How to Put this Tool into Action in Your
Community:
Implementation Techniques
Let's get started! Your first step will be to find out if your community has already researched universal fare cards and considered implementing them. To find out, contact your local transit provider or regional transportation authority and inquire if universal fare cards, electronic payment systems, or smart card technology are being considered for your community. California residents will also want to contact their county Congestion Management Agency, or CMA. If any of these agencies have future plans for implementing universal fare card systems, begin a lobbying campaign to encourage your transportation agency to move forward with the plan. For the contact information of your regional transportation authority, check the government pages of your local phone book, or go to this online directory of local and
regional government agencies in all 50 states
(California residents can go directly to this directory of
regional transportation agencies in
California). Jump to the 'Who You Gonna
Call?' section, for the contact information of all the transit agencies in all 50
states or for the contact info of county Congestion Management Agencies in
California. (See The Nonprofit Lobbying Guide by Bob Smucker
for detailed tips on how to lobby government officials effectively.)
If your regional transportation agencies have no plans on the horizon for a universal fare card, then read on! The rest of this section will help you develop a strategy to convince them to implement a universal fare card program in your region.
Follow the leaders. If your city and/or region are not already working towards rolling out a universal fare card, you and other advocates can find an existing program in a comparable region and start your campaign at the very beginning. Three of the over 200 universal fare card programs that are sprouting up all over the world are highlighted in the 'Who Else is Doing
It?' section, and many other programs are
highlighted in this
Transit Resource Guide: Smart Cards and US Public
Transportation. As you look at other programs in comparable areas, try to find out what has (and hasn't) worked. For example, see the 'Lessons Learned' section in the
case study
of Ventura County's Smart Passport pilot project.
Achieve small victories on your way to the bigger goal. While you evaluate how universal fare card programs have been implemented in comparable communities, consider what interim steps could be taken initially as your region works towards the ultimate goal of a universal fare card. For instance, the San Francisco Bay Area has been working to establish a standardized fare policy for all transit providers throughout the region for several years. After initial efforts fell through, the City of San Francisco took a step toward allowing customers to use one pass on more than one mode of transportation. This involved a collaborative effort between
MUNI (providing bus and streetcar service within the city proper) and
BART (providing rapid transit trains serving the entire region): now users with a monthly MUNI pass can use the same pass to ride BART trains within San Francisco. If your community transportation consists of many different transportation providers with fragmented payment systems, consider lobbying these transportation agencies to implement similar types of collaborations as a 'first step' towards implementing a regional fare card system.
Make your case. Set up a meeting with various transit agencies in your region to present all the benefits of a universal fare card system for transit passengers, employers, and the transit agencies themselves (as discussed in the
Why use it? section of the 'Quick Start
Guide'). Provide meeting attendees with copies of some of the resources discussed throughout this summary, including those included in the
Toolkit
Links. Explain how many systems have found that the initial outlay of money will eventually be offset by the reduced operating costs of the new system (see
Show Me the
Money' for more information on implementation costs). At this point, you will want to discuss the benefits and information gleaned from other communities' experience with universal far card systems. For example, here are two key lessons learned from San Francisco and Chicago:
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Good coverage. The main customer complaint during the testing phase of the San Francisco Bay Area's
TransLink program was insufficient coverage: customers were unable to use the TransLink card at all stations and for all modes of transportation. While the limited coverage was expected during the test phase, it still frustrated numerous transit passengers. For customer satisfaction to start strong when a new universal fare card is introduced, it is critical that the card will work on multiple modes of transportation and at the widest possible range of locations from the very beginning. |
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Accessible payment options. Poorly placed vending machines may have lessened the demand for the
Chicago
Card. Properly situated vending machines and Internet access are essential to universal fare cards' success. Transit customers want better ticketing and payment options than what is currently available. At a bare minimum, vending machines should be placed at every rail station and every major bus node (such as the intersection of several major bus lines). And while Internet payment is an optional feature for universal fare cards, the programs that incorporate Internet payment likely have more satisfied customers and higher rates of use. |
After discussing the lessons learned and implementation plans from similar communities (see the
'Is This the Right Tool for
You?' and 'Who Else is Doing
It?' sections for more information), conclude your meeting by coming to a consensus as to the best way to move forward.
