New Yorkers can now try out a new pilot program that allows passengers to to pay their subway, bus and train fares with a wave of their iPhones.
New York City Transit, NJ TRANSIT and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have got together to trial the program which promises to speed up journey times by letting commuters use payment cards or Visa payWave-enabled smartphones.
Instead of having to buy or top up their trusty Metro cards, travellers can now just wave their phones in front of a contactless reader at the subway gates and be on their way.
Well, we say “just wave your phone,” but according to the video, you have to get your phone out, turn it on, navigate to the app and fire it up before you can start waving your phone about.
Mugger magnet
Much as we like the idea of hi-tech ticketing, we’re not convinced that waving around a $800 phone at a subway station at night is going to be the greatest idea, and then there’s the potential problem of the phone’s battery running out when you’re miles from home.
The contactless payment system is currently being deployed at 28 stations on the Lexington subway line on the New York subway system and may be rolled out across the network if it proves a hit.
We think we’ll stick with our Oyster cards, thanks.
[Via]
Apart from the mugging issue you rightly raise there is the the fact that using a Visa based system would put the whole thing in control of the banks, which isn’t such great news to my ears…
Oyster is being rolled out nationwide soon, which is a far more interesting prospect to me.