make a trip, it deducts the fare from your balance. Once your balance falls below $ 10, they automatically top off your card.
I’ve been using this for a week now with great success. People must think I’m crazy, magically swiping my hand over the gate and it opens… maybe I should start shouting «Open, Sesame» as I walk through and really freak people out!
If you use BART everyday, then I recommend signing up. Its a no hassle way to travel. No more lining up to get a new ticket, or having to beg for change to use the Add Fare machine.