Originally Posted by
cbn42
\They just load some arbitrary amount and refill as necessary. As a consequence, they don't know exactly how much they are spending each trip, and they may lose residual value at the end.
In my view, I don't see that to be much different from filling up the gas on a car. You really don't know how much gas you're going to need, therefore you just fill up some arbitrary amount of gas, say like $25 worth of gas (or fill it up full, whichever you prefer). And you drive the car until the gas gets low, and you fill it up with some arbitrary amount of gas again.
With an open payments contactless card system, however, it removes all of this from the picture. You don't need any guesswork because you won't need to "fill up gas/fill up the propietary transit card" with guesstimate amount. All it does will automatically deduct the value straight from your credit line or bank account and you never pay more or less, or be left with some remainder.
Originally Posted by
cbn42
If a city like LA, which is desperately trying to get people out of their cars, tried this, it would probably scare many people away, especially those who haven't been to Europe.
LA also has Metrolink which runs on distance based fares as well. You could say that's more of a commuter rail system, but the way our Metro system is expanding beyond it's outreach (i.e. the Metro Blue Line for example, goes to the City of Long Beach, the Metro Gold Line is heading towards the San Bernardino County line, LA Metro even runs buses to Anaheim for Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm which is in Orange County), the convention of "local" and "commuter" transit is becoming blurred.
IMO, it's kinda doubtful that a flat rate system (currentl $1.50, but soon to be raised to $2.25, again with no certainty that it'll be the end of it) can ever be sustained where going to the neighborhood supermarket will cost the same price as going from Malibu to Ontario.
There's also a large population here in LA that are of Asian descent, so I doubt they'll have any problems adjusting to distance or zone based pricing as being used over in Asia as well.
Originally Posted by
cbn42
That would be great. First world problem for the few of us who have the luxury of visiting London and Tokyo in one trip, but hey, why not
Well you know that was sarcasm
But closer to home, a standardized open payments system will alleviate the headaches of proprietary transit cards and passes all over the place.
One can just use the contactless credit card to tap and go from NYMTA, Amtrak Acela, and DC Metro with a single payment card instead of having to buy a NYMTA card, a separate ticket for Amtrak, and a SmarTrip card.
For me, this would be ideal here in CA too. One contactless credit card that enables me to ride the Santa Monica Big Blue Bus, the Culver City Bus, LA Metro, Metrolink, Amtrak Pacific Surfliner, OCTA, Coaster, BART, SF MUNI, Caltrain, San Jose VTA, and San Diego MTS, instead of needing a separate pass or transit card for all of them.
To me, the lack of standardization for public transit in the US is one of the key reasons why I think public transit sucks here in the US. It's like everyone is using their own proprietary currency that's incompatible with one another. Whereas in places like say, Japan or The Netherlands, they have a standardized system where one transit card can be used whether you're in Tokyo or Osaka, in Amsterdam or Rotterdam.
That's why I'm hopeful that when EMV takes off, contactless cards will too, and the end result will be adoption of open payments systems across all transit agencies across the US, which in effect, will create a standardized payments system where the same contactless credit or debit card can be used to ride any transit in CA as well as any other public transit in any city or state in the US, as well the world.