Miami-Dade County Metrorail commuter transit riders will be able to wave their contactless cards or mobile payment wallets starting today, eliminating the requirement to use proprietary fare cards. It’s a nod to the growth of contactless payment use among consumers and a bet on transit as a driver for wider contactless payment adoption.

“Tapping to pay with a contactless-enabled bank card or digital wallet meets the high consumer expectations in today’s age of convenience,” said Alice Bravo, director at the Miami Department of Transportation and Public Works, in a statement.

To pay for train rides, Miami passengers can tap their contactless American Express, Visa and Mastercard cards or digital wallets to pay at turnstyles. Digital wallets supported include Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay and Fitbit Pay. Instead of having to calculate individual fares, the Miami-Dade contactless payment tool guarantees a maximum cost of $5.65 per day for unlimited rides on Metrorail, which is equivalent to the cost of a one-day pass, a system similar to the model employed in London.

To make the contactless transit deployment possible, Miami tapped into the services of Cubic, the same vendor that worked on contactless transit deployments in London, Chicago and New York. “From an agency perspective, it takes investment,” said Dan Sanford, head of global contactless payments for Visa. “They have to upgrade terminals, partner with vendors like Cubic and determine their fare policy, and there’s definitely an education and awareness component.”

The awareness component, explained Sanford, is enhanced by habitual contactless payment use on transit networks, particularly when customers use contactless payments to make small-dollar purchases after riding trains. “There’s really very few other merchant categories or segments where you’re using it multiple times a day,” he said. “You get off the train and have your card or your phone in your hand, now you’re having to pay to buy your morning bagel or your coffee [with a contactless payment vehicle.]”

For payment providers, enabling contactless payments for transit is an important step along the path towards mainstream contactless card adoption among U.S. consumers. It is a trajectory similar to the growth of contactless payments in markets in the U.K., Canada, Asia and Europe, all of which garnered widespread adoption years earlier.

Despite the appeal, contactless payment adoption among U.S. consumers is low when compared to other markets. According to a 2018 A.T. Kearney study, just 3.5% of U.S. payments were contactless, compared to 96% in South Korea and 64% in the U.K.

Recent experiments, however, are demonstrating that U.S. consumers may be more open to contactless payments as a result of usage on mass transit. Following a recent contactless trial on certain New York City subway lines using Mastercard’s tap-and-go technology, One Metro New York (New York City transit’s contactless payment trial) recorded its one millionth tap – three to four times more taps by early August than was projected when the system was rolled out on May 31.

“We believe transit is a catalyst for contactless adoption because it creates a terrific consumer experience that really provides the consumer the impetus to take that card product out of their wallet and use it,” said Linda Kirkpatrick, executive vice president of U.S. merchants and acceptance for Mastercard, a partner of the Miami contactless launch.”The use case around speed and efficiency is very compelling.”

According to Thad Peterson, senior analyst at Aite Group, the benefits of contactless payments are likely to result in a spike in adoption among mass transit users in the U.S. The challenge, however, is driving further adoption from U.S. consumers who live in the vast swaths of the country that aren’t dependent on public transit.

“In other markets like the U.K., transit has been the driver for contactless —  I think that this will happen in the U.S. as well, as the use case is just too good,” explained Peterson.  “[But] there aren’t very many markets in the U.S. where transit is a major factor in getting from Point A to Point B.  We may see a bifurcated growth trend, with contactless growing much more quickly in transit markets and slower growth in markets with limited transit capabilities.”