Rob Pegoraro on Nostr: LONDONMy packing list for this short trip to the U.K. did not include any plastic ...
LONDONMy packing list for this short trip to the U.K. did not include any plastic cards with embedded electronics, because London was one of the earlier cities in the world to grasp that you can persuade people to take transit if you will just shut up and take their money right before they board instead of first asking them to buy a reloadable transit fare card.
By “money” I mean the kind embedded in people’s credit cards, both those that include NFC contactless payments and those stored in such apps as Apple Pay, Google Wallet (formerly Google Pay, formerly Android Pay, formerly Google Wallet) and Samsung Pay.
Transport services in London have accepted tap-to-pay since 2012, so when I arrived here Monday I only had to hold my phone above the NFC terminal at a faregate for the Elizabeth Line to start paying my fare. Waving my phone over another faregate when I exited completed the transaction; the only hard part in between was not falling asleep on the train.
My previous business travel to a city with a subway connection to its international airport, my too-brief visit to Chicago a month ago, treated me to the same convenience–CTA has welcomed NFC payments since 2013.
But when I land at Dulles this afternoon and take Metro home, I’ll use a proprietary SmarTrip card that cost $2 to buy sometime years ago. WMATA does now support phone payments, but only via its own app–and as I’ve found out the hard way, you can’t move a SmarTrip card that still costs $2 even if bought right in the agency’s app to a new Android phone if your old Android phone dies.
Transit apps don’t have to incorporate that defect, but too many of them ship with other problems–chief among them, not letting the user select a payment method already saved in Apple Pay or Google Wallet.
Fortunately, WMATA’s can-do general manager Randy Clarke seems to have realized that Metro has created a payments problem for itself with this longstanding setup. At September’s WMATA board meeting, Clarke said he wants to see Metro support tap-to-pay by the time WorldPride Washington DC draws visitors to the D.C. area next May for the 50th anniversary of Pride celebrations here.
Making a subway or bus ride the same no-new-app, no-new-card experience as booking an Uber would be an enormously customer- and visitor-friendly move by Metro.
On that note, I’m obliged to disclose that I’m here courtesy of an Uber-paid press trip for Tuesday’s Go-Get Zero sustainability event here, which included generous Uber credits to get around the city. I’m further obliged to report that spending so much time sitting in London traffic in Ubers, even at no cost to me, was one of the better advertisements for transit that I’ve seen in a while.
https://robpegoraro.com/2024/10/10/the-most-visitor-friendly-thing-a-citys-transit-system-can-do/
#ApplePay #ElizabethLine #GPay #GooglePay #GoogleWallet #LHR #LondonUnderground #mobilePayments #NFC #RandyClarke #SamsungPay #tapToPay #transit #Tube #Uber #UX
By “money” I mean the kind embedded in people’s credit cards, both those that include NFC contactless payments and those stored in such apps as Apple Pay, Google Wallet (formerly Google Pay, formerly Android Pay, formerly Google Wallet) and Samsung Pay.
Transport services in London have accepted tap-to-pay since 2012, so when I arrived here Monday I only had to hold my phone above the NFC terminal at a faregate for the Elizabeth Line to start paying my fare. Waving my phone over another faregate when I exited completed the transaction; the only hard part in between was not falling asleep on the train.
My previous business travel to a city with a subway connection to its international airport, my too-brief visit to Chicago a month ago, treated me to the same convenience–CTA has welcomed NFC payments since 2013.
But when I land at Dulles this afternoon and take Metro home, I’ll use a proprietary SmarTrip card that cost $2 to buy sometime years ago. WMATA does now support phone payments, but only via its own app–and as I’ve found out the hard way, you can’t move a SmarTrip card that still costs $2 even if bought right in the agency’s app to a new Android phone if your old Android phone dies.
Transit apps don’t have to incorporate that defect, but too many of them ship with other problems–chief among them, not letting the user select a payment method already saved in Apple Pay or Google Wallet.
Fortunately, WMATA’s can-do general manager Randy Clarke seems to have realized that Metro has created a payments problem for itself with this longstanding setup. At September’s WMATA board meeting, Clarke said he wants to see Metro support tap-to-pay by the time WorldPride Washington DC draws visitors to the D.C. area next May for the 50th anniversary of Pride celebrations here.
Making a subway or bus ride the same no-new-app, no-new-card experience as booking an Uber would be an enormously customer- and visitor-friendly move by Metro.
On that note, I’m obliged to disclose that I’m here courtesy of an Uber-paid press trip for Tuesday’s Go-Get Zero sustainability event here, which included generous Uber credits to get around the city. I’m further obliged to report that spending so much time sitting in London traffic in Ubers, even at no cost to me, was one of the better advertisements for transit that I’ve seen in a while.
https://robpegoraro.com/2024/10/10/the-most-visitor-friendly-thing-a-citys-transit-system-can-do/
#ApplePay #ElizabethLine #GPay #GooglePay #GoogleWallet #LHR #LondonUnderground #mobilePayments #NFC #RandyClarke #SamsungPay #tapToPay #transit #Tube #Uber #UX