Contactless Smart Cards, RFID, Payment, Transit and Security

Charleston completes contactless parking meter upgrade

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Charleston, S.C. has completed a contactless overhaul of all 1,840 of the city’s parking meters, according to charleston.thedigital.com.

Instead of traditional coin fed machines, the new meters come equipped with smart card readers that accept quick and easy cashless payment. Citizens use special contactless parking passes that essentially function like debit cards. Users can load credit onto the cards at the Department of Traffic and Transportation and the Charleston Visitor Center Gift Shop.


To celebrate the project’s completion, the city will give away 100 of the payment cards (a $5 value) to the first 100 people who visit the Charleston Visitor Center Gift Shop.

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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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Ed McLaughlin, MasterCard’s head of Emerging Payments, has some good news for those waiting on NFC-enabled phones for contactless payments.

In an interview with Fast Company, McLaughlin said that he didn’t know of a handset maker who wasn’t working on integrating support for PayPass contactless payments.

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The Peninsula Taxi Association (PTA) in South Africa has launched a electronic fare collection system, granting commuters cashless fare and discounts when using the newly developed contactless-enabled transit card, according to The Cape Times.

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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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A new survey from Euro Kartensysteme shows that Germans are starting to embrace the idea of contactless and NFC payments.

Out of 1,040 Germans aged 18-59, 43% responded that they would like to make contactless payments if given the opportunity, of which 58% percent would make their payments with a debit card card, 41% with a credit card and 50% with an NFC phone.

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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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