Why not just have all parking fare terminals include PRT ConnectCard terminals?

Submitted by cerebrospynal t3_10q5he7 in pittsburgh

The nearest ConnectCard terminal to me is like a 15 minute walk and that's probably better than a lot of areas. Sure they're at all the Giant Eagles and other stores and you can easily find the locations online, but you know what you never have to look online to find? A parking fare terminal. So why not just include both in one machine?

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skfoto t1_j6nyoz9 wrote

Because the parking terminals are supplied by a third party vendor to the city (and administrated by the city) and PRT is a county agency.

So once you design a combination parking terminal and connect card reader, then you’ll have to get two separate agencies in agreement on operating them.

Alternatively you can just use your phone to take care of both your connect card account and your parking fees.

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cerebrospynal OP t1_j6o17fi wrote

Yeah the ConnectCard website is convenient but it always has that disclaimer to "allow up to 48 hours" for funds to be available or something. I know it never actually takes that long, but if I need to be certain of having funds available right away the best option is a terminal.

Thanks for the info too! A sensible explanation.

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InTheZayn t1_j6olx65 wrote

Your physical card's value isn't updated until it syncs with the internet. This happens when you scan your card at a ConnectCard terminal, but it also happens within a day or two of you riding the bus, because the buses go back to the garage at the end of the day and sync all the cards that were used that day. The disclaimer says "up to 48 hours" because there is small chance that your bus won't sync every single day. But what the disclaimer doesn't tell you is that your card's value will never be updated until you do one of those two things. I added $20 to my card in October, in anticipation of maybe going back to the office more often, and that balance didn't actually take effect until I tapped my card on a terminal like two weeks ago.

Also, in addition to your proposal being several orders of magnitude more complicated than you realize, it's also kind of a "faster horse" suggestion. The solution to this problem isn't having ConnectCard terminals everywhere. The solution is being able to pay with your phone, which I think you already can to some extent. In NYC pretty much no one uses physical card anymore, the MTA just supports every single NFC payment platform and they just tap their phones and walk on through. I assume that's where PRT is trying to get.

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hubbyofhoarder t1_j6oti7y wrote

The software that runs the machines and the mechanism for writing stuff to the parking cards and the Connect cards are all different

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