Over at The Times’ Cityroom blog on Monday, Sewell Chan posted a diatribe on the design of the MetroCard. His thesis is that the MetroCard design is, in a word, terrible. The ubiquitous yellow cards with the familiar blue writing aren’t the most exciting of graphics in the subway world. Taking his cue from five subway riders and graphics designers, Chan opened up the floor to Cityroom commenters, and they responded in kind with 92 suggestions of varying of degrees of practicality.
But, leaving aside issues of journalistic integrity, Chan’s post is besides the point. The MetroCard doesn’t need to a new design; it needs to be scrapped entirely. As Wikipedia adequately demonstrates, everywhere else but New York City already employs smart card technology in various walks of life but mostly for public transportation. The Metro in Washington, D.C., has used smart card technology since 1999, around the time that the MTA introduced MetroCard Vending Machines. That would have been the perfect time to be one of the early adopters of smart card technology.
While a redesign for the MetroCard wouldn’t cost much — the MTA could, after all, open it up to the public for no cost — it’s just an unnecessary project. The design of the MetroCard isn’t impacting its function; it’s outdated technology is doing that just fine. In November, I wrote about smart card technology and its slow-as-molasses arrival in New York, and its time has long come. We don’t need design contests or a new look; we just need a new — or, at this point, not-so-new — technology for our subway system.
1 comment
Well, as I’ve said on Streetsblog, the MetroCard swipe is a 3-5 second procedure. That matters a lot on buses, where people board ONE … AT… A… TIME. 10 people? 40 secs of stopped bus. That adds up. Really. In Paris, where I’m happy to be living for the next 3 weeks, and for the previous few months, uses photo passes and smart cards. That means a lot at a time. No worries for people waiting. No looks of horror at the waiting crowd.