Pay faster. Faster I said!

This probably isn't news to you if you live in New York, especially if you ride the trains underneath Lexington Avenue. MTA in partnership with Citibank is testing a new payment method. Instead of swiping your MetroCard through a turnstile, you touch a small key fob to a target on the turnstile, marked with the green star you see above. The key fob is linked to your Citibank debit or credit card. You can prepay and get the 20% fare bonus, or you may pay for a single ride at a time, thus paying for a single subway ride with a years-long high-interest payment plan. Properly equipped turnstiles are located in every Lexington Avenue station from 138 St to Borough Hall, Brooklyn--30 stations total. This is reportedly a "trial" that will end this year.

Riders of the Washington Metro might greet this with a yawn, because Metro was a leader in implementing smart card technology with its SmarTrip farecard. New York has some nice innovations that we don't have, though: you can purchase your fare online in advance. Alternatively the pay-as-you-go method is linked straight to the credit card, so there's no need to ever stand in front of a fare vending machine.

But never fear, D.C. riders, as innovations come our way too. Metro has introduced SmarTrip only faregates at five stations. I saw them this weekend at Pentagon City. The slot where one would insert a paper farecard has been removed in these gates. The special express gates are clearly marked--the entire gate apparatus (except the orange wedge-shaped barriers) is now turquoise instead of the usual brown.

I have what's probably an unusual opinion, especially for a SmarTrip user: I dislike the new gates. First of all, they won't save much time. OMG, sometimes I get behind someone with a paper farecard! It takes them, like, two whole seconds to put it into the slot! Come on, Washingtonians, get a grip. Time isn't that big a deal.

If two seconds saved were the only effect of these gates, I wouldn't mind them. The reason I really dislike them is that they will add yet another point of confusion to people who do not use the system very often, which includes not only tourists but also people who live here in the region who just don't commute on Metro every day. Riding Metro is already very complicated for those who are unfamiliar with it. New riders face a crazy fare system with three fares during off-hours and I-don't-know-how-many fares during rush hours, forcing them to consult a table listing eighty-five stations with two fares each in order to find the once price they're looking for. The new rider needs to know that each rider needs a farecard (not true in many other systems, including New York) and that the piece of paper must be retained to exit the system. The rider has to insert the card, which pops out of a different slot--unless the gate is a wide, wheelchair gate, in which case the card pops back out from the same slot (which sometimes confuses even regular riders.) All this while navigating a dark station with signs that aren't as prominent as they could be. It can be quite intimidating and befuddling.

So now to this confusing scene we're going to add special gates marked "SmarTrip Only"--something that infrequent riders aren't even going to understand. "What's a SmarTrip?" New riders will occasionally fall into the SmarTrip Only gate, looking around for the little slot into which to insert their card. "Where is it? I must not be looking in the right place." Meanwhile the commuters looking to save their two seconds will line up behind the new rider, getting impatient. Usually a nice person will explain that with that paper card you have to use the other gate, but sometimes some bonehead will yell "get out of the way."

Inflicting more confusion on newbies doesn't seem worthwhile so that I can occasionally save two, five, or even (rarely) fifteen seconds.

Metro's Riders Advisory Council meets tomorrow (Wednesday) so you can come and sing the praises of the new gates.