My current 30-Day Unlimited MetroCard is hardly a work of act. On the back, it says “Si ves algo, di algo” and gives me the MTA’s standard anti-terrorism message in Spanish. But over the years, the MTA has released many special- and limited-edition MetroCards. As Vincent M. Mallozzi of The Times told us over the weekend, memorabilia buffs have been collecting and trading MetroCards for years. I love stories such as this one. It’s a reminder of the joys — and quirks — that can arise from something as simple as a MetroCard.
Fourteen years, six months and 25 days ago, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority introduced the world to the MetroCard. These pieces of plastic — then blue with yellow letters — had a magnetic strip that would automatically deduct the $1.25 fare. Until Jan. 6, 1994, straphangers had the distinct pleasure of carting around packets of tokens or cash to buy tokens from surly clerks.
Over the years, the MetroCard has ushered in a mass transit ridership boom in New York. With the advent of discounts and unlimited ride cards — which just celebrated their tenth anniversary — New York’s vast public transit system became infinitely more accessible. Riders could pay by credit card — a fact the L train still oddly touts as a new development — and no one had to deal with pockets stuffed with tokens.
This week, in one of the more disastrous MetroCard-related incidents for the MTA in the card’s short history, the MetroCard Vending Machines went down throughout the system, leaving straphangers stranded at rush hour on two consecutive days. According to the MTA, these failures came about when an encryption device, required by credit card companies to process secure transactions, failed, and the one remaining device could not handle the load on its own.
According to Ray Rivera, writing for The Times, these outages resulted in 122,000 failed transactions. New York City Transit, the branch of the MTA that operates the MetroCard machines, has refunded all cards that were charged but did not result in a MetroCard being distributed to the charge card holder. According to Paul Fleuranges, the VP of Corporate Communications at NYC Transit, the problem has since been cleared up and the agency has issued 20,218 refunds.
This technological snafu got me thinking about the fate of the MetroCard. I’ve been long anticipating the demise of the MetroCard and the rise of the smart card in New York. That day, however, seems a long way off. Could a smart card technology have avoided this disaster though?
The short answer, of course, is no. As with any technological problems, once a computer glitch hits and particularly so for one based on a payment system, it will impact any attempt to buy a product. In thise case, the credit card problems had everything to do with the credit card transactions and nothing to do with the MetroCard itself.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t look for better ways to purchase MetroCards. Right now, we’re stuck, for better or worse with the MetroCard Vending Machines. We’re stuck with hulking machinery that isn’t too flexible with the change it distributes and often has problems — particularly at busy stations — reading credit cards. Those of us who rely on pay-per-ride cards can take advantage of the EasyPayXpress program, but the 50 percent of us who use Unlimited Ride cards are stuck waiting on line as outdated technologies lumbers along.
Why not add an EasyPayXpress option for Unlimited Ride cards? Why not start a mail-order MetroCard service not related to the TransitChecks program? Or why not make Unlimited Ride cards renewable with the option for an automatic refill billed to one’s charge card?
Fourteen and a half years ago, the MetroCard was the next great technology, and fourteen and a half years ago, Apple users were stuck with laptops that looked like this and sported a whopping 4MB of RAM. Perhaps it’s time to upgrade the technology.
Yesterday, I was planning my next few months of Unlimited Ride MetroCard purchases. My 30-day monthly had expired, and I’m spending two weeks in August out of the city. So I figured I would be able to purchase a monthly for May 21-June 20 and a monthly for June 21-July 21. That handy time frame would leave me with about 16 days in the city before my two-week excursion out of the Big Apple. What’s a subway rider to do?
It was then I lit upon the latest offering from the MTA: As part of the fare hike, they instituted a 14-day Unlimited Ride MetroCard for $47. It would be perfect for me at the end of July. It seems, however, that I am among the few straphangers thinking along those lines. As Pete Donohue reports in the Daily News, 14-day card swipes accounted for just one percent of all MetroCard trips in March. Of course, the new card will take longer than overnight to catch on as riders adjust to the flexibility afforded by this card. As Paul Fleuranges, NYC Transit spokesman, said, “One month does not a trend set.” [Daily News]
When the MTA introduced the new fare scheme and new 15 percent bonus system in March, the authority also revamped their prepackaged MetroCard program. Chief among the new pre-paid options were two pay-per-ride cards — one for the odd total of $17.39 and the other for the off-kilter sum of $52.17.
When a Racked reader got wind of these new fares, this person tried to find a conspiracy, and Racked bought into it. On Friday, they posted on what they called “The MTA’s ‘Brilliant’ Scam.” Their reader wrote:
Was wondering if you’d noticed the brilliant scam in progress at the MTA. They’ve changed the ‘prepackaged’ Metrocard values, such that you’re always left with a value less than one fare on the card. Whereas you used to be able to buy a $10 card, get $2 free (6 rides, exactly) and just throw out – I mean recycle – the used cards when done, now you have to save them because they’ve got values of .05 or $1.05 or $1.50 on them. They’re banking on people leaving this loose changed unused, right? WTF was broken about offering cards with an exact number of rides on ’em?
