Smartcard?ro;”or Stupid Idea?

Last Monday, during the morning rush-hour commute, Metrocard vending machines citywide stopped taking debit and credit cards in what MTA officials are calling a "communications problem" with a central computer. The problem was further compounded due to the Monday being the first Monday of the month, a time when many commuters buy their monthly passes. 

As anyone who regularly rides the rails in this town knows, after 12 years since the Metrocard's inception and the destruction of the venerable subway token, plenty of glitches still plague the system. But that apparently doesn't bother the MTA, which reasons, if it's broke, why fix it? Instead, why not focus on a new system that will likely have it's own unique set of problems? 

Welcome to the Smartcard.

A pilot program is expected to begin sometime this spring that will introduce city dwellers to a system that has been operating under the Hudson for a while already. Common forms of Smartcard are small enough to attach to your keychain and speed up fare collection by using a radio signal that can release a turnstile through a purse or wallet without a direct contact. What this translates to is a world free of multiple Metrocard swipes. 

Smartcards are old news in the bigger world of public transportation, with the sluggish MTA playing catch-up once again. The Octopus card in Hong Kong, introduced in 1997, is not only used for mass transit fares, but for shopping, parking meters and access to buildings.

Nor should you think that Smartcard technology is some far-fetched invention only used abroad. Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Washington D.C., already have some type of Smartcard system. Even the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey beat the MTA by initiating a pilot Smartcard program two weeks ago for its PATH system. 

Why has the world's largest and most complex mass transit system been so lax in implementing this technology? Judging by the bureaucratic swiftness of previous implementations, will the technology be obsolete by the time New York sees a Smartcard? Even if it's not, if we're going to be plagued with problems over a decade after its widespread use, what's the point?

Neysa Pranger, of the commuter transit advocacy organization The Straphangers Campaign, summed it up perfectly: "It's a new technology being added to an archaic systems so there's going to be glitches."

At least you can count on that.