California’s ‘Tap to Pay’ System is a Model for Other Transit Agencies – Route Fifty
For years, California transit executive Carl Sedoryk searched for a way to make fare collection easier on the roughly 130 buses that transported passengers in Monterey, Salinas and surrounding areas just south of the Bay Area.
But none of the solutions he encountered fit the needs of the relatively small transit agency that he headed. His agency used a “closed loop” card, which customers bought and loaded with money for future fares. Those proprietary systems are common, but they can be cumbersome to administer and can deter new riders from using the bus service. Smartphone apps used QR codes that passengers could scan—much like a plane ticket—but drivers had to verify that the code was valid.
Sedoryk, the general manager and CEO of Monterey-Salinas Transit, wanted to remove drivers from the process of collecting fares as much as possible. And that meant finding a way to replace cash transactions.
