🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <gfg0877-0906961142140001@news.nyu.edu>, gfg0877@is4.nyu.edu 
says...
>
>In article <4p8lrb$29v@freenet-news.carleton.ca>,
>ag414@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Colin R. Leech) wrote:
>
>>Um, since everybody in DC *must* use a fare card to ride the Metro, what
>>difference does it make what fare is charged? It still takes the same
>>length of time to swipe the card through the turnstile. The only advantage
>>I can see is that fewer people would be caught having to add fare to a
>>card unexpectedly.
>
>If it's a flat fare, then you don't have to swipe the card when exiting.

My experience from having lived in the DC area:
During special events and holidays with unusually high Metrorail 
ridership, they would go to a flat fare specifically because there would be 
a glut of "Farecard amateurs" riding the rails.  If all the people who had 
never ridden before were lined up at the Farecard vendor machines trying to 
figure out fare amounts, scanning mangled one-dollar bills repeatedly, not 
understanding that each person in a family of six must have their own 
Farecard, complaining that overvalued Farecards cannot be returned for cash, 
etc. it would be far worse than any morning rush hour.

So, on these days, Metro would disable all the Farecard and Addfare vending 
machines, they would disable all the farecard reader-writers in the gates and 
would lock all the gates in the open position.  Then, 35-gallon drums with a 
metal grid for a lid were stationed at the gates, and a Metro employee 
watched as each passenger dumped in 75 cents or a dollar (whichever was the 
flat fare announced for that day).

Not elegant, but it worked.
---
Greg Monti, Jersey City, NJ, USA   gmonti@interramp.com