Racked itself was equally puzzled: “Though others have no doubt realized the new card policy is a bum deal for riders, we’re still puzzled as to what you are supposed to do with the left-over change on your Metrocard. Answers, anyone?”
Well, here’s your answer: There is no scam. The MTA just requires MetroCard buyers to have an advanced understanding of multiplication.
Under the new fare scheme, straphangers using pay-per-ride cards begin to accrue a bonus on purchases totaling $7 or more. Unlike the old scheme, when paying for 10 rides bought two free swipes, the new bonus is a good old fashioned 15 percent. With this convoluted math scheme in place, those odd amounts seemingly left over on the prepackaged cards disappear. It’s magic.
As you could guess, 15 percent of $17.39 is $2.61 cents, and 15 percent of $52.17 is $7.83. Therefore, those cards end up offering up $20 (or 10 rides) and $60 (or 30 rides) respectively. There is no scam: The cards still have the exact number of rides on them, and there is your answer to a non-controversy (for once) surrounding the MTA’s fare hike.
For the mathematically confused among us, online MetroCard bonus calculators abound. You have your choice of the NYC MetroCard Bonus Calculator, the New York City MetroCard Refill Calculator and the New York City MetroCard Calculator. A handy image of the amounts on the new pre-packaged MetroCards — only available at select Pay-O-Matics and other retailers in the city — is below.
Shortly before the MTA raised the fares last week, the agency announced a grace period of indeterminate length ending no early than today. With that early deadline upon us, the MTA has issued guidelines for all pre-fare hike MetroCards that savvy straphangers looking to save a few bucks purchased.
According to the release, the MTA, after assessing the run on MetroCards, set a series of June dates for the Unlimited Ride cards. The MTA set the following deadlines to allow riders to receive the full number of days:
- 30-day MetroCards purchased for $76 must be first swiped no later than June 1.
- Seven-day MetroCards purchased for $24 must be first swiped no later than June 24.
- One-day Fun Pass MetroCards purchsaed for $7 must be first swiped no later than June 30.
As long as you begin to use your Unlimited Ride cards on or before that date, you will be entitled to the full time period of the card. If you stockpiled more cards than you can use before June, the MTA will provide refunds for unused cards and pro-rated refunds for partially used card.
To get a refund, straphangers will have to mail their cards back to the MTA or drop them off at the NYC Transit Customer Service Center in Lower Manhattan. I’ve had to mail back a MetroCard once to get a refund, and the process works painlessly. Three weeks later, I had my card back with the proper balance. All told, this seems like a fair deal to me.
As always, you can use your pay-per-ride cards with no worry about a grace period. The machines will simply deduct $2 per ride until empty.
With the latest fare hike, the MTA whittled away the once-simply 20 percent pay-per-ride benefit to a 15 percent bonus. Gone are the days of getting two free rides for every $20 spent. Now, straphangers get three free rides for every $40, and that Ninth Grade algebra just became a lot more relevant than anyone ever expected it would. Enter the New York City MetroCard Calculator. With the press of a button, this new Website will do complicated MTA math for you. Never again wind up with odd amounts of money left on your pay-per-ride MetroCards. [MetroCardCalculator.com]
Back in the dark ages of the New York City subway, before the dawn of the MetroCard, fare hikes were momentous occasions around my house. My parents, who kept 10-packs of tokens in a Keds shoe box, were always prepared to beat the system when the MTA announced higher subway fares.
Unlike with MetroCards where computer chips can be programmed to deduct different amounts after a fare hike is instituted, tokens were a fixed-value item. Buy a token on December 30, 1991 for $1.15, and while the fare on January 2, 1992 may be $1.25, that token still cost you just $1.15.
So my parents would traipse off to the station at 93rd St. and Broadway and buy the maximum number of token packets allowed by the MTA. First, my mom would go and then my dad. Then, we would all head down to 86th St. and do it all over again. We beat the system.
Now, with a fare hike upon us, a lot of my readers have asked about Unlimited Ride MetroCards. These cards are facing the highest increases – as much as 6.6 percent for 30-day passes – and straphangers want to know if they can buy six months’ worth of Unlimited Ride MetroCards at $76 to use until the cards reach the expiration date printed on the back.
Well, not so fast, says the MTA. In a poster soon to appear in a station near you and available here as a PDF, the MTA lays out their policies regarding the potential stockpiling of Unlimited Ride MetroCards:
Unlimited Ride MetroCards currently being used for travel purchased prior to March 2nd will be valid for the full 7 or 30 days, even if some of those days are after the fare change.
