gothamist reported on this idea the MTA has to start using the paypass "contactless" payment system. i guess you wave your little thingy over a little thingy and the turnstile unlocks. like at the gym. or, if you're my mother, every grocery store and drug store in the metro atlanta area. gmist points out that this won't help with bus transfers or those of us who use unlimited ride cards. personally, i'm not to interested in this bullshit. we don't really need a new payment system. at least, not as much as we need, oh, say, reliable service, stations that aren't leaking and falling apart, more money to pay employees to clean some shit up, did i mention reliable service?
it seems strange to be spearheading a new payment system just after the token was cast away. i mean, even though there are days when i curse the metrocard readers for telling me fifty times to "please swipe again (at this turnstile)", i don't think it warrants $44 million for a trial. really, the more i think about this, the less sense it makes. there's just too much other shit that needs to be taken care of. plus, as i mentioned earlier, it won't even work for every commuter.
the do-no-wrong (which i spent plenty of time complaining about when i had to use) tube has the oystercard, which is basically what the mta is going for. you just pass it over a disk and it opens the gates. but the tube, well, it's clean, it's efficient, it's pretty well-run, it has those lcd displays telling you (even if they are lying) when the next train is due. so, i think it's ok that they went ahead and made a superficial kind of upgrade. making it easier for me to get through a turnstile is not really going to make me like the MTA.
when are they gonna realize, sometimes you really have to go forward to go forward?
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