Visa study: Transit payment practices becoming more contactless

Visa released the results of its second “Future of Urban Mobility Survey” and reports “the speed, security and ease of digital payments have helped shift global consumers’ payment preferences.”

The survey involved 11,550 adults who take transit in 14 global markets including in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, United Kingdom, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Peru, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

The survey found 45 percent of respondents prefer to pay for transit with contactless payments and 91 percent strongly or somewhat expect contactless payment options to be available. This is a slight increase over last year’s survey where 88 percent of respondents expected their local transit systems to offer a contactless option for payment.

Visa explains those with time-pressed lifestyles tend to want contactless payments. Survey respondents cited convenience (44 percent), fast transactions (40 percent), less worry about cash on hand (38 percent) and reduced contact (35 percent) as benefits to using contactless payment options.