So apparently the brain trust at SEPTA may be kinda-sorta-ready to move to some sort of fare card system. And they're very excited about a credit card-based system, instead of something actually sane, because it's "next generation" or something.
One day I hope that our transit agency has some input from people who occasionally actually ride public transit.
A real "next generation" fare card would be like the Oyster card they have in London, which keeps track of any passes you have, along with automatically capping costs at whatever the applicable daily rate is (meaning, if you take several bus trips which exceed the daily pass rate you only get charged the daily rate). You can set it to automatically top it up if you fall below a certain level if you want, and you can refill it online.
But using your Visa card is... revolutionary! not.
