The potential of this payment system is by any means not limited to public transit. In a city where these systems have been put in place the transit cards have actually become of accepted payment in may diverse areas, from 7-11 and other convenience stores, grocery stores, food & beverage vending machines, parking garages and meters to taxis. I have also seen them used to help encourage alternative routes of pedestrian traffic with the placement of a fair discount machine where if you tap your card on it you get an fair discount on your next transit ride. These transit payment systems have become so ingrained in the area that credit card company’s actually embed the RFID tags into they credit cards allowing credit card holders to us the credit card to ride city transit with payment against their credit card account.
One thing these payment systems allow for is easier distance based transit fare collection. This is where you only pay for the actual distance traveled. This is where you swipe your card when entering the transit system (usually metro systems) and then you ride to your destination and swipe your card on exit. This if you normally travel a short distance and do not use the full zone most transit system use. These systems can be applied to a bus system model where if the exit swipe is not made the full fair can be deducted from the open rides not completed. This type of system makes those quick hops on and off the transit more reasonable and make the decision to not drive for those unplanned trips around town.
This post was submitted by Ben.
I’m excited about the EasyCard. MDT is finally doing something right! I ordered mine online the other day. I’m expecting it in the mail any day now. Whoohoo!
unfortunately, MDT hasn’t really done much in the way of helping people understand the new system.
Today I heard a bus driver telling two elderly people that if they didn’t get the new easy card they’d have to pay $2 for every transfer. These people were in their seventies at the least! and they’re expected to go all the way to downtown gov’t center for a free easy card?
I like this easy card thing but i won’t ever use it as a student.
i hope they get their act together, because thursday, i don’t think, will go “smoothly”
Even worse, they’re eliminating the use of cash on buses completely and when I went to 2 different stores on the beach, they both were completely out of cards (and told me that there weren’t any cards to be bought on all of south beach!), and they had no idea when they were going to get refills.
What do tourists do if they want to ride the bus downtown? Will they be told they have to have a card (wasting time on their vacation), then they go get a card (at one of 4 very distantly spaced sales locations), only to be told they don’t have cards? Seems like another poorly executed Miami-Dade program.