100-year history of NYC's subway payment (& why we're so far behind)

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Күн бұрын

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Ever wondered why it took the New York subway so long to a adopt OMNY - a modern transit payment method that accepts payments like credit cards, Google Pay, and Apple Pay? Dive deep into the history of transit payment on the subways and buses of NYC and discover the journey from paper tickets to tap-and-pay! Let's explore the significance of tokens, the reasons we switched from token to MetroCard, and why open-loop systems are changing the game. Don't forget to subscribe!
00:00 The questions to ask
01:08 CuriosityStream
02:42 Difference between open and close loop system
04:00 History of transit payment in New York
06:38 Why did we switch to a MetroCard from tokens
08:29 Why did we not have OMNY from the beginning
12:12 TLDR
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Пікірлер: 81

@UrbanCaffeine 8 ай бұрын

Go to sponsr.is/cs_urbancaffeine_1123 and use code URBANCAFFEINE to save 25% off today. Thanks to Curiosity Stream for sponsoring today’s video.

@ExploringFate 8 ай бұрын

Would love to see a Dollar Van deep dive. Also how the free buses affected them.

@ExploringFate 8 ай бұрын

It was swipe to chip to nfc then for a while bounced back and forth from nfc and chip then with CoViD-19 permanently nfc. But now nfc and if it fails then chip if that fails before swipe but sometimes swipe doesn't work and then your out of luck. Also swiping now only for Medicaid / Medicare / EBT cards because the government hasn't evolved yet. Also it wasn't until the late 00's that Food Stamps paper currency was switched to EBT cards and the late 10's that the name switched from Food Stamps to SNAP benefits. But like the dollar van among the people who use it they still call it Food Stamps. And in regards to MetroCard the Fair Fares only issues MetroCards that can only be refilled at machines and has not gone over to a OMNY type system where you tap and go. So millions of NY'ers still have to use MetroCards unfortunately.

@ExploringFate 8 ай бұрын

Back with tokens they did have discounts and paper transfers. Here's what happened. People would have to show their ID's for what ever program they were in. For example school students based on the type of discount they had on buses would have to show a bus pass or show pass and pay the discount fare to get on. Then the driver would click a button on the fare box that would light a sign showing everyone what type of discount it was. If people ditch the fare everyone would know that a person evaded the fare by the sign that would light up. Then when MetroCards show up students would just insert or swipe the card and pay the discount only if they had to. Then they got rid of the boxes that lit up that would show the type of fares. But just like the students when MetroCards came around all programs used them. Unfortunately even to this day it is hard to tell how old a toddler is because I don't know the age limit now but used to be 8 years old, anyone 8 and under would ride free so drivers and ticket booth agents had to and still do have to eye ball it judging based on height in general. I remember parents used to tell their children if they were older or taller just to tell the driver or booth agent they were 8 or 7 so they didn't have to pay. Oh I forgot with tokens they did have paper transfers but you couldn't use it on train to bus or bus to train transfers and you had to pay again going from train to bus or bus to train. And if there was a subway issue the ticket booth agents had special paper transfers with the date so you could only use it for that day and was color coded to allow for exceptions for train to bus transfer for emergency situations or repair shut downs. Just like today there were senior, disability, ect. discounts and worked just like the way students discounts worked.

@zoicon5 8 ай бұрын

Another advantage of the MetroCard over tokens is that it made transfers easier. Before MetroCard the only transfers I remember were bus-to-bus. When you paid your fare you'd ask the driver for a transfer and he'd hand you a slip of paper to give to the driver of the bus you transferred to. With MetroCard you didn't need this slip of paper because the system just knew where you'd been and would let you transfer for free without you having to ask. You could also do transfers that hadn't been possible before, like subway-to-bus or bus-to-subway.

@ruzzelladrian907 8 ай бұрын

The wake up call for U.S. banks was in January 2014, when Target had a data breach. It took a major data breach for U.S. banks to adopt new and more secure payment technology. After 2014, banks started rolling out chip & pin and contactless cards. This was also the same year Apple launched Apple Pay.

@professional.commentator 5 ай бұрын

Oh so that's why they started doing those chips in debit/credit cards? Wow!

@mirzaahmed6589 8 ай бұрын

0:39 NYC actually trialed contactless payments in 2010. Hardly anyone had a contactless card or a phone with NFC then, so it wasn't widely used.

@professional.commentator 5 ай бұрын

Oh wow that's crazy! But yea most people didn't even have a smartphone back then.

