February 2023 - 28

Fare Collection
be room for some really innovative
developments.
To move rapidly, the transit
industry can run pilots and experiments,
collect data on travel
help to stay in touch with riders
more easily, and dynamic pricing
is nothing new. Anyone who has
ever gone to a Happy Hour has
experienced dynamic pricing, as
have folks buying baseball
tickets in recent
years, not to mention
in toll roads across the
country. When fare
media, validators and
riders all work with an
account-based ticketing
system,
these changes
can be introduced,
evaluated and changed
as quickly as they are
needed.
Masabi
There's no silver bullet
software or hardware that
will fast-track the future.
patterns, enroll test groups and
feed those results into the next pilot
or into permanent changes and
with a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
platform, this can be done without
costly change orders or years of
waiting for custom development.
With a SaaS platform, a transit
agency could:
* Roll out off-peak fares to encourage
more non-commute
trips or to manage peak hours
congestion.
* Introduce novel pricing, like discounts
for families traveling with
children or subsidies to help people
headed to dialysis treatment
to ensure transportation isn't the
barrier to good health.
* Offer premium fares for special
event services like express buses
to a big game or concert.
With tools like these, transit
About the author
Lee Biernbaum is the
transit advisory group
lead at Masabi.
professionals can get really creative.
They could, for example,
start thinking about more dynamic
pricing. Modern communications
and display technology
28 Mass Transit | FEBRUARY 2023
The future
demands equity
Account-based ticketing
opens up the possibility
for lots of positive
change, but how do transit
authorities make sure
they are bringing everyone
along?
Fare equity has become
a major theme in the transit
community during the past five
years but now is the time to zoom
in: Equity of what type? For who?
When someone flags equity implications,
is it referring to:
* People of color or members of
other historically discriminated
against groups?
* Those on low incomes?
* With no bank account?
* With mobility impairments?
* With cognitive impairments?
* Who don't want to use a
smartphone?
* Who don't speak the local
language?
* Who prefer to use cash?
* Who prefer anonymity?
What is the transit industry's
responsibility to each of these
groups? They tend to be bundled
together under the 'equity' banner,
but the answer to the questions
above will likely differ from group
to group.
To equitably serve riders with
physical or cognitive impairments,
should specialist partners
be brought in rather than simply
changing the fare policies?
What about income? This is
something that can be addressed
with fare collection and fare policy.
A major step to flatten the
impacts of income disparity is
to introduce fare capping via account-based
ticketing -allowing
people of all income levels to access
the best fares previously limited
to only those who could afford
to pay upfront for a period pass.
As the political winds in some
states veer toward zero-fare systems
- without a clear replacement
funding source - low-income fare
programs can be an area of real
opportunity here.
The costs of fare collection represent
a small percentage of fare
revenues. Those revenues are necessary
to provide and improve the
quality of the services riders care
more about. In survey after survey,
all riders - including low-income
riders - say the most important
improvements to public transit
are higher frequency service and
greater span of service.
Fare revenues also, of course,
cover the costs of lower fares for
those who need them.
What is blocking low-income
programs, and how can it be addressed?
The transit-centric future
depends on identifying and
resolving these blocks.
If it's politics, put a pilot together
and prove the benefits of a
low-income program don't require
a system-wide zero-fare approach.
If it's legislative, make the case to
the elected officials. If it's about
complexity, then now is a perfect
time to be thinking about how to
simplify this problem.
The U.S. government is offering
support to solve some of the complexity
surrounding low-income
programs through the Federal
Transit Administration's Enhancing
Mobility Initiative and
other grants. The question is:
Will transit agencies seize this
opportunity?
February 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2023
