Post Type
KQED: Clipper 2.0 Is Here. Glitches Have Plagued the Rollout
December 12, 2025— As technical glitches plagued the rollout of the Bay Area’s new Clipper 2.0 system, KQED reporter Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman reached out to Laurel Paget-Seekins, senior transportation policy advocate at Public Advocates, to examine deeper systemic issues beyond the website crashes.
Paget-Seekins was interviewed as part of KQED’s coverage of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s troubled launch of its “next generation” Clipper system. While users struggled to access their accounts and manually upgrade their cards—with the Clipper customer service line unable to look up customer information—Paget-Seekins highlighted concerns about riders facing barriers that technology alone can’t fix.
While the new system promises exciting features like discounted transfers and family accounts for Clipper card users, Paget-Seekins pointed to a fundamental equity gap: the system’s benefits remain out of reach for low-income, unbanked riders who pay with cash and lack access to locations where they can reload cards.
“Unfortunately, the system doesn’t work for people who are low-income and unbanked and live in neighborhoods that don’t have access to reload their card,” Paget-Seekins told KQED.
Her comments, made even as technical issues dominated headlines, underscore that the challenges facing the new Clipper system extend beyond software glitches. She and other advocates are pushing AC Transit to find ways to extend next-generation Clipper benefits to all riders, regardless of payment method—ensuring that transit equity keeps pace with technological advancement.