Transit Part 1: Customer & Budget Friendly Bus Fare Collection System

Washington State has a toll collection system called “Good To Go.”  A special device is placed on the windshield so that when the car is driven under an automatic toll collection point, the device is electronically read and the prepaid account associated with that account has the proper toll automatically deducted.


My idea is to use the same kind of idea for collecting bus fares from our riders.  Under this idea, a regular passenger could establish a prepaid account that they would regularly deposit additional money into based on how often it is used.  Each time they board a bus, they would swipe or scan their card as part of having the proper bus fare collected.

Thanks to computer technology, we could offer a budget friendly feature wherein each clients account would be billed for each ride they take during the same month up to, but never more than the amount they would have paid for a bus pass that would offer unlimited rides during that same period.

Thus, a passenger would not have to try and guess as to whether they should pay for each ride at the time the ride is taken, or if they should purchase a monthly bus pass, or perhaps a longer seasonal or annual bus pass, either of which would offer unlimited rides during the period covered by the pass.  Under this system, their account for each period would never be charged more than the appropriate bus pass, and if they ride less, then they pay the lesser amount.

This offers customers a budget friendly basis for paying the cost of bus fares.  It would also offer publicly funded transportation providers the benefit of having their buses collect and carry a lot less currency.  In larger metro areas wherein customers often transfer between services of neighboring counties or metro areas, the same system that keeps track of their payment of bus fares would also keep track of whether or not they are transferring within a time frame that would not require payment of a new bus fare.
Thank you for taking time to read my program.  Obviously, if I didn't believe in my own program, I would not have published it for others to read and ponder on.

An Opinion Article by Dave Kemper
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It has been said that: "One definition of insanity is to do the same thing, the same way, over and over and over again, each time expecting to achieve a different result."
Therefore, we must either CHANGE the way we live, or we bind our future to our past as if with CHAINS.
"I do not consider myself to be better than anyone else.  But I do believe in exercising my right to not stay stupid."

David W. Kemper, Author
© Copyright 2014 by David William Kemper.  All right reserved
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