Webinar: Exploring Innovative and Equitable Transit Fare Payment Options
Around the world, a growing number of public transportation systems are providing open payment to riders, giving people the ability to pay for transit with credit/debit cards and mobile wallets. Right now, the Bay Area has started to roll out this feature and LA Metro has a pilot “mobility wallet” pilot that provides low-income residents with prepaid cards that can be used with transit and other travel.
However, the rollout of open payment creates opportunities and issues for people with low incomes, seniors, people with disabilities, youth, and others.
Join this session to learn from our panelists Michael Eiseman, Abi Rahman-Davies, and Sang-O Kim about:
The variety of ways open payment systems are being used across California and around the world;
How the experience can make transit more convenient, appealing, and affordable and help attract new riders; and
Opportunities for equitable access to transit enabled by open payment, case studies, and addressing privacy, usability, and other concerns.
Panelist bios:
Michael Eiseman is BART’s Director of Financial Planning. His team is responsible for BART’s revenue budget, operating financial forecasts, fare policy and programs, ridership reporting, and inter-agency agreements. Along with partners at MTC, Mike helps to lead Bay Area regional fare integration, including the Clipper BayPass program and the upcoming free and discount transfer pilot.
Abi Rahman-Davies is Transportation Policy Manager at Transform. A native of Southern California, her realization of the importance of transportation came early as limited transportation choices showed her the impact transportation can have on economic mobility. Her commitment to economic justice and transportation took her to Washington DC where she worked as the lead lobbyist for the economic justice portfolio for the Friends Committee on National Legislation. She later went to Capitol Hill through the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and worked in Congressman Hank Johnson's office and the Senate Committee for Commerce, Science and Transportation. At Transform she works on getting funding for transit, advocating for transit improvements, free and reduced fares and equitable pricing and hopes to create a world where our transportation system can be a vehicle for political, social and economic mobility.
Sang-O Kim is a postdoctoral scholar at the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies whose work lies at the intersection of travel behavior, population aging, and gender. He recently completed his doctoral dissertation in planning at Cornell University which investigated the travel behavior of family caregivers whose unseen and unpaid labor of love plays a critical role in sustaining the well-being of an expanding senior population. With his research, Sang-O ultimately hoped to contribute towards helping cities and civic institutions to better prepare themselves for the novel challenges of an aging society. Originally from Seoul, Sang-O has gained various work experiences ranging from public diplomacy in Austria, interior design in South Korea, and local government in California. He holds a bachelor’s degree in geography from King’s College London, a master of urban planning from the University of Southern California, and a Ph.D. in planning from Cornell University.