@BobbyFeltault 8 ай бұрын

Metrocards also interestingly stored their value on the card itself compared to the tap systems that operate on a blacklist and delayed transaction approval. The turnstile would read the value on the card then do the math and write the new value back to the card all in the same swipe.

@PeterC-zp4dt 8 ай бұрын

Great video! I will say, however, that I disagree a bit with the point at 8:40 in the video. Chicago was an early adopter of the same fare technology system used by London (Cubic) and so it had the capability for credit/debit card tap-to-pay at the same time as London back in 2013. There was actually a bit of a controversy when Ventra first released because you could pay with either the new Ventra card or credit/debit card from day one; people weren't used to the card clash if they had multiple credit/debit cards in their wallet. Another primary reason London and Chicago kept their physical cards (Oyster and Ventra) is to allow riders to still do cash payments. So while there was a bit of an element of U.S. banks moving slowly, NYC was also unfortunately a bit behind even other U.S. systems for fare technology.

@_JohnDoe 8 ай бұрын

Contactless payments were already rolled out in 2012 on buses. However, TfL's supplier of ticket barriers and validators, Cubic, did not have any solution that could record all touches made with a bank card and apply daily and weekly fare caps - not even with the flat fares and caps (as is the case for buses), never mind fares and caps that are based on the locations from, through and to which the cardholder has been travelling (as is the case for all rail transport). So, TfL developed the back-office software itself and, in July 2016, licensed the use of the software to Cubic. Cubic has since been able to use the software to deploy open-loop transport payment solutions in various cities in Australia and North America, including NYC.

@WindowsExpert2 8 ай бұрын

About instant transaction approval when we pay contractless. The best way to implement it is to use offline-online authorization on credit/debit cards. It means when we tap the card in fact transaction has not yet happened. The system takes card details from the card and processes it in few minutes later. If you don't have enough money and the transaction will be fails, the system just adds your card to stop-list.

@TransConBrilliance 8 ай бұрын

The worse part with tokens is that if you run out over the weekend and don't realize it until Monday morning like so many you end up in long lines with other impatient nyers during rush hour. And every time people in line hears the train coming we all get even more annoyed. Lol

@jordanmcgrory2171 8 ай бұрын

There's also a factor of transaction fees with cards. A ticket is deliberately a low cost item. If visa wants a few cents for the use of its system and your payment processor (who talks to the visa system on your behalf) wants the same, then you can looking at losing 2-3% per sale. That can hurt for an operation on tight margins making its money on high volume small sales. I wonder if that's part of the business proposition of capped weekly systems: if you can charge each rider's purchase as a single weekly transaction of higher value then you are losing less in fees because any fixed element of the fee is a smaller proportion.

@TheMannyx17 8 ай бұрын

Well, as a Londoner I understand the system they implemented to accept contactless (NFC), which they coded in-house, is instant because at first they just read that the card is valid, then at the end of the day you get charged the full amount. When I tap my phone it always comes instantly off as "TfL Charge - £0.00". Interestingly, this code is licensed to Cubic which is the company that licensed it to NYC and NSW, Australia.

@YAZZYUTUBE 8 ай бұрын

Yes, there was a reduced rate (half price) for seniors and for a short period during the 1970s on Sundays for everyone. What a senior would do is go to the token booth and buy a token or show the token booth attendant they already had a token and show their ID and they would get a paper ticket to be used for the return trip. Same process for everyone on Sundays except no ID had to be shown.

@UrbanCaffeine 8 ай бұрын

Sounds like a hassle if it were rush hour.

@eattherich9215 8 ай бұрын

@0:11, not a CREDIT but more likely a debit card. These days, you can also use your phone or smartwatch, and the fares will be capped just the same as the dedicated Oystercard. @8:21, I found swiping the MetroCard was a hit and miss affair. It more often than not took a couple of swipes to get through the turnstile. @8:59, we don't swipe our cards here in the UK. It's either tap to pay, or entering your PIN into a portable card reader.

@ethandanielburg6356 8 ай бұрын

One thing I don't understand is why NYC designed the Metrocard so that it's so difficult to swipe, especially for people who aren't used to swiping Metrocards. Tourists and other people who don't regularly take the subway often take quite a bit of time figuring out how to correctly swipe the Metrocard. This is obviously not good for the same reason it wouldn't be good to allow people to swipe their credit cards to go through subway turnstiles and wait a few seconds for the transaction to be approved: transit systems like the NYC subway deal with large numbers of people going through the turnstiles and people need to be able to go through the turnstiles quickly and efficiently. I'm sure that even in the 1990s, the technology existed to make a fare card that's more intuitive to use.