In addition, customers who purchase an Unlimited Ride MetroCard prior to the fare change can take advantage of a “grace period,” allowing these cards to be used after March 2nd.
NYC Transit will monitor the number of cards in circulation and will announce at a later date the exact duration of the grace period. The MTA and NYC Transit assures its customers that, at a minimum, cards bought for normal, personal use will be valid for their full duration (1, 7 or 30 days) as long as the first day of travel is March 10 or earlier.
In plain English, riders can, after the fares go up on Sunday, continue to swipe Unlimited Ride MetroCards that are currently in use. My current 30-day pass expires around March 20th; I can use it for the duration.
Then, comes the grace period. The grace period hasn’t been defined, but if the MTA notices a run on 30-day passes this weekend, they could institute a grace period that is as short as eight days after the hike goes into effect. In other words, you won’t be able to use more than one of those stockpiled Unlimited Ride cards without paying extra.
However, if riders are judicious in their stockpiling, that grace period could be extended past March 10. Maybe the MTA gives riders a month or two; maybe just a week. But my words of advice are simply to beware. Overzealous commuters looking to save a few bucks may end up getting stuck with cards that can’t be used until the balance is paid anyway. Be judicious.
Meanwhile, my parents and I will just pine for the days of stockpiled tokens. Somewhere, that Keds box sits empty, wishing for a time when the system was beatable.
Near, of course, being a relative term in MTA speak. Anyway, as I mentioned in October, the MTA is looking to do away with the swipe-and-go MetroCard, a relic of the 20th Century. But instead of just adopting RFID smartcard technology as London and Washington, D.C., currently employ, the agency is,
So the MTA is going to ask to study existing technologies before figure out the best one. Then the MTA will have to figure out how to overhaul the rather inflexible current system. At that rate, we should see new fare card technology some time before the polar ice caps melt.
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.
The anti-fare hike forces aren’t going to like this one too much.
At the end of November, I started the 30-Day Unlimited MetroCard Challenge. My goal at the time was simple: I was going to track the number of times I swiped my 30-Day Unlimited to see how much I pay per ride. Could I afford the fare hike and how much would it impact me? The answers, as you will see, are quite supportive of the fare hike.
For the 30 days surrounding my MetroCard — November 21 to December 20 — I swiped my MetroCard 74 times when I would have needed to pay a fare. Once or twice, I went from the subway to a bus. As that would have constituted a free transfer under a pay-per-ride card, those didn’t count against the monthly total. With the card costing $76, those 74 swipes resulted in a cost to me per ride of $1.04. That’s nothing.
Now what happens to me when the MTA raises the fares in March? To be honest, not much. My 30-Day Unlimited Ride card will suffer the most under the new fare structure. The cost will rise by six percent, going from $76 to $81. At $81, my month would have averaged out to $1.09 per ride. That’s still a miniscule fare compared to any other mass transit system in the world.
The next question, you might ask, goes something like this: Am I representative of a typical 30-Day Unlimited Ride MetroCard user? Anecdotally and numerically, I think so. I would believe that the vast majority of 30-Day card users are workers. They have jobs, sometimes more than one, that demand at least two subways ride a day. If you assume about 20 working days in a 30-day period, a rather conservative estimate in my opinion, we’re up to 40 rides with 10 days to spare. Now, let’s take a trip down mathematics lane.
The break-even point right now on Unlimited Ride cards is 46 rides. At 45 rides, it’s cheaper to use the pay-per-ride discount; after 45, the Unlimited Ride card is a better bet. So all anyone has to do is ride six more times to make it worthwhile, and extra rides are a bonus. Forty-six rides equates to just over 1.5 a day for 30 days, and anyone with a semblance of a social life will take more than 46 rides over the course of 30 days. My 74 rides averages out to just under 2.5 rides a day. That certainly seems about average to me.
Under the new fare structure, the break-even point at an average pay-per-ride fare of $1.74 becomes 46 and 47 rides instead of 45 and 46 as above. So the average folks like me will see their cost per ride go up less than the average pay-per-ride cost, and we would still be paying a very low base fare.
All of this is to say that, for all the hullaballoo, the fare hike will not hit riders as hard as it could or, as some economists might argue, as hard as it should. Even just two rides a day on a 30-Day Unlimited card puts the subway fare as $1.35, and that’s very affordable for a mass transit system.
As the MTA went about selling the fare hike, maybe they followed the wrong path. Maybe it’s better to look at how this will impact the commuter on a trip-by-trip basis, and maybe it’s important to highlight how good a deal frequent subway and bus users can get with their Unlimited Ride cards. I’m happy to pay my $1.04 per ride or even my $1.09 per ride. The subway is well worth it to me. How about you?
Happy now, mom?