Transit troubles
I live near the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station and take it to work many days each week. I appreciate their system and how economical the ride is, but their customer service needs work.
I’m not even talking about the people – they’re quite nice, though thinly spread. I’m talking about the systems that support the riders. Here are four examples of problems, with a possible solution that addresses them all:
- Fare machines – they aren’t always working, and when a number of people arrive simultaneously there are never enough. This includes the few ‘Addfare’ machines, which are always needed the most right when a train arrives at the station in order to get out of the station. The congestion as people race for them is a problem.
- Discounted tickets – they’re sold at remote vendors for a small (5%?) discount off the face value. The key issue is remote vendors. For people who depend on mass transit and travel the system daily, it is an unnecessary burden to go to some other place to get tickets. Especially when vendors run out and you can’t buy it on your schedule. I know, they don’t want to sell too many or it cuts into revenue – but you’re hurting the very people you’re trying to bring intothe system. How does this increase ridership?
- Ticket gates – they are slow and tickets misfeed, especially the thicker discounted tickets. I’m sure it is thicker to make it survive the additional trips since they are higher values, but it doesn’t make them easier to feed into the machine.
- Tiny tickets – you always end up a ticket with less than a ride’s worth and have to figure out how to dispose of the balance. There are donation programs for these tickets, but BART steadfastly refuses to accept more than one ticket and add them together for a ride. Again, I’m pretty sure they are counting on people throwing them away and/or ignoring them so BART gets to keep the revenue for no effort. They only make two places available for combining the tiny tickets, so one has to travel quite a ways to get them combined.
So what’s the answer? Fastrak for people. Get some tiny RFID dongles like Mobil Speedpass and give each frequent rider an account.
- Riding becomes easier (more riders=more revenue!)
- No congestion at the fare machines (happier riders!)
- Fewer moving parts (less machine breakage!)
- Prepaid accounts (BART keeps the interest!)
- Automatic account replenishment (no tickets to manage or purchase in weird locations!)
- Discounts for frequent riders (Maybe escalating as you spend more each month? Or have a per-month $2 minimum for the account to make up for the missing tiny tickets?)