@rgp1989 8 ай бұрын

totally agree with this! Even before London had any of this recent technology, the paper tickets could just be fed into the machine and it will swipe it for you so there is no human error at all. That system was introduced in the 80s and is still reliable now

@chuck1728 8 ай бұрын

As to discounts during the token era, people were issued a special card that they had to flash at the token booth. That would indicate the proper fare or no fare at all. Also if the police were in hot pursuit, they would just show their badge and hop the turnstyle. Badge worked on busses as well.

@UrbanCaffeine 8 ай бұрын

Thanks for sharing! Did people have to get one discount token at a time?

@chuck1728 8 ай бұрын

@@UrbanCaffeine Buy as much as you want with the right pass.

@TransConBrilliance 8 ай бұрын

Contrasting the usage, in San Francisco Bay area you need to tap the card to get on and you tap when you exit because you pay by zone. Trains like Bart is five because there are turnstile when you enter and exit. But for other types of trains (there is a dozen separate transit systems there) you need to remember to tap out or you pay the most expensive fare. Same for many systems around the world. Ny doesn't have that since it's 1 price for everything.

@stevenroshni1228 8 ай бұрын

Of course the mta could have used a closed loop tap and go payment as many cities did, but Metrocard had just been rolled out when the tech was ready. and yes students had passes they could show the token booth person for them to unlock the turnstile. Notice we still call it the token booth even though they don't see anything

@pjinnj35 8 ай бұрын

During token era, I go to the booth to get a paper ticket for return trip. All I do is show my disability card. Put token in the first station I am at. When returning home, I go to the booth to give that paper ticket while showing my disability card and walk thru the yellow hats/doors which is those emergency doors are now. On the bus just pay half the fare in coins with showing driver my disability card. Yes I can still revive bus transfer ticket. The red or blue color paper with bus route on it. If the hate can’t be evenly in 5 or 10 cent values they will tell you what your half fare price is. It also on the box. I wish they accept dollars paper but they can’t bc they used vacuum machine to suck it up. But still paper dollars could be in different box inside the fare box.

@jjkazakoff-eigen4662 17 күн бұрын

In Boston we are getting new contactless readers on the Subway and Buses. The readers aren’t in service yet but August 2024 they will be in service on the Subway and Buses.

@stevenj2380 8 ай бұрын

Mid 1970s half-fare weekends. Upsurge of crime and fear and during a loss of NYC population. Pay one fare and get a return coupon. I don't know more, but did use it. Note, PATH had coin fares into the mid 1980s and at a nicely lower fare than NYCtransit.

@GABESTA535 8 ай бұрын

I'm a bit confused. None of the other transit systems adopted the NYC paper swipe method. Places like DC (SmartTrip), SF (Clipper Card), and Boston (Charlie Card) got the tap cards like London's Oyster. Why didn't NYC adopt that method?

@ac3115 8 ай бұрын

Before the tap cards like you mentioned exists, they used magnetic tickets that feed into the fare gate ticket slot and give it back to you. Some systems require ticket to exit again will not return the ticket with exact fare. I don't like the NYC MetroCard swipe either. OMNY in NYC today is the tap method. The screen is the card reader.

@robertewalt7789 7 ай бұрын

I used tokens for NYC subway in 1960’s and 1970’s. I remember when new systems in San Francisco and DC introduced metro cards, but NYC saying they would never work in NYC.

@leroyjabari 8 ай бұрын

You used to be able to buy tokens for reduced price if you were a senior, they also had buld discounts, a bag of tokens would be the cost of a few free rides

@jfmezei 8 ай бұрын

Your video made me realize the origin of those tokens. I inow they were in use in Toronto Canada as well. If the machines were origianlly designed to accept coins, I would think that would have been much easier to just modify them to accept a different type of coin (aka the token) than to revamp everything, especially since in those days, mag stripe tickets were probably not yet possible and once that system is deployed everywhere, it takes a lot of energy to great the innertial and change it.

@liltimshady 8 ай бұрын

For students, there were bus passes and train passes. You would present the bus pass to the bus operator to get on the bus. For the train pass, you would present it to the booth clerk and they would let you in. And if you lived far enough from your school, there was a combined pass for both. Unlike the MetroCard, there was no limit to how many rides you can take in a day. We could use it five or six times in one day, as long as it was before 8 or 9pm. Nowadays, students can only use it 3 times a day.

@williamerazo3921 8 ай бұрын

They need to let student cards be unlimited until 10p

@TransConBrilliance 8 ай бұрын

Students wouldn't bother going to the booth they just stand by the gate, hold up the pass to the booth operator and wait for the door to get buzzed. Then everyone and their grandmothers would run through the gate.

