BART's goal to end selling paper tickets would disproportionately affect low-income riders, study reports

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KGO) -- A new study finds that BART's goal of ending paper tickets in 2020 would disproportionately affect low-income riders.

RELATED: BART takes big step toward eliminating paper tickets

The Examiner reports that the equity analysis performed by the transit agency's Office of Civil Rights, shows BART riders who use paper tickets are more likely to be young, more likely to be black or brown and more likely not to own a smartphone.

"What this tells me is the current version of Clipper is less accessible, and less well used, by those populations," BART Board member Janice Li, who represents San Francisco's West Side, told the board Thursday.

When BART finally abandons the magnetic stripe paper tickets, she said, "we must think about who is left behind."

BART began ending paper ticket sales in August 2019 at the Oakland's 19th Street Station. San Francisco's Embarcadero, Powell and Downtown Berkeley Stations followed in September.

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