How paying for transit in the future may be overhauled
Posted November 25, 2017 12:21 pm.
Last Updated December 7, 2017 4:17 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Your wallet could be a lot lighter and flatter if a prediction about the future of transportation around the Lower Mainland comes true.
As TransLink mulls over charging riders by distance or by zone, NEWS 1130 takes a closer look at how payment options may change as well. The future might not be that far off, according to Gordon Price with SFU’s City Program. “It won’t be very long before you won’t even be able to use money — coins in particular.”
Price adds some people will have trouble making the switch, but in the end you will all likely be using some kind of device — like your phone. “Even cards, I think, will be disappearing. It’ll almost be automatic that you walk on whatever the technology is, [it] will allow it. Amazon is moving in that direction for grocery stores. We have to make sure we have a system that’s flexible enough to adapt to it, not just in the technology but in just generally integrating is seamlessly with all modes of transportation.”
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In the future, he predicts, everything from cycling, to driving, to and transit will all be integrated and you won’t have to pay separately for different services. “Rather than having to have a card for one thing, a fob for another, a key for another, coins for some other medium — you’ll find, I think, all forms of transportation will be integrated and there may even just be one way of doing it.”
Price explains cities have to design for the possibility of change. “It may happen more quickly that we think.”
Earlier this week, TransLink asked users to weigh in on a couple of transit options. One includes people being charged for rapid transit and buses (including the SeaBus) by distance; the other is users being charged on a per-kilometre travelled basis, but bus riders would be charged a flat rate.
The ideas were laid out on the table after about two-thirds of respondents to a fare-review survey earlier this year said they wanted to get rid of the current zone system because some felt they were being unfairly penalized for travelling a short distance, while others felt the boundaries were inconsistent.
