I IN DENVER, AN APP LETS YOU
scope walking distance between
shift ing bus schedules, tally the
said. In Los Angeles, drivers who
fastest path with or without light
rail, and size up the carbon footprint
of your journey.
Paying for a multitude of travel
options in a single action, well,
that’s still a few upgrades away.
Since early 2016, the Go Denver
app has amassed more than
16,000 downloads and about
four-times as as many user sessions
across the swelling city. But
just one ride-share provider, Lyft ,
has synced up one-step payment
options with the app’s unique map
and search functionality.
“Each of these diff erent companies
has their own fi scal rules,
and they have strong user bases
with their own apps,” said Cindy
Patton, acting manager of parking
and mobility services at Denver
Public Works.
Denver’s innovative project
has hit on a familiar snag for the
increasingly digital world of transportation:
how can payment be
seamless for users and streamlined
for agencies? In the Mile High City
and across the U.S., government
and tech experts more and more
see opportunity rather than obstacles
near future of integrated fare
collection and payment.
At the Federal Transit Administration,
Vincent Valdes, associate
administrator of research,
demonstration and innovation,
fi nds promise in “several proven
and promising” technologies, including
those at San Francisco’s
BART and the Chicago Transit
Authority. Th e FTA’s Mobility on
Demand research portfolio — an
$8 million “sandbox” under a larger
Department of Transportation
research eff ort — aims for local
and linked solutions to the funding
conundrum.
“At this stage, however, there
is no single technology or approach
that fulfi lls all the technical
requirements of integrated
fare payment and collection,”
Valdes said. “An ideal technology
would integrate advancements in
electronic payments, automated
and autonomous vehicles, as well
as mobile- (and) web-based trip
planning and communications.”
Equal to the tech challenges in
fare education for transportation
providers are those around communications
with riders about
their problems and preferences,
according to Pat Elizondo, S.V.P.,
global sales and business development,
Conduent, which worked on
the Go Denver pilot and a similar
project for Los Angeles. On Southeastern
Pennsylvania Transportation
Authority’s routes, mobile
payment is connected to retail opportunities
for riders, a small but
important step toward enhancing
the way riders pay, Elizondo
36 | Mass Transit | MassTransitmag.com | JULY/AUGUST 2017
opted for public transit received
upgrade credits toward “hot lane”
use during heavy traffi c, another
perk with connected transit rider
and fare data.
“In L.A. it’s about education
and positive rewards to change
behavior in that balance between
public transportation and still
needing to use your cars,” she said.
David Roat, strategy manager
at longstanding transit payment
provider Cubic Transportation
Systems, puts the challenge — and
inevitability — around integrated
fare collection in the context of
the wider global context of people
moving to cities. As transit agencies
respond to the demands from
the “hyper-urbanization” of ridership,
Roat said they’re looking
for less lock-in with technology
platforms and hardware that may
be quickly outdated.
One answer Cubic is exploring
takes the digital token aspect of
past pre-pay and post-pay projects
into Bluetooth and NFC, and
farther out to emerging fi elds like
biometrics and facial recognition.
Roat said it is part of a larger
discussion on providing all the
options for the pending wave of
data and payment streams previously
left for William Gibson
sci-fi novels.
S P E C I A L R E P O R T
All-in-One Day
AT A T IME
By Justin Kern
Experts anticipate integrated fare payment
and collection in the near future.
GO DENVER
combines
multiple modes
of transportation
into one app to
help commuters
find the most
convenient route.
By the
Numbers
GoDenver
16,000
Downloads
4x’s
the user sessions
since 2016