Clipper card
The clipper card ( English clipper card , Chinese 路 路通 ) is the contactless, rechargeable chip card for local public transport in the San Francisco Bay Area . After long delays in its predecessor, the TransLink card, it is now accepted by eight transport companies. The current version is based on NFC technology and can be read using smartphones.
history
The numerous transport companies in the Bay Area are interlinked via many transfer points, but have completely independent tariff systems. There is no transport association or tariff association here, but there is a state planning authority Metropolitan Transportation Commission , MTC for short, which has existed since 1970 and is financed by the nine counties of the Bay Area. In addition to planning law, the MTC is also a funding organization and third-party funder for projects that improve local transport.
The earliest forerunner of the Clipper card can be found in the Translink Program of the urban subway company BART , which has been conducting a practical study with $ 4 million from federal funds since 1993. However, due to technical problems with the cards with magnetic stripes used , this project was abandoned after two years.
In 1998 the idea was taken up again by the MTC. The aim was to use a TransLink card with a comprehensive function by 2001. The system was developed by the ERG-Motorola joint venture, consisting of the Australian ERG Group and the American Motorola, since April 1999. Although it was introduced in 2002, the introduction was extremely slow - while the comparable Oyster card (from 2003) was in London had long been successful, until 2009 there were just five transport companies that accepted the TransLink card.
The MTC then planned a relaunch for 2010 and renamed the card from June 16, 2010 to clipper card (like clippers , which are historically linked to the region). In October 2010, an official Chinese name (Chinese ethnic groups represent the largest population group in the region) was introduced, the name 路 路通 ( Pinyin : Lùlùtōng) means translated everywhere-one-way card. The new billing service provider is Cubic Transportation Systems , which looks after dozens of local transport systems around the world. By September 2011 the acceptance could be expanded to eight transport companies, which together provide 80 percent of the transport service, another 25 show interest (although the acquisition and operating costs are quite high for the many small bus companies. The support from the MTC in "Phase III" should actually come at the end of 2012, but this did not go beyond the proposed resolution).
Companies
The clipper card is accepted by
- AC Transit , including Dumbarton Express
- Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART)
- Caltrain
- Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District ( Golden Gate Transit and Golden Gate Ferry )
- SamTrans
- San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni)
- Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA)
- San Francisco Bay Ferry (South San Francisco - Oakland / Alameda, San Francisco - Oakland / Alameda, and Harbor Bay routes only)
Major companies that are not yet accepting them include Altamont Corridor Express , County Connection , Fairfield and Suisun Transit , Santa Rosa CityBus , SolTrans , Sonoma County Transit , Tri-Delta Transit , VINE (Napa County) , WestCAT , and the WHEELS ( Bus company) .
technology
Be used NXP Semiconductors with MIFARE DESFire (MF3ICD40) chips. They work with the 13.56 MHz frequency for near field communication (in contrast to other contactless cards based on RFID such as the widely used derivatives of the EZ-link card , which are not compatible). The TransLink cards used earlier work as contact-based chip cards , but are still accepted by the existing card readers of the access systems.
The majority of the card readers of the transport companies are not connected online to a billing center. Therefore, the current account balance is stored directly on the card and the systems allow an overdraft of up to 11.25 US dollars. However, the central account balance, which is updated with a time delay, is decisive. An activated "autoload" (automatic top-up when the account balance is low) only affects the centrally stored value - to simplify matters, some synchronized payment stations have been introduced that save the current value on the account on the card when used, so that a top-up station is not regularly visited must, although an "autoload" should avoid this.
With regard to the region, it was important to integrate the numerous transfer discounts in the billing system, which were common instead of a transport association. A discounted connecting ticket could be purchased by showing another ticket . If both transport companies accept the Clipper card, the discount will be applied automatically. Since numerous bus companies, which act as local feeders, do not accept the Clipper card, normal paper tickets still have to be purchased in order to be able to receive the discount.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Peter Fimrite: Coding Problems To Derail BART's TransLink program . San Francisco Chronicle (newspaper). November 15, 1995. Retrieved July 9, 2011.
- ^ Catherine Bowman: Multitransit Card Proposed . San Francisco Chronicle (Journal). January 15, 1998. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
- ↑ Rachael Gordon: Translink backers consider letting people pay for parking with card . San Francisco Chronicle (Journal). November 27, 2007. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
- ↑ Michael Cabanatuan: Translink, step aside . San Francisco Chronicle. February 10, 2010. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
- ↑ ClipperSM Card Grows in Popularity and Reaches Out to Chinese Market . Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Archived from the original on May 4, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 9, 2011.
- ↑ 李秀蘭: 公車 儲值 卡 中文 名 路 路通 (Chinese) . In: World Journal , October 8, 2010. Archived from the original on July 16, 2012 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved July 9, 2011.
- ^ Cubic Supports Metropolitan Transportation Commission in Launching ClipperSM Card for San Francisco Bay Area . Archived from the original on March 5, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
- ↑ Memorandum on Clipper Expansion (PDF; 203 kB) MTC. January 4, 2013. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
