Finally: tap to pay comes to Cap Metro

So if you're like most Austinites, you haven't used public transit in a long time, if ever. But if you happened to be in a situation where a bus could get you where you needed to go, how would you pay for it?

Do you have $1.25 in exact change on you? Of course you don't. You probably don't even have two dollar bills on you, assuming you're willing to overpay by 75¢.

Your alternative is to download the Cap Metro app. That would be a hassle even if the app were easy to use. In my experience, the app is godawful. It offers two different ways to pay and neither of them have worked for me the last two times I've ridden the bus.

What you can't do is pay the way you pay for everything else in life: with a credit card or a mobile wallet.

"We have gotten a lot of feedback from customers that the experience of boarding, paying and riding could be smoother," Sam Baez, who oversees customer service and community engagement for Cap Metro, told me in an interview today.

But that is hopefully about to change!

Cap Metro is already in the process of installing "tap-to-pay" validators in all of its vehicles that will accept credit card and mobile payment. The agency is also ditching its lousy homegrown app and adopting the Transit app, which already serves 300 transit agencies around the world.

Finally, the agency is introducing a new reloadable fare card, replacing the existing AMP card that many customers use. Many Cap Metro customers rely on physical passes and cards, which they can buy at over 300 local retailers as well as at Cap Metro's store at 9th & Lavaca. That reminds me, I should pop in to see if they've updated their swag.

Baez cautioned that the transition will be an "iterative process." The switch to the new app will be complete by March 1, she said, but tap-to-pay may take a little while longer to implement fully. Hopefully no more than a few weeks longer...

Although Cap Metro insists the new system will be easier in every way, in the short-term customers who want to pay by app will actually have to download two different apps. In addition to the Transit app, they'll have to have the Umo Mobility app, which processes the payments. However, Baez said the agency will be working to integrate the Umo capabilities into the Transit app. And she said it won't be nearly as confusing as it sounds. The Transit app will tell you to download Umo, but after that you'll be able to do all of your day-to-day transit planning and payment through the Transit app, she said.

Allowing people to pay by credit card or mobile wallet is a big deal. I have to imagine that the hassle of paying represents a significant psychological obstacle to transit use in these increasingly cashless times. It is not going to be a major factor in turning more people into daily transit riders, but it might be the kind of thing that will make it easier for occasional transit riders to jump on the bus when they're trying to get home from the bar and see that an Uber costs $30. It will also hopefully make transit a more likely option for Austin's many visitors, especially during big events like ACL or SXSW, when the demand for ride-hail is highest. If these people are coming to town, we should try to get some of their dollars into our transit coffers ...

I hope that Cap Metro figures out a way to aggressively promote "tap to pay." At the very least they should promote "tap to pay" on the buses themselves.

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