In the last year, I've been through over a dozen cities and used public transport in all of them. It is wild just how confusing and complex buying a ticket can be. While some cities obviously take a user-centred approach to ticketing, others appear to take a Kafkaesque delight in a bureaucratic maze of zones, apps, and intricate restrictions. One of the seminal texts in computer systems design…
Edmonton has a transit card that you pre load and then scan on the bus when you get on. The annoying part is that you are also supposed to scan it when you get off the bus, but it’s not strictly necessary. So I never do.
What’s nice is that they also let you just tap your credit card. The fare is a little bit more expensive (I think 25 cents), but anyone can just hop on and off easily.
I still much prefer the Swiss system, but for North America, Edmonton is pretty ok.
Intestesting to read how it works in different places! Your comment left me with a couple questions if you dont mind
Why do you also need to check out? And why does it not matter if you don’t? And why don’t you do it?
I honestly don’t know. It might have something to do with connections, because you have to scan on each bus or LRT you take, but I rarely ever do that, and on the occasions I did, there were no double charges as far as I remember.
Maybe they just want you to do it so they can track journeys better?
I should probably look this up…
In some places it’s so the operator will charge you less for a short journey.
I didn’t think that’s a thing here. Would be nice though!