No pass until the bus passes
What inspired an advertiser to market a car by showing someone competing in a high jump competition? Does he (or she) realize that I never made it over the bar; always under. Does her (or she) realize that now I will be unable to consider that particular brand, should I decide to abandon my public transit habit and purchase a new car? Bad choice.
And with that, let’s follow through on a criticism of the local transit system. In particular, the mode for payment. Several years ago, paper tickets were abandoned in favour of a rechargeable electronic card. A good thing; saved a tree or three. However, given that this month is shorter (for me) due to impending vacation time, I don’t have a monthly pass. Instead, I’m subscribing to the “one week at a time” model. It works… for the first week. Next week remains a question mark. Seems that you can’t have TWO weeks on the same card, although two months or two tickets work just fine. And so, until my weekly pass expires early Monday morning, I can’t purchase next week’s quota. And since the point of sale doesn’t open until after my bus passes (sorry about the mixed use of terms) on Monday morning. What some call a “catch-22”; what I call poor planning.
I have options. I can pay for a single passage and then buy the new pass somewhere in the upper town. Or I can accept to use a paper pass (which replaces the paper tickets) for next week. Montreal has the same technology, but they figured out this no-brainer. They even have machines that operate 24/7 as points of sale. I salute the wiser citizens of the metropolis.
