Daniel Convissor's Website

The MetroCard on the Internet

If you haven't heard about the MetroCard, then you don't get around much-at least not on mass transit. The MetroCard is the Metropolitan Transit Authority's answer to tokens. You use this thin plastic card, available in multiple of $5 denominations, to pay your fare. Simply run the card through a magnetic reader built into the turnstile, and the fare is deducted from the card's current balance.

The procedure sounds simple, but it has been a topic of heated debate for more than a year. Now you can get the latest on this gripping issue at http://www.panix.com/~danielc/nys/met-card.htm. Some of the topics at this site include "How Do MetroCards Work?," "Why Don't MetroCards Have Monthly Passes?," and "Quit Ragging on MetroCards Already!" There are also updates from the NYC Transit Committee of the MTA Board from September 1995 to May 1996.

This is no stuffy bureaucratic Web site. Maintained by Daniel Convissor, Transit Policy Analyst, the site offers tongue-in-cheek commentary along with a peek at upcoming transit technologies sure to spark even more controversy. (How about giving conductors magnetic strip readers?)

Like it or not, the MetroCard is here to stay, and it pays to stay on top of the issue. I recently had to pay for a transfer because it was only free to MetroCard users. That was incentive to use the MetroCard!

Credits

Author: © Ellen DePasquale
Title: The MetroCard on the Internet
Section: Metro Views
Publication: Computer Currents
Date: October 1996

Source URL: http://www.currents.net/magazine/ny/110/mtvs110.html

This page is hosted by Daniel Convissor
Home Page: http://www.panix.com/~danielc/
Email: danielc@panix.com

This URL: http://www.panix.com/~danielc/nyc/metcdint.htm
Last updated: 4 April 1999