Here’s How You’ll Pay for Mass Transit in the Future
No tickets or even transit cards necessary
You’re running late for work. At the subway station, just as you’re getting to the turnstile, you see the train coming. You swipe your transit card, ready to make a run for it, only to find it has insufficient funds. So you join the line at the ticketing machine and sulk as the train comes and goes.
For many, this little nightmare is
all too familiar. But in the future, we won’t even need fare cards.
Payment systems that are 100 percent hands-free are coming, says
Maarten Bron, director of innovations at
UL Transaction Security. With
these, he says, “You
literally don’t have to do or touch or tap or swipe anything.” Instead,
travelers will be recognized by their Bluetooth signal and charged a fare by
cloud computing within the transit environment.
“If we look even further out
into the future, you and I may no longer be talking about ‘checking in’ and ‘checking
out’ [of the transit system]. We might be talking about ‘being in’ and ‘being
out,’” says Bron. “Technology will be able to follow me through my journey in
transit.”
We’re not there yet, but technology is already starting to make commutes quicker and more efficient. Around the world, in many systems — known as automated fare collection systems (AFCs) — you can pay by tapping a smart card to a card reader. These readers debit your card, which can be refilled at a machine or, in some cases, by scheduling automatic deposits at regular intervals or whenever your balance runs low. Some AFCs are sophisticated enough to calculate how much you owe when the transit system includes multiple fares.
Related: 8 Ways to
Germ-Proof Your Commute
Users of
London’s Oyster Travelcard with low balances even get “one more bus journey to
get you home.” If you don’t have enough on your card for a bus ride, the system
allows you to ride with a negative balance. You can make one more trip before
you have to fill up your card to ride again.
In some cities, your transit card
buys more than transit. In Hong Kong, says Bron, residents and visitors can use
the Octopus Card to pay for not only Mass Transit Railway journeys but also purchases
at various fast food restaurants, convenience stores, supermarkets and parking
meters. In Seoul, South Korea, the T-money card is accepted by mass transit,
convenience stores and even popular attractions like the Lotte World amusement
park.
With the rise in popularity of the mobile wallet, some mass
transit authorities are enabling passengers to pay with their smartphone. Salt
Lake City, for example, allows people to pay for public transport by accessing
their ski passes on their mobile devices, says Bron. New York City, too, is
expected to roll out smartphone ticketing for mass transit in the next one to
three years, Bron says.
Related: Train Safety for Riders and Drivers
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