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Right, I mean fundamentally from a system operators standpoint is about return on investment. It's not like MTA decided to go with swipe at the same time that
by icegreentea2 6y ago
Right, I mean fundamentally from a system operators standpoint is about return on investment.
It's not like MTA decided to go with swipe at the same time that everyone else decided to go with contact list. MTA started using swipe cards in 1993 - contact-less cards didn't start reaching widespread use until the 2000s. The costs of switching systems twice in like 10-15 years would have been probably not the best.
In a lot of ways, MTA sticking with swipe (till now) is a lot like the story of NYC in the 20th century. Through NYC scale, it runs into a lot of situations first, and goes with some solution that ends up being totally what no one else decides on using when they reach NYC scale (either due to lessons learned from NYC, or just improvements in technology or knowledge).