04-15-2016, 11:58 AM
(04-15-2016, 11:12 AM)Section ThirtyOne Wrote:(04-12-2016, 11:51 PM)timc Wrote: One thing that I still haven't seen an answer for is whether monthly passes will be transferable.
It would be great if they were; how do other cities with electronic cards handle monthly passes?
In Amsterdam and London, all travel products (tickets, cash, passes) are electronic and can be considered to be "stored" on the card (how this is ultimately implemented is a detail you can ignore. If you're truly interested, there are some papers from the 70s about Best-Effort Networks I can find for you.).
There is no photo on the card, though you may need to present some means of identification to purchase some travel products (reduced fares for seniors, for instance).
Terms of Use of the cards prohibit transferring the card to someone else, except under certain conditions... not that anyone knows or cares what those are. In such a system, paying for and maintaining one's own card has been made sufficiently simple and convenient that such "frauds" (IANAL, so it might be theft or something, not fraud) are so few that you can ignore them.
What I like is how the Oyster handles fares and passes. If you have a pass on the card, and your travel adheres to its conditions, it'll activate and use that pass. If you don't, it'll take the electronic fare price out of your balance. When the combined electronic fare prices for the day, week, etc... reaches the price of loading a day, week, etc. pass, all subsequent travel on that card is free.
For instance, if a day pass costs 5GBP and an electronic fare costs 2GBP, your first travel deducts 2GBP from your card. Your second travel deducts 2GBP from your card. Your third travel deducts 1GBP from your card, and from now on it is as though you have a Day Pass for the rest of the day (day considered to have started from that first travel time). You can't ever look back and go "Cor, I should've bought a Day Pass instead of having all those normal transit fares" as it automagically converts your fares to buy you the appropriate pass.
Could you imagine if Phone companies or Internet Service Providers had to do this? Overage fees would be capped to whatever an Unlimited Plan costs. You have a 10GB plan for $30 with $1.50 per GB over, but if they have a 20GB plan for $34.50, all the GB between 13 and 20 are "free" because once you hit $34.50 you're now considered to be on a 20GB plan.
It'd be wonderful, sensible, fair, and straightforward. A pity it'll never happen.