New fare gates meant to deter turnstile hoppers are coming to the 24th Street BART station this spring, sometime in May or June, BART officials said today. It will be one of eight stations across the Bay Area to receive the upgrades.
The other stations receiving the fare gates include Civic Center, Montgomery, Powell, SFO, Fruitvale, Richmond and Antioch. The entire system should receive the new gates “by the end of 2025,” said BART spokesperson Christopher Filippi.
If there are any unexpected infrastructure issues at the eight stations, BART said, gates could be installed at the alternate stations, such as the 16th Street station.
The new fare gates are seven feet tall, with clear swing barriers that are more difficult to push through or jump over. They are an effort to deter fare evasion and improve access for bikes, strollers and wheelchairs, BART officials said.
But the agency is not currently collecting data related to fare evasions where the gates have already been installed, at West Oakland. And the new gates will have limited value in revealing just how many people are actually dodging fares, BART spokesperson Alicia Trost said.
“Fare evasion is difficult to measure,” said Trost.
The new gates, she said, will be able to collect data on “piggybacking” — when people pass through immediately after someone has tagged a card. But BART systems do not currently log fare evaders who use the emergency swing gates — as many do — nor do they measure paid exits an reliable indicator of fare evasion, Trost said.
The project’s success will not rest on lowering fare evasion, per se. Instead, BART will “measure the success of the fare gate project by completing the project by deadline,” ensuring that state accountability goals are met and tracking the reliability of the new gates compared to the old, Trost said.
The gates made their debut at the West Oakland station last December, the first upgrade to BART fare gates in 20 years. Part of its Safe and Clean Plan to attract riders back to the system, the gate purchase was part of a $90 million fare-gate project approved at a BART Board of Directors meeting last April.
At West Oakland, the agency is focused on testing the functionality of its prototypes.
“We will determine which door material to move forward with, and we will unveil a mechanical door lock. We are also working on the lag after you tap,” BART posted.
In case of a power outage or emergency, the fare gates will remain open, BART noted.
As BART tests out the new fare gates, the agency has also increased fares for regular riders by 5.5 percent, starting this month, though low-income riders now receive an increased discount of 50 percent off their fare.
“But the agency is not currently collecting data related to fare evasions where the gates have already been installed, at West Oakland.”
This is insane. Why are they not collecting this information?
I watched another story on this, and this part got lost. BART is not collecting this information YET. The gates have a few issues that BART wants to address, to ensure they are collecting data on the design that will be used at other stations:
1) Gates are missing a lock to make them more robust when closed.
2) There’s a delay in tagging in with Clipper that they want to reduce in line with other gates.
Things are looking up between the Mission Street vending ban and the new gates!
Funny how people prefer things to people. These barriers won’t ever succeed so long as BART employees are disempowered from enforcing rules and bad behaviors are routinely tolerated. City inequalities contribute to bad behavior as well. The rich get away with lots of bad behavior. How can we make them behave?
Both 16th and 24th Street BART stations have massive mezzanine levels, with gates being a small part of that area. It will be interesting to see if they raise the wall/railing height around the gates.
I would also like to hear what BART plans to do about the fire exit gates. Can the fire gates be LOCKED unless the fire alarm is pulled first? In some places, fire exits won’t open until you push on them for 10 secs.
I despise fare evaders the same as everyone else.
But, how, exactly would BART know how much fare was evaded when they catch a gate jumper? If they’re on the way in, ask them where they were going? On the way out, ask them where they got on the system?
I don’t expect they would get an (accurate) answer in either case. Tickets and fines are the only recourse. Of course, the evader will simply say they have no identification on them….
The project’s success will not rest on lowering fare evasion, per se. Instead, BART will “measure the success of the fare gate project by completing the project by deadline.” What a sad state of affairs when we can’t even measure our success …
I’m always annoyed in the morning when there’s only one gate for incoming passengers at the NE entrance.
‘The project’s success will not rest on lowering fare evasion per se. Instead, BART will “measure the success of the fare gate project by completing the project by deadline,” ‘
So we’re spending a lot of revenue on gates that may not increase revenue, and we’re not going to bother seeing if they increased revenue … but hey, maybe we can at least brag about getting them built on time. Money well spent!
But can’t people still dive under the gate? It looks tall enough for most people to squeeze under.
Once a few homeless people drag their bags from the street through the floor, people might want to think twice before crawling on the floor.
They need to add them at Glen Park. We use BART many times a week and seems like more than 50% of the people we see entering and exiting during 100% of our visits to that station are hopping over or pushing through the gates – all while the attendant just sits there ignoring them all.
What a f-ing joke. Spending millions on some tech that doesn’t even work, you just closely follow the person in front of you. MAKE IT FREE.