Smartcards come to LA
This is a picture of the LA Gold Line Cross Mission Street in South Pasadena, adjacent to two major transit oriented condo mixed use developments.According to the December 28 LA Times, 50 transit riders are testing the smartcard fare collection system before it is rolled out.
Metro hopes to go to smartcards. Read the artcle below to get a preview of the benefits of smartcards.
la%20smartcard.doc
Labels: smartcards
posted by CMT at 2:07 PM
3 Comments:
In Washington, DC they've been experimenting with designating some faregates exclusively for smartcard users. Now their Board of Directors is considering a fare increase for next summer that could charge SmarTrip users less than those paying with paper farecards. The smartcards are a real win-win because they save everyone time and money. They've been in DC since 2000 I think. They're not coming to Montreal until something like 2008.
Yes, I have a DC smartcard in my desk that I created by trading in about a dozen farecards with unused fares. It cost about an additional $10 when I got it two years ago, but saves time when arriving at the airport.
Here's an article on DC's differentiated fare proposal.
Yeah, the ability to hold much more fare and consolidate infinite low-value farecards on a SmarTrip is great. One downside of the proposal would be that tourists usually use paper, and it rarely makes sense for them not to.
I experimented and found that you don't even have to take out your card per se to use it. I kept mine at the bottom of my wallet, and just touched that to the sensors to use the trains and buses.
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