@FalconsEye58094 8 ай бұрын

Maybe we got contactless way later than we should have but at least it means we got it with the latest options available. You can pay with your phone and and actual card in case the battery dies

@johnhawkinson 8 ай бұрын

I don't think the comparison between magnetic stripe and NFC/chip here is correct, but I'm not an expert. As I understand it, the choice to authorize via a roundtrip to the credit card network (VISA/MC/&c., *not* the bank!) versus offline is unrelated to the card-reading technology. And the network authorizations are much faster than several seconds. Also, merchant fees are a big issue.

@mewosh_ 8 ай бұрын

The city of Tarnów, Poland which bus system I use quite often has this interesting ticket system where upon entering the vehicle you go to a screen where you choose the type of ticket you want, tap your credit card/phone and the ticket isn't printed but it's actually stored in you transaction data, which results in a funny thing where ticket inspectors carry a device that looks just like a typical store terminal and ask you to tap your card to check if you have a ticket. Not sure if such system is common in other places in the world, but I personally haven't seen anything like this elsewhere.

@mewosh_ 8 ай бұрын

Also on a different note Tarnów has some of the cheapest transit I ever used. If you own a resident card all tickets are half priced. This results in a situation where a single line/30 minutes with transfers, discounted (everyone under 26 yo) ticket costs just 22 US cents

@MTAFan585 8 ай бұрын

I still use an unlimited metrocard but I’m questioning why the MTA hasn’t started the OMNY pilot program earlier. Why start in 2019 and now also phasing out the metrocards next year. New Yorkers aren’t too happy about that but it’s like 50% using Metrocards but the other 50% use Debit/Credit cards. Some of use the OMNY cards but I don’t even have a debit card or credit card. If you look in the NY Transit Museum, you see the evolution of Turnstiles that people payed for back in the past. As of us being Old School, the MTA needs to step up their game more with payment options instead of delaying it! Thanks to the governor and mayor.

@JonathanS89 8 ай бұрын

ah cool you have a shop! Are you planning on adding more types of products to it? Maybe mugs or subway signs?

@UrbanCaffeine 8 ай бұрын

Yes! The initial shirts on there are on preorder because I couldn't front the initial costs. Overtime though, I plan to add more items and expand the shop.

@JonathanS89 8 ай бұрын

@@UrbanCaffeine I totally get that, gotta start somewhere!

@debraallison2765 7 ай бұрын

When I started using tokens I was 12 in 63. The cost of a token just jumped from 10 to 15 cents I remember because I was so disappointed. The size of the tokens were about the same size as a dime, and I thought they were a little bit thinner. They kept the same size token when the cost increased to 20 cents, I was glad for that but I don't remember what year, most likely it was the next year. By the time I left NY the tokens were as big a quarter.

@professional.commentator 5 ай бұрын

8:20 I just want to quickly mention that back in the early 2000s, my parents were still using tokens over the "new MetroCard" because the tokens would easily work on the turnstiles over the Metrocard. So this claim doesn't make any sense.

@professional.commentator 5 ай бұрын

I'm not sure if this is relevant, but I heard that U.S. banks were very late adopters of the whole NFC/tap to pay card systems. Because apparently, other Western countries and some high-tech Asian countries already had those systems in place in the mid-to-late 2010s. Whereas, in the U.S. it only became commonplace around the early 2020s. So since those systems weren't a thing yet, it didn't make sense to have OMNY exist until they started becoming normalized.

@295g295 8 ай бұрын

7:20 - SEPTA in Philadelphia did have some discount buying 5(?) tokens. But there was also the Trans-pass for daily riders in the city. .. and Trail-pass for riding trains from suburbs and city transit. NOW ... SEPTA has the KEY Card .. (named partly inspired by the key with Benjamin Franklin's kite, ...and the key to the SEPTA system buses and trains.)

@collectivelyimprovingtrans2460 8 ай бұрын

I guess the only reason we’re actually far behind is because we got the credit card payment system up and running a bit too late and it isn’t perfect

@Avgeek1564 8 ай бұрын

Thank heaven for OMNY.

