Identity, Security, Payments, Biometrics, Smart Cards and Authentication News

Pay for parking with your smart card instead of change

Monday, October 29, 2007

Residents of Grand Junction, Colorado will not have to search for change to feed the meter anymore. The City has implemented a rechargeable smart card system for parking downtown. A parking garage will feature a pay-by-space system, where visitors can use change, a credit card or a rechargeable “smart” card to pay for their space at one of three pay stations. The prepaid card can be purchased at City Hall. Manual parking meters will be replaced with electronic meters and will accept change and the prepaid “smart” cards.

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The Smart Card Alliance Transportation Council has published a white paper examining how the transit industry can best make use of NFC technology.

“One of the major challenges facing transit agencies today is how to capitalize on the ever-growing popularity of mobile phones with a solid mobile strategy,” said Transportation Council Chairman Craig Roberts. “This white paper builds on the knowledge base developed in earlier white papers to foster a greater understanding of NFC technology, explain its role in the transit industry, and shed light on key issues facing the transit industry in developing a mobile strategy.”

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Using smart phones for online banking and shopping has been promoted as the next big thing, but adoption has been slow, partly due to the fact that smart phones have security issues. Scientific American reports that this might change with the development of quantum cryptography.

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Visa and Imperial Parking Canada Corp. (Impark) are teaming up to offer Visa payWave contactless payments to 72 of its attended parking facilities across Canada.

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The Canadian Parking Association has announced that the city of Ottowa, Canada is planning to upgrade its parking meters with NFC technology.

Starting early 2012, drivers will be able to pay for their parking fees with just a tap of an NFC enabled handset against the meter. The new system will also allow users to refresh their parking time via phone or Internet, rather than having to dash out to the meter.

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Blackpool, a seaside town situated along England’s west coast, has installed a number of Parkeon contactless-enabled parking pay stations.

For the installation, Blackpool Council opted for the Parkeon Strada pay station terminal. This new, solar-powered terminal is equipped with contactless card readers, accepting contactless payment-enabled mobile phones and various wave and pay bank cards.

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The point-of-sale terminal has entered a period of dramatic change, according to the latest report release by the Mercator Advisory Group. And the next few years in the industry promise to be a period of even greater change and development than the last.

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