Tapping in to ride Metro may get even easier next year. Metro may roll out the option to tap digital credit cards to pay fare, rather than tapping a SmarTrip card.
RECOMMENDED: These are the best places in D.C. to have a good cry
During a meeting of the Metro Board of Directors last week, Randy Clarke, general manager and CEO of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), said he hopes to have an "open payment" fare system in place in time for World Pride in D.C., which takes place May 23-June 8.
The move comes in anticipation of big crowds in the city for World Pride, which will commemorate 50 years of pride celebrations in D.C. “We’re going to have hundreds of thousands, and ultimately a couple million people, for this event, and we want to make it as seamless as possible for people to tap and go into the system,” he told the board.
Currently, Metro riders can pay fare by tapping a physical or digital fare card. Open payment systems mean riders can pay Metro fare with credit cards saved on their smartphones, instead of tapping a physical or digital SmarTrip card. In 2020, Metro started allowing riders to use a digital wallet version of the SmarTrip cards.
A number of other transit systems in big cities already allow riders to pay directly via cards saved on smartphones. New York allows transit riders to tap their credit cards to pay for subways and buses.