National Academies Press: OpenBook

Multimodal Fare Payment Integration (2020)

Chapter: Chapter 5 - Conclusions and Further Research

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Page 43
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 5 - Conclusions and Further Research." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Multimodal Fare Payment Integration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25734.
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Page 43
Page 44
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 5 - Conclusions and Further Research." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Multimodal Fare Payment Integration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25734.
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Page 44
Page 45
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 5 - Conclusions and Further Research." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Multimodal Fare Payment Integration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25734.
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Page 45

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43 Conclusions and Further Research Many agencies across the United States are engaging in multimodal payment convergence as ever more electronic fare payment systems and new transit offerings from private opera- tors emerge. Trends from the retail payments industry are slowly crossing over to the fare payments arena, and new mobility offerings of private companies are creating opportunities for transit agencies. Through survey responses from 36 transit agencies across the United States, a literature review, and case examples, this synthesis finds that agencies are keenly aware of new trends and are open to and actively pursuing payment convergence with private parties. Many agencies surveyed could articulate their desired outcomes in relation to payment conver- gence, but only a few agencies had a clear view of how to achieve it. This uncertainty is mainly attributable to the emergence of new technologies and an increasing number of possible vendors and partners. The synthesis team found that most agencies expect that payment convergence will lead to 1. An increase in transit ridership, 2. Reduced transit boarding time, and 3. The ability to offer cross-program incentives across customer groups such as seniors, students, and customers with disabilities. The agencies also expressed three main areas of concern: 1. Defining the most suitable role for a transit agency to play within a fare payment ecosystem that now includes many shared mobility providers and new fare payment technologies. In particular, they seek to answer the following questions: What are the possible roles within the fare payment ecosystem? Which of these roles will be undertaken by agencies? And which will be undertaken by private companies and vendors? 2. Ensuring equal access for customers who are unbanked or without reliable smartphone access when more transit fares and services are accessed digitally. This issue is of particular concern as shared mobility and new mobility options are introduced. 3. Meeting the challenges and opportunities for agencies presented by the increased data that will be available. As more transactions and services are digitized, the data associated can be very useful for helping agencies better understand travel behavior, demand, and customer characteristics. Agencies are cognizant, however, of the need to find a balance between sharing customer data in an effort to achieve seamless multimodal travel and protecting customer privacy. The case example interviews allowed the synthesis team to have in-depth discussions with agencies on issues of payment convergence. All the agencies interviewed either have account-based ticketing systems or are actively transitioning to such a system. Of the C H A P T E R 5

44 Multimodal Fare Payment Integration agencies interviewed in the United States, two of four are transitioning from their legacy card-based system to an account-based system and one just completed implementation of its card-based system. Lessons learned from the experiences of these agencies include the following (read more about each agency in Chapter 4): • Denver’s RTD illustrated that transit agencies can take a more open and experimental approach and work with private parties in a flexible manner, allowing the other party to lead on payment convergence. This practice allows RTD to reap benefits associated with payment convergence without investing in an expensive overhaul of its legacy system. • The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro) managed to add an account-based layer on top of its well-functioning card-based system. The agency added bike sharing to its fare payment system without investing heavily in a new system (and plans near-future integration of additional service providers), showcasing how hybrid solutions are possible. Cash payment services provided by LA Metro allow customers without smart- phones or access to a bank account to load their Transit Access Pass (TAP) accounts with cash. The loaded cash can be directly used to purchase fares for new, account-based programs such as bike sharing. • The Bi-State Development Agency (Metro Transit) illustrated the challenges that a medium-sized agency faces serving customers while operating in lower-density areas that make it harder to provide easy access to fare media and opportunities to purchase tickets and passes—especially when many customers are unbanked or do not have reliable access to the Internet. • The Port Authority of Allegheny County showed how a private party can initiate payment convergence and leverage the agency’s well-functioning card-based system. The integration created a seamless payment experience including transit and bike sharing services. In addition to U.S. transit agencies, the study team interviewed two international entities— a municipality that is taking a leading role in shaping Mobility as a Service and a national transit payments transaction processing organization (read more about both entities in Chapter 4). • The City of Antwerp, Belgium, demonstrated the importance of having a municipality encourage payment convergence through taking a central role in organizing and coordi- nating the mobility ecosystem. The City of Antwerp set a regulatory framework for mobil- ity providers to organize their operation within the city and provided direct funding to help shared mobility service providers digitize their data processes. • Translink, the nationwide ticketing system of the Netherlands, demonstrated the transition from a card-based system to an account-based one and showed how market players can be involved in initiating payment convergence and issuing interoperable smart cards. Overall, on the basis of the survey of U.S. transit agencies and the in-depth case example interviews, the synthesis team found that almost all agencies saw potential benefits to multimodal payment convergence and that the road toward convergence can take many forms. Many agencies, however, found that implementing necessary upgrades in an effort to achieve payment convergence is cost-prohibitive and is the biggest barrier to widespread implementation. Additionally, agencies understand that technology is changing rapidly, which creates a level of uncertainty when agencies need to select a technological solution. Moreover, information asymmetry and differing priorities between transit agency staff (who are experts in transit) and private parties (who are experts in their own technologies but may not be attuned to the policy and practical complexities associated with the multiple communities served by transit agencies) can lead to issues when both parties need to work together to achieve payment convergence.

Conclusions and Further Research 45 The synthesis team suggests additional research or guidelines on the following: • Account-based ticketing systems, and the role of emerging technologies as transit agencies identify the full roster of tasks and roles in these systems and select the most appropriate roles to play • Policies for handling personally identifiable information while maintaining privacy, and cybersecurity considerations in increasingly integrated transit systems • Appropriate data sharing standards that help increase interoperability • Customer surveys evaluating benefits of payment convergence and the performance of ongoing projects • The evolution of public–private partnership models to deliver multimodal payment convergence

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Nearly all transit agencies are seeing potential benefits to multimodal payment convergence. However, many agencies find that implementing necessary upgrades is cost-prohibitive, which is the biggest barrier to full adoption.

The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's TCRP Synthesis 144: Multimodal Fare Payment Integration documents current practices and experiences of transit agencies dealing with the complexities of multimodal fare payment convergence.

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