If you ride the bus in the Grand Rapids, you could have a new way to pay for the rides.
It's called the E-fare/Wave system. People can pay through their smart phone, or with tap-cards linked to an account. Passengers can touch their wave card or smart-phone to a reader every time they ride the bus.
The new system is expected to be faster and cut down on paper costs.
"Currently the Rapid prints millions of paper tickets every year. whether its one ride or tens rides or period passes. we do a lot of printing of paper tickets, said Michael Bulthuis, with the Rapids. "The new E-fare/Wave system the waive is going to allow us to eliminate that printing."
The program is still in the pilot stage, but could be operational by early next year. The Rapid is the first public transportation system in the state to test the the payment system.
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