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A computer upgrade shut down BART

(www.bart.gov)
232 points ksajadi | 1 comments | 05 Sep 25 14:52 UTC | HN request time: 0.215s | source
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ninetyninenine ◴[05 Sep 25 18:21 UTC] No.45141839[source]▶
I mean despite it's history the snark is well deserved. With so many companies and people in the bay paying taxes, where the hell does all the money go?

Interesting, tidbit you added here. But snark is needed for this situation.

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IshKebab ◴[05 Sep 25 18:42 UTC] No.45142101[source]▶
Yeah I was pretty blown away when I visited San Francisco just how archaic it was. In the same place you have driverless cars you have a metro payment system from like 70s USSR or something.
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gshulegaard ◴[05 Sep 25 19:30 UTC] No.45142648[source]▶
I don't know what your frame of reference is, but BART is above average for US public transit payment systems.

I've lived in the San Francisco Bay Area CA, Portland OR, and Philadelphia PA over the last 10 years. All of those metros have comparable public transit payment systems with auto-loading special use cards and are at various stages of adopting support for tap to pay. Honestly, within the US I can only think of NYC as having a better payment system as they were first movers on tap-to-pay adoption and it's basically fully adopted.

Internationally I think there is a larger range of experiences. I don't travel enough to properly gauge it, but I was in Paris in the last year and I don't think public transit payment was better. Still had to acquire specialized fare cards and navigate different payment systems between RATP and RER. Honestly, SF Bay comes out slightly ahead of Paris if only because Clipper is unified between various transit options (BART, Bus, Ferry, CalTrain) IMO.

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inferiorhuman ◴[05 Sep 25 22:30 UTC] No.45144434[source]▶

  I can only think of NYC as having a better payment system as they were
  first movers on tap-to-pay adoption and it's basically fully adopted.
Portland's TriMet had tap-to-pay well before New York.

  I was in Paris in the last year and I don't think public transit
  payment was better.
The multi-stage turnstiles at the RER stations… ugh.
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1. gshulegaard ◴[07 Sep 25 07:38 UTC] No.45156199[source]▶
When I lived in Portland you technically _could_ pay TTP, but I don't quite count it because Hop pass accrual meant if you used TriMet regularly you needed a Hop card anyway. Just out of curiosity I checked around and it looks like they extended that functionality to regular bank cards around two years ago [1]. Which is awesome as now the only reason to get a Hop pass is for people that qualify for reduced fares or are unbanked (which makes sense).

> The multi-stage turnstiles at the RER stations… ugh.

Ah yes, had one of many, "I look like the tourist I am," moments navigating those visiting the Versailles.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Portland/comments/1awweix/trimet_ex...