@jordanwhite352 8 ай бұрын

I think another thing that I was shocked was left out of this video and I hate to sound like one of these people is how lazy and corrupt a lot of these transit systems are. Frequently commute between New York and New Jersey and within New York City and in addition to if it ain't broke then don't fix it. There's also the mentality of if it's broken. Wait until enough people complain and set your HQ on fire before you have attempt to have ass try to upgrade it. For instance, now there are way more police than NYC subways and they are constantly airing voice ads on the path train about third style hopping and it frustrates everyone because even the people who work in the government of these states knows that just like what Europe there would be less turn style hopping if the transit system not only worked but work consistently. Political upheaval going on New Jersey right now that the path train system went offline essentially for a year and a half to improve things and now the system works more shoddy than before they took it offline. And speaking of the Omni cards, while I still occasionally use them, I now mix use them and Metro cards because I've had glitches in the past where wouldn't accept my card and then they think all the non-accepted taps are accepted in charge my bank and then I have to argue with the MTA to reverse those charges. Basically our infrastructure is crap because politicians and the people in charge of these transit companies really don't give a crap. They want to charge more and do less and unless people actively bitch about this, they're not going to change anything. This is exactly why Europe has things like flying cars to use an analogy, and we're still like trying to invent the wheel even though it's already been invented.

@TransConBrilliance 8 ай бұрын

Adding to that, Metropolitan transit agencies have the same issue as many govt agencies in that they cannot attract large numbers of competant tech employees so everything they try is a disaster. And yes corruption. The things I know about san francisco Bart corruption is ridiculous and I'm sure it's that way around the world.

@cicchiamichael 8 ай бұрын

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👍🙂 Very interesting. 🥰🥰

@johnmccarren6806 2 ай бұрын

Back in The Days Of Tokens, Seniors Use To Pay The Full Fare And Get A Free Return Ticket.

@JuanNunez2023 8 ай бұрын

A bit of nostalgia: I miss using coins on the bus. Dropping a ton of coins at the same time had a very satisfying sound.

@ac3115 8 ай бұрын

I love that too! Except the new GFI Odyssey Farebox currently used in many transit systems isn't super friendly with coins. Need to put in one at a time and often reject coins and need to put in again. The older farebox with window on driver side allow all coins sliding in quickly and then count. And have the sound like you mentioned. Of course the new farebox will never misread $5 or 10 bills as $1 bills. ( know NYC fareboxes didn't accept bills)

@TransConBrilliance 8 ай бұрын

Lol. You didn't hear the sound people waiting behind you made waiting for you.

@JuanJohn013 26 күн бұрын

Even in Japan that has superior trains. It’s a close loop that you need a card.

@christopherkotsopoulos701 8 ай бұрын

I'd love to buy a sticker from your shop but $31CAD shipping for $7 item is insane. Can't you mail it in a regular envelope? :)

@UrbanCaffeine 8 ай бұрын

Hmmm. Would $15CAD be better? I think I'm able to do a flat rate for stickers for that price (just for Canada).

@christopherkotsopoulos701 8 ай бұрын

@@UrbanCaffeineIt's much better than $31 but couldn't you send with US Mail using a $1.50 stamp and cheap envelope? Obviously charge a bit more for your trouble but I think it's much more reasonable than using something like FedEx to ship such a small item. I understand if this is something that your shop provider doesn't offer you.

@UrbanCaffeine 8 ай бұрын

I see what you're saying. Send me an email at shop@urbancaffeine.com and let's see what we can do.

@CaradhrasAiguo49 8 ай бұрын

8:05 about 158 grams (0.35 pounds) assuming $7 and 5.67 g per quarter

@Jack-ti7mg 8 ай бұрын

The covid-19 pandemic probably hastened the adoption of contactless, but much of the general population is probably still unaware that contactless (or the smart-chip) is more secure than the magnetic stripe. I was a theater in NYC, ordered some food, handed over my credit card, and to my horror, the person swiped my credit card using the magnetic stripe. I was also at a independent book store at NYC and they didn't accept contactless either. Oddly, they were also somewhat dismissive of it, probably because of this lack of knowledge that contactless is secure. In any case, this is probably why magnetic stripes are still on credit cards. Not so much to do with the banks or the credit card companies (visa, mastercard), but many of the merchants, and even the general population were still using the magnetic stripe.

@stevenroshni1228 8 ай бұрын

OMNY was already implementing when the pandemic hit, but a lot more was put it during the most restrictive months, when busses were free to shield the drivers from people, besides wheelchair users. When the restrictions started to be lifted it was more of a "welcome back, consider using omny for safety"

@D...M...A... 8 ай бұрын

Thea , please pardon my ( involuntary ) apparel obsession ... And , I know what I'm getting you for Xmas ... How many black tee shirts are you workin with , lil sister ... ?

@UrbanCaffeine 8 ай бұрын

Haha. I own maybe 10 black tees. When I don't know what to wear or in a hurry, I reach for one.