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As the people who brought you the useless 511.org struggle through yet another year of technical glitches with their Translink scheme, BART's EZ-Rider is sailing along with new features and only a single public snafu (a misspelled URL in their last email newsletter). EZ-Rider works just how a transit card should: wave it over the turnstile and it automatically debits fare from a preloaded account; when necessary, it'll recharge itself by automatically grabbing $50 at a time from a linked checking account.
Recently-introduced website upgrades allow you to check your balance online, which is nice -- though an SMS-based system would be useful, too, since not all of us have gotten around to buying our iPhones yet.
The one disadvantage: it only works on BART, so it'll be obsolete the moment TransLink actually starts working. When do you predict that moment will occur?
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2017. You've got time to use the ezrider card.
Let's take a straw poll. How many readers find 511.org more useful than sfist.com?
I'm still confused of why BART started the EZ-rider program in the first place, especially that the program would more than likely die in less than a couple of years. Once Translink gets into BART, what a waste of BART funds to operate EZ-Rider.
I use 511.org every day - but if there's a better alternative I'm perfectly willing to jump ship.
Could somebody share a linky to what I should use instead?
Does the web site allow you to see how much money did it deduct for individual trips?
I am not comfortable trusting them to charge the balance to my credit card without letting me verify how they came up with that balance.
#4: What is it that you use 511 for?
#5: The screen on the turnstile tells you how much has been debited as you walk through.
I use 511 every day to check traffic in the afternoons. It's usually pretty good at telling me if I need to get the hell out of work in a hurry or if I can lolligag around for a few minutes. It's not always perfect, but better than the radio traffic reports.
511.org? Useless for me, but I'm BART-centric. www.bart.org itself has an RSS/XML feed of real-time information (finally!). It's buried somewhere on the site.
London Transport has had "Oyster" smart cards for years. Get with the 21st century, people.
For this to really work they need to make it part of the Commuter Check program and offer an additional discount. Until then, why bother with a smart card? My employer's benefit company mails me an envelope full of blue cards every month. So 1999.
As an NYC resident who was recently visiting SF, I found 511.org to be very useful when planning trips around town, espcically since I could access it from my mobile device as well.