Organize transit customers. If the regional transportation authority or transit providers are not excited about developing a universal fare card program, start a lobbying campaign to convince the agencies that transit passengers want a universal fare card program and that it will help increase ridership, reduce administrative costs, and provide other benefits discussed in the
Why Use It? section of the
'Quick Start
Guide'. (Jump to On-line Resources of the
'Dig a Little
Deeper' section for more information about these tactics and other methods of activism.)
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Increase your community's awareness. Write letters to the editors of local and regional papers explaining why you believe that universal fare cards will benefit your community. Type your letter, keep it brief, and clearly state your position in the beginning of the letter. |
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Send letters to your transit agency. Create a short letter or postcard preaddressed to your local transit agency or regional transit authority requesting the introduction of a universal fare card program (jump to the
'Who You Gonna
Call?' section, for the contact info of the transit agencies in all 50
states.) To save time, the wording on a letter or postcard can be identical and personalized slightly by each individual. Enlist volunteers to distribute these postcards on public transportation to transit passenger throughout your region. The letters or postcards can then be collected by the volunteers, or transit passengers can mail them directly to the proper agency. |
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Circulate a petition. Write a short petition that briefly explains the benefits of universal fare cards. Circulate this petition on buses and trains in your area. You can even publish your
petition on-line. |
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Write a press release. Think writing a press release is difficult? Not so! With this article for
Eclipse e-zine,
you will learn how to write a professional, properly formatted press release to get the word out in local media about the benefits of universal fare cards. |
Form a regional partnership. The next step toward implementing a universal fare card is to convince the transportation agencies and transit providers in the area to form a consortium amongst themselves as well as other interested parties (such as transit advocacy groups) to study the issue of universal fare cards and begin working towards implementation. To push for a collaborative effort in your community, talk to different agencies and providers and see what level of interest there is in universal fare cards based on your own research such programs in comparable communities.
Designate a lead agency. Once you have gotten a regional partnership together to work on implementing a universal fare card program, make sure that there is one single transportation agency or transit provider that will take the role of lead agency in order to organize the partnership, make sure that critical decisions are made in a timely manner, and keep everyone moving forward. For example, once the regional partnership chooses a technology provider, the lead agency will be the main liaison between the all the partner agencies and the provider. Throughout the life of the program, the lead agency will also coordinate project communications and facilitate project meetings. According to the
case study
of Ventura County's Smart Passport pilot project, a successful lead agency should be a "champion" of bringing universal fare cards to the region, and should be sure to accomplish the following tasks:
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Articulate the vision, goals, and objectives of the region |
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Gain support from decision makers at the national, regional, and local levels |
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Emphasize the need for a significant public education campaign |
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Secure funding for program capital and operating costs |
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Establish and enforce day-to-day management controls |
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Develop strict system performance measures for individual participating agencies, system vendors, and the regional 'integrator' agency (i.e. the organization responsible for administering the fare card system) |
Typically, the regional transportation authority or the largest local transit provide will be in the best position to take the lead in these collaborative partnerships. For instance, the
smart card program
in the Puget Sound area of Washington state, is being spearheaded by
King County Metro's Department of Transportation
(KCDOT), the transportation authority for the region. In the San Francisco Bay Area, the regional transportation authority-the
Metropolitan Transportation Commission
(MTC) -- is also leading the initiative.
Secrets of success: persistence, patience, participation. As with all good things, it will likely take some time to bring universal fare cards to your community. To win your battle, stay involved in the process, remain in good communication with both your fellow advocates and transit officials, and keep up-to-date on regional and national developments concerning universal fare cards. Once the local transit agencies and regional transportation authorities have heard what you have to say about implementing universal fare cards, ensure that they stay on track and focused (to make sure that the end result is what you were after in the first place). Even when it seems as though no one is responding and nothing is happening, remember that starting a new universal fare card program is a complex and time consuming that requires a large change in the way many transit providers have been doing business. As long as you stay involved and keep pushing your regional transportation authority to move forward, you will start to see positive change. |
