…and if you want to avoid punishing people who just ride back and forth at the far-flung stations, keep the platforms separate (they usually are in those places) and give a steep discount for entering outbound closer to the end of the line.
Yeah, and when you can load two different classes of ticket/pass at the same time, it's never clear which one will get priority when you tap the card. That's another reason for doing away with the "ticket" and "pass" concept entirely. The system should just be "put money on your card and travel".
I've found the new bus tracker to be a huge improvement, because it shows not just the location, but also, crucially, the time of the last update. Have you seen it giving you incorrect coordinates, including the timestamp? I haven't seen that happen yet.
Oh, I wouldn't have a system that requires tapping again on exit. That's just asking for trouble. To have variable fares for longer distances, I'd just charge more for entering at a station that further out from the city center, and not try to charge based on the length of a journey.
Assuming a transit system is charging for use, I think the ideal one would allow payment via tapping a credit card or phone, and if you do so, and gives the riders no choices other than whether or not to make the trip. But that doesn't mean every trip has to cost the same amount.
(Unless that "One Fare to Rule Them All" is zero, which I think would be the best system, and would have the side effect of doing away with all that fare-processing infrastructure and associated costs)
What I'm trying to get at is that the price can be flexible without adding complexity for users, because we have networked computers now. Operators don't need to switch to a "One Fare to Rule Them All" system to simplify the user experience, and all it requires is different software.
If you're not buying a *ticket*, but just tapping a card (or phone), the amount charged could be calculated at the time you tap. That's what I meant. No thinking and planning required, unless your funds are so limited that you might choose not to take the trip.
Is it the complexity of choosing a pass and figuring out where the boundaries are that's the problem?
I'd be happy with a system that does away with passes entirely, and just applies discounts automatically based on frequency of use, since that's recorded that anyway. (Or just make it free to use…)
I really wish public transit systems that use accounts for users would do away with all the complexity of zones and fare levels, and make it simpler for users: charge less the more often you ride. Computers can handle the math for you trivially.
Winnipeg Transit doesn't have zones, but it does have lots of different passes, covering different periods of time, creating decision stress when trying to figure out which one is optimal. It's also a bit of a regressive system—the biggest discounts are only available to those with the most cash.
…and the auto-reload threshold is fixed at $12, so it's very easy to spend more than that before a transaction is fully processed. But that doesn't really matter, because auto-reload is broken, and basically never works anyway…
The Chrono/Opus system is incredibly nice compared to Peggo in Winnipeg. We either have to go to a 7-11 or Shoppers Drug Mart to add funds/passes to our cards, or use the website. But if we do it via the website, it often takes multiple days before the card itself is updated.
In this case, that's unclear. I'll suppose that most drivers do not pay much attention to either posted speed limits or their own speedometers when driving on very familiar roads. Speed cameras ought to be more effective than traditional enforcement in this regard, of course…
It's amazing that people still think that posted speed limits and some level of enforcement thereof has a significant impact on the speeds that people drive.
I think someone once tried to steal one of mine half-heartedly. It was locked with only the ring lock in front of the local food bank (I was there for a tour with the kids), and when I returned to it, it had been pushed off the parking stand. The culprit probably didn't know about ring locks.
WorkCycles Kr8 bakfiets parked in front of Shaarey Zedek synagogue in Winnipeg
Here's a photo that should uniquely identify me.
