Soon you'll be able to simply swipe your phone, that buzzing rectangle that you use for literally every task in your daily life, instead of a small plastic card designed for one sole purpose.
As announced in a press release, Cubic Transportation Systems signed an agreement with Google Pay on Monday. This means that Android users in cities such as San Francisco will be able to "add transit cards to Google Pay, securely reload funds and purchase tickets directly from their mobile device — eliminating the need for a physical transit card.”
To use Google Pay on public transit, Android users just need to hold their phones at the fare gates, with no need to open the app or even unlock their device. This technology already exists in some cities such as London, New York and Miami.
However, there is no timeframe yet for the implementation of this new system.
About a year ago, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission also announced plans to take the Clipper system to smartphones. Currently, riders who use their phones to add value to their cards have to wait multiple days for fares to kick in. Going mobile would make paying fares instant.
A mobile Clipper card app is scheduled to arrive in 2021, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
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