Planning for New Fare Payment Systems: An Equity Analysis of Smartphone, Credit Card, and Potential Mobile Ticketing Adoption by Bus Riders in Nassau County

Transit agencies are rapidly deploying new fare payment systems, and many of these systems rely on passenger-provided technologies, such as mobile phones. Mobile ticketing systems typically utilize tickets that are purchased and validated on smartphones; however, not all transit riders have smartphones or other electronic payment media needed to make a mobile payment. Subsequently, transit agencies want to understand rider adoption of smartphones, credit/debit cards, and other electronic payment media when planning for deployment of mobile ticketing systems. Therefore, the objective of this research is to assess access to mobile payments across different socioeconomic groups. The methodology is a case study of Nassau Inter-County Express (NICE) bus system, where two passenger surveys about smartphone, credit card, and potential mobile ticketing adoption were conducted. Binary logit was used to analyze smartphone, credit/debit card and potential mobile ticketing adoption across different socioeconomic groups using the survey data. The model results suggest that younger riders are more likely to have smartphones, while older, more affluent riders are more likely to have credit/debit cards. Based on a stated survey question about potential mobile ticketing use, early adopters of mobile payments are likely to be younger riders. These findings may help inform other transit agencies on the suitability of mobile ticketing in their markets and influence stakeholders prepared to make large capital investments in new fare collection systems.

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• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AP030 Standing Committee on Public Transportation Marketing and Fare Policy.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Sion, Jake
  • Brakewood, Candace
  • Alvarado, Omar
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2016-1-10 to 2016-1-14
• Date: 2016

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Pagination: 17p
• Monograph Title: TRB 95th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Age groups; Bus transit; Case studies; Credit cards; Equity; Fare and toll prepayment; Fare collection; Smartphones; Socioeconomic factors; Surveys
• Geographic Terms: Nassau County (New York)
• Subject Areas: Finance; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01589127
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 16-0179
• Files: PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 1 2016 9:27AM