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Arc Smart Fare System

I saw this interesting bit in a Edmonton Insight Community survey:

"Edmonton Transit Service (ETS) is conducting a customer research exercise that requires customers to use their mobile device to complete a series of tasks and questions related to the customer experience while using transit. ETS is looking to recruit 25 individuals to complete the exercise and is asking members of the Insight Community to consider participating if you meet the following criteria:

• Currently use Edmonton Public Transit Bus or LRT and/or will use transit in the month of May 2021
• Have access to a mobile device that can connect to a data network capable of loading webpages
• Loading an application (app) on your phone
• Able to complete activities as you complete your transit trip.

The exercise will be completed on your own time and does not require in-person interaction beyond the use of public transit. Financial compensation of $75 will be offered to participants. The exercise will be completed in partnership with a third party (Pivotal Research Inc.) and your contact information will be shared with Pivotal Research Inc. to facilitate contact with participants."

I wonder what they're going to be testing. I imagine it's not related to the SmartFare pilot, since credit card/phone tapping wasn't planned for until a later phase of the project.
 
According to the city webpage:

"Phase 1 of Smart Fare will launch starting fall 2021:

  • Adult fare users
  • U-Pass students
  • Select public and catholic schools, and
  • Transit staff across the region
Phase 2 will launch in 2022 and include discounted fares, such as the Ride Transit Program, Seniors Annual Pass, among others.

Starting this fall, the identified groups will be able to purchase a reloadable smart card (from large retail networks or at Smart Fare Vending Machines throughout the transit network), load money onto that card, and then tap on/tap off as they ride our system."

The page goes into greater detail. It's great to see a detailed timeline, hopefully they can stick with it!

I checked Fort Sask's website, and it says that this is being conducted region wide!
 
CplKlinger said:
According to the city webpage:

"Phase 1 of Smart Fare will launch starting fall 2021:

  • Adult fare users
  • U-Pass students
  • Select public and catholic schools, and
  • Transit staff across the region
Phase 2 will launch in 2022 and include discounted fares, such as the Ride Transit Program, Seniors Annual Pass, among others.

Starting this fall, the identified groups will be able to purchase a reloadable smart card (from large retail networks or at Smart Fare Vending Machines throughout the transit network), load money onto that card, and then tap on/tap off as they ride our system."

The page goes into greater detail. It's great to see a detailed timeline, hopefully they can stick with it!

I checked Fort Sask's website, and it says that this is being conducted region wide!
Click to expand...
Amazing! 🤩 We're actually becoming a big transit system haha.
 
Free transit in my opinion should be priority for the city in the near future. Fees obviously aren't crazy high and are still much cheaper than driving but I think transit tickets/fees are a big barrier for getting people who would drive to take transit. Imagine someone living near Century Park and working downtown. They could take the LRT to work everyday but choose to drive because they own a car anyway (due to the nature of their neighborhood) why pay extra for an ETS pass when they can just drive. Free Transit fares could be the factor that makes them choose LRT over driving. This would also make it a lot easier to hop on the bus or LRT and go somewhere without needing to much prior planning and would overall increase ridership.
 
CplKlinger said:
According to the city webpage:

"Phase 1 of Smart Fare will launch starting fall 2021:

  • Adult fare users
  • U-Pass students
  • Select public and catholic schools, and
  • Transit staff across the region
Phase 2 will launch in 2022 and include discounted fares, such as the Ride Transit Program, Seniors Annual Pass, among others.

Starting this fall, the identified groups will be able to purchase a reloadable smart card (from large retail networks or at Smart Fare Vending Machines throughout the transit network), load money onto that card, and then tap on/tap off as they ride our system."

The page goes into greater detail. It's great to see a detailed timeline, hopefully they can stick with it!

I checked Fort Sask's website, and it says that this is being conducted region wide!
Click to expand...
Does that include Strathcona Country or are they too privileged to participate in a metro initiative?
 
erudyk_29 said:
Free transit in my opinion should be priority for the city in the near future. Fees obviously aren't crazy high and are still much cheaper than driving but I think transit tickets/fees are a big barrier for getting people who would drive to take transit. Imagine someone living near Century Park and working downtown. They could take the LRT to work everyday but choose to drive because they own a car anyway (due to the nature of their neighborhood) why pay extra for an ETS pass when they can just drive. Free Transit fares could be the factor that makes them choose LRT over driving. This would also make it a lot easier to hop on the bus or LRT and go somewhere without needing to much prior planning and would overall increase ridership.
Click to expand...
 
Free transit is an interesting one. I know in edmonton the challenge is the sunk cost of a vehicle. Very few people can completely ditch a car, most families need it for longer trips, child safety, visiting friends in poorly served transit zones. So if people already have a car, paying 7 dollars for a day of transit seems silly. So people just drive. Being free would definitely remove that cost challenge. But with how low density our city is, im not sure we can afford it. I wonder if creating free transit zones would be better. Or certain times for free transit.

Maybe the city could partner with developers doing TOD and part of the perk of living in a condo next to a train station is a free pass? The more people we can get using transit, the faster we can start improving it. Students, universities, government, Healthcare, and downtown workers hould be like 60%+ transit commuters.
 
I am damn near convinced that we should have free city-wide transit as a public service/amenity.

At the very least in core areas with similar boundaries to that of scooters ie. 76ave-111ave from 75st to 149.
 
^^ I like the idea of zones, or even just free passes to certain groups. I would look at anyone under 18 riding free, over 65, maybe some other groups. too, try to get people who can't/shouldn't have to drive out of cars. But i don't think we're ready for free transit yet. Free transit would be ideal; it removes the biggest barrier to access for our most vulnerable people and would boost ridership across all demographics. I do see a big issue with making transit free at this point in time.
Free transit to nowhere isn't worth having. the busses being free won't change the fact that they need to get people from people to where they need to go. I'm not steering this conversation towards BNR or the new routes or LRT. We're not going there in this conversation. but I will say that we're less likely to get new routes, extended service hours, or other service improvements if these changes are entirely financed by tax subsidy. the increased cost to ETS/the city would be a huge detractor to service improvements. it would be heavy lobbying (read:wealthier neighbourhoods with resources to lobby with) that would get any new services, and the rest of the city would be stuck with basic busses. I'm basing this off the situation in much of the US. they mostly don't have free transit there, but most cities, like Atlanta, San Francisco, L.A, heavily subsidize busses (ie %20 farebox recovery versus ~%40 here in Edmonton) with the logic that cheap transit increases ridership. unfortunately that makes buses so expensive to run, and so dysfunctional to ride, that transit modal share often winds up very low. the bus system is too expensive to run and expand, and underused as a result. The large burden on taxpayers (however justified, but we all know how paying for transit bugs people) and, to a much smaller extent, the lack of a profit motive (high-traffic routes can potentially break even or turn profits, fares create an incentive to make routes efficient and well used) means systems just plod along not doing much.
I fear that if Edmonton were to make transit free at this point in time, where ridership is still relatively low, LRT isn't sufficiently built out, and the BNR hasn't proven itself yet, ETS would slide into the pattern of cutting routes and not trying to invest in new services as a way of controlling taxpayer costs. In the future hopefully, but transit isn't integral enough to the city yet to avoid turning into a white elephant IMO.
I think we should be focusing on keeping fares at $3.50 as long as possible and improving service. we need the whole city to see that transit is important and viable for their commute/travel needs, and our system isn't close to that point yet. fares will get us to that point.
 
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