The SMRrTFARE Park Shop & Ride system has been specifically designed by Village Technology to work with the unique dynamics of the SMRrTRAM "horizontal elevator". The system makes SMRrTRAM a "free-to-board" service that pedestrians can utilize as many times as they please. This is an important feature that reinforces the transparent convenience of the system, and encourages people to use it frequently. At the same time, however, the SMRrTFARE card "collects" ridership fares that generate revenues for the system operators.

SMRrTFARE is a simple, yet powerful multi-functional system:

• It is the SMRrTRAM "fare-box"--a SMRrTFARE card must be purchased to legally ride SMRrTRAM.
  
  
• It is a Customer Loyalty card for the SMRrTRAM "horizontal elevator", the Intercept SMRrPARKs and participating merchants within the market zone served by the system. (See the SMRrTOWN Overlay section of our website.)

SIMPLE YET POWERFUL--here's how it works

SMRrTFARE cards are issued by Automated Payment Machines (APMs). Customers who park in SMRrTPARK spaces, purchase a SMRrTFARE card to pay for their parking. Customers who do not (this would include transit commuters, employees with private parking spaces, downtown residents, hotel patrons, etc.) purchase a SMRrTFARE card at a SMRrTRAM STOP. The card entitles the holder to:

• Unlimited rides on SMRrTRAM

• Special discounts and promotional goods, services, and opportunities offered by participating businesses served by the "horizontal elevator".
  
  
• Reduced parking and ridership fares based on dollar value of purchases within the SMRrTOWN market area.

When the SMRrTFARE card is purchased, the customer swipes a credit or debit card and the APM issues a paper card with both a magnetic strip time-code and a printed barcode. (Cash purchases can also be made.)

The barcode on the SMRrTFARE card is interactive with a multi-faceted customer-loyalty system within the SMRrTOWN Market. Each time the customer makes any purchase, he can ask the merchant to scan the barcode imprinted on the SMRrTFARE card. This automatically invokes any promotional discounts the merchant may be offering. It also assigns the dollar value of the purchase to that barcode in the SMRrTFARE system.

When the customer returns to his car, he reinserts the card into the APM. The APM then calculates a SMRrTFARE based on the parking time and the total purchases assigned to that barcode. As the dollar value of the purchase goes up, the SMRrTFARE goes down. The APM then executes the transaction on the previously recorded credit or debit card. The fare could be zero--meaning both the customer's parking, and SMRrTRAM use were free!

A non-parking customer completes her transaction in a similar way. When she gets off her last SMRrTRAM ride, she reinserts the card into the APM--which then calculates her SMRrTFARE based on time and total purchases. Again, the ridership fare is calculated on a sliding scale--and could be zero.

The SMRrTFARE card system, combined with SMRrTPARKs and a network of SMRrTRAM "horizontal elevators" can create large, integrated pedestrian mobility markets. Customers have strong incentives to move around in the market and make multiple purchases. The new market efficiencies created by this integrated approach is the basis for the SMRrTOWN Overlay business model. This business model can be "tested" in any given context using the SMRrTOWN Proforma.