I’ve never found using the bus as a tourist to be that horrible, a steeper learning curve than most simple rail systems (less so for extremely complex heavy rail systems like Paris or London) but usually essential to seeing some sights without paying for a taxi. Unless you have some really tight itinerary, taxis have always seemed ridiculously expensive in comparison to their actual benefit to the tourist experience.

What’s interesting is that Portland’s Fareless Square is in effect 24-hours every day compared to Seattle’s 5am-7pm RFA. I don’t know about the transient problem in Portland, though.

What they have is a ‘Pay Before You Board Area’ in central London where there are ticket machines located at every bus stop in the zone.

When I visited Singapore I did the same thing. When I got off the plane at the airport I headed for the MRT airport station, bought a prepaid card loaded with money, went through the gates and on to the train to my hotel in the CBD, which is conveniently linked to the MRT station via underground walkways and malls. Much cheaper and more convenient than taking a cab.

Now, Ben said “I’ll support it if we start finding that most users have orca cards” — but the point of charging cash users more is to encourage them to get the cards. In London, we got Oyster cards with a one-week Zone 1 and 2 pass, which was relatively inexpensive, and then we rode the Tube all over the place without a care. It was great, and the ORCA could be like that.

However, what would make it work would be if the cards are easily bought and topped-up. You have to have tons of places to get them (in London, you can buy them at the tube stations at least, and that alone makes quite a few places where they can be bought), and topping them up has to be dead easy. You should be able to do it online, in lots of shops, etc.

So even as tourists, we were able to just walk into a random Tube station, get an Oyster card, and if we needed to add a day or two to the card at the end of our stay, or just a couple of trips, we could do that just about anywhere. It was quite accessible and we didn’t find it to be a problem.

We didn’t ride the buses, though, so I don’t know how it works there — but we did see signs that said all tickets for riding the bus must be bought outside the bus, so boarding must be pretty quick. I think they may have had ticket machines outside the stops, though I don’t know if they are outside every stop.

That would be the ultimate regional transit card with a reach similar to how the E-ZPass is widely used for tolls on the East Coast.

Frankly when I’m in a new town I will take trains, trolleys, taxis, tubes etc, over any bus. Our buses don’t even have maps with stops posted at the stop or in the bus, most don’t call out stops… The few times I have ridden in other cities it’s a royal PITA.

If most people have orca cards this is a non issue. Charge much more for the difference and even more people will get one. London charges much more for cash fares and even as a tourist for a week it was worth it to get an pass. It really takes going to Europe to see how terrible our system is.

In terms of doubling the fare for those without an ORCA card… I could see charging a quarter more (to encourage faster boarding), but let’s not punish people too much. Those without a card are much more likely to be less frequent transit riders or those who are less fortunate.