Passengers in New York City taxi cabs have been using smartcard readers to pay their cab fares
Passengers of New York City cabs are increasingly using the city’s contactless smartcard payment system to pay their fares.
A meter manufacturer in the city recently released data revealing more than 853,000 cab fares were paid with smartcards in June, which amounts to 20 percent of all cab rides last month and twice as many smartcard payments since last year. While the city hasn’t promoted the smartcard payment system, the Taxi and Limousine Commission reports smartcard readers have been used for payments in 90 percent of the 13,200 cabs since October 2007.
Transportation executives in the city have recently attested to the benefits of the program’s tap-and-go payment system because it eliminates inefficient credit-card-swiping transactions. William Henderson, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, said "it’s great [because] you don’t have to hand anything over," AM New York reports.
New York City transportation officials have recently been experimenting with smartcard payment solutions. Last month, multiple public transit authorities in the New York City and New Jersey area launched a pilot program for contactless smartcards to pay for bus and subway travel.
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