Designing Inclusive Solutions for Contactless Fare Payment

By Alex Litchfield, Vice President, Business Development

We’ve had a year to watch the extensive changes wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. During a time when normal no longer existed, transit agencies were tasked with continuing to provide service while increasing safety precautions to both operators and riders. As a lifeline for many cities, public transportation continued to deliver an essential service for essential workers, effectively allowing business to continue as … well, as usual as possible. Now the question is, how can agencies support a broader return to transit that promotes safety without sacrificing equity?

Cash-free operations could be a way for transit agencies to return to full fare collection while maintaining reduced touchpoints for riders and agency personnel. Some agencies are considering moving their cash acceptance capabilities off vehicles or eliminating them entirely. Our perspective is that we are years away from a cash-free transit environment. While operational efficiencies may be gained from eliminating or reducing cash handling, it’s imperative to consider the impact on riders.

There has been a distinct focus on equity in transit payments recently. My colleague and Bytemark Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder Nick Ihm addressed the topic at ePayResources’ ePayConnect2021 conference in a session titled “Addressing Underserved Communities in a Cashless World.” Meanwhile, the webinar I moderated, APTA’s Fare Collection Systems Committee’s “Financial Inclusion: Equity in Transit Fare Payments,” was so popular that there will be a part two offering a deeper dive on the topic at the committee’s next meeting in April. The goal is to make sure this focus isn’t just a fad.

As agencies try to improve the customer experience via contactless payments, it’s important to make sure those same innovations don’t exclude the very people they are trying to support. Any contactless payments solution must be inclusive and equitable, or it’s not a solution at all. At Bytemark, we aim to address these concerns so transit agencies can focus on progressing the customer experience.

Cash Preferred

Agencies desiring cash-free environments are largely concerned with a cohort of cash-preferred riders: those who are unbanked, underbanked, or simply prefer cash. In its 2019 survey “How America Banks,” the FDIC reported that 5.4% of all Americans are unbanked, meaning they live in a household where no one has a checking or savings account.

While that marked a decline from the 2011 high of 8.2% and the lowest percentage since the survey began in 2009, the pandemic has inserted uncertainty. In a postscript to the report, the FDIC outlines potential consequences to unbanked households as a result of the pandemic: Changes in socioeconomic circumstances, increased unemployment, and greater economic uncertainty could reverse the downward trend.

Being a cash-preferred rider represents many challenges, the most obvious being the constant need to have exact change, or risk overpaying. When was the last time you had exactly $2.50 in your pocket? Some agencies offer smartcards that can be loaded with cash but, depending on the location and quantity of retail or reloading stations, those cards may be inconvenient to acquire or top up.

Some agencies have tried to incentivize the adoption of cards or mobile fare payments by offering a lower cost for these payment types, but a preference for cash shouldn’t limit access to the benefits presented by contactless fare payment or account-based ticketing, such as free transfers or fare-capping. With our technical partners, Bytemark has deployed various solutions to help this segment of riders.

One such solution is our partnership with InComm, a global payments technology company. Using InComm’s VanillaDirect network, transit users can add value to their in-app stored value wallet accounts at thousands of brick-and-mortar retail locations across the United States. In other words, cash-preferred users can participate by paying for fares at popular retailers where they are most likely already shopping.

Ticket Vending Machines (TVMs) may also be employed to accept cash loads or purchases for mobile accounts. By way of an API integration between our back office and the TVM, a rider can insert cash into the TVM and assign that cash value or ticket to their account, either via a scan or voucher code entry. A version of this integration has been performed with Scheidt & Bachmann TVMs and is live in Sacramento. 

Persons with Disabilities

Cashless fare payment will be a growing trend for years to come. By adopting technology, transit agencies can move their customers’ experiences forward while reducing operating costs. Bytemark’s system provides the latest in technical solutions and is designed to be utilized by all ridership segments. There are hundreds of millions of people living with disabilities globally, and transportation is essential to increased productivity and independent living.

Inclusive design and the use of native accessibility features means that agencies can expand contactless payments to broader segments of their ridership without worrying about being exclusionary.

Our Accessibility guidelines are based on Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended in 1998, and the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.0 at the AA level (WCAG 2.0 AA). Additionally, we conform to international guidelines, such as the European Accessibility Act and Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, while also upholding U.S. State and Local Electronic Information Technology (“EIT”) mandates for vendors contracting in business with government-funded agencies.

We have enforced federal ADA compliance requirements for mobile applications since Jan. 18, 2018. From inclusive product design and usability features to our developers utilizing the latest techniques for the web and mobile-accessible coding, with thorough review and quality assurance testing, we have defined a multi-step accessibility implementation for all our products.

We continuously employ design assurance and product improvement by developing user testing and research sessions as well as full participation with the accessibility community and professional sectors worldwide.

At-Risk Populations

Historically, transit agencies have offered specific discounted fares for groups that meet certain criteria. Examples include K-12 students, seniors, and persons with disabilities. Increasingly, agencies are exploring opportunities to offer discounted fares and pass products to members of at-risk populations identified by social service organizations or needs case assessments. These include groups like low-income individuals and families, homeless individuals, Medicare recipients, and university students. Oftentimes, this results in a series of application processes that strain an agency’s customer service team, complex manual data entry requirements, or honor programs that expose agencies to fraud and lost revenues.

Contactless systems with sophisticated back-office management software can streamline these offerings and lessen the taxing nature of facilitating these opportunities. Enhancements such as photo validation on mobile tickets can mean decreased costs in issuing and mailing photo IDs or personalized smartcards. Sophisticated fare rules and types, such as fares tied to specific routes, time periods (peak, off-peak, late night), customer types and groups, and so on, can mean that riders have access to the appropriate passes for them. Product-based fare-capping means that riders can receive the financial incentives of pre-purchased period passes without having to pay a large sum upfront.

In addition to these features, our back office allows for the onboarding of entire social service agencies, businesses, universities, or any other organization, enabling them to distribute passes to their members. These passes can be pre-purchased in the partner portal or handled with a post-billing invoice. The transit agency controls the types of passes that can be distributed and the accepted payment methods. The system also offers quantity-based discount tiers for pre-purchased passes or stored value distributions, which allow riders to spend their funds on the passes most relevant to them.

Whatever the needs being addressed, our back-office management system provides a sophisticated set of tools enabling opportunities for all riders, regardless of circumstances.

 The Route Ahead

Is this enough? Of course not. The pandemic has disrupted daily life for everyone, especially in cities. People are experiencing new ways of working, learning, shopping, interacting, eating, and traveling. Extended work-from-home policies affect daily commutes and may have an even longer-term impact on where workers live. People who previously used public transit may instead bike or walk. Declining ridership could lead to service reductions, fare increases, staff layoffs, and route realignment, which might disproportionally disadvantage certain segments or exacerbate transit deserts. Access to and the scope of the transit network, service frequency, and hours will all affect riders. Accessibility will be an ongoing concern, but — we hope — also an ongoing conversation.

However transit agencies define diversity, inclusion, and equity, we feel it is important to keep these topics in mind when considering contactless fare payments. Bytemark wants to be your partner in providing all riders the equity and accessibility they deserve.