New “chime” fare gate tones make BART stations easier to navigate for blind and low-vision riders

On Monday, March 2, BART rolled out new fare gate tones that are more pleasing and audible over station background noise, making stations more welcoming and simpler to navigate, especially for blind and low-vision riders. 

The new “chime” tones play when riders hold their fare media (Clipper card, contactless bank card, or mobile payments) on the reader for an additional second and are intended to inform blind and low-vision customers that the fare gate is open to pass through. An ascending chime plays on entering and a descending chime plays on exiting. The chime tone is also easier to distinguish from the beep sound the fare gates generate for errors, such as insufficient funds. This chime tone does not play automatically every time someone taps their fare media as this would create a cacophony in the station and make it difficult to know if a specific fare gate were open.

BART’s old fare gates previously used beeps to indicate the fare gates were open because they were among the few sounds the dated technology could produce. BART’s new fare gates, which were installed at all stations in August 2025, can produce a wider range of tones.

Seizing this opportunity, BART staff developed the new chime tone and collected feedback from the BART Accessibility Task Force (BATF), BART Station Agents, and an online survey during a pilot period at three stations.  

Ryan Greene-Roesel, BART Director of Customer Access and Accessibility, is a musician and developed the distinctive chime chords on her piano.  BART’s sound engineers then input the chords into a digital program that let the team generate various iterations before the final iteration was selected.  

“We hope customers and station staff enjoy the new tones as we continue to work hard to improve the BART experience for all of our riders,” Greene-Roesel said. 

For more info on accessibility at BART, visit bart.gov/accessibility.