Comments on: Is the ORCA Card Good for Transit? Yes.

By: KittenKoder

KittenKoder — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:08:07 +0000

This is just another stupid movement in our city … watch us crash!

By: Ephriam bahr

Ephriam bahr — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 04:39:37 +0000

I took Community Transit From Lynnwood to Downtown Seattle yesturday while my car was being worked on and actually enjoyed it. Here is my problem. I know how much it cost me to drive my 2000 Ford Focus to and from work. And it’s 1/5 of the cost of my fare range. If I had to pay for parking, I know it would save me money.
I tried to go to the Orca Card web-site, and not only was the text at the top of every page scrambled, I could not find any place that listed what the cost to “charge” the card was. (I.E. price per week, price for 2 weeks, or price per month).
Unless I can calculate what, if any savings it would mean to me…..I will continue sitting in traffic. It’s almost as if the people working for the puget sound transit systems just assume that most people who use mass transit either have to or are not capable of calculating the cost differences between taking the bus or using their own vehicle.
If they want me us this system, post the Fees for charging the card, and let me figure out if it’s worth it.

By: Kevin S

Kevin S — Sat, 02 May 2009 02:00:38 +0000

I’m from Boston where this thing is available as the Charlie Card, and love it. The best part is, you don’t have to take it out of your wallet. Just put your wallet near the reader, and you’re on your way.

I didn’t see a lot of people lining up to get this, but you should grab it. It’s free and stores your monthly pass or stored value electronically. Since there’s no magnetic stripe, you don’t have to worry about that getting scratched or sliding it through.

By: Bernie

Bernie — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:12:03 +0000

So if I “buy” one or three of these things how long will they remain good if they go unused? I might go six months or more without using it. If I get in on the pre $5 fee it would be worth having some around just to give visitors but not if I have to ride once a month just to prevent deactivation.

By: Stephanie Landaas

Stephanie Landaas — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:15:57 +0000

What about disabled/ Senior bus fare?

By: ORCA Rollout Begins Monday - Seattle Transit Blog

ORCA Rollout Begins Monday - Seattle Transit Blog — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 23:15:13 +0000

[...] up to speed on the basics of the ORCA card. If not, you can read our past coverage here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. If you don’t like to click that much, you can read the ORCA [...]

By: S.R.D.

S.R.D. — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 01:40:32 +0000

I have a Regional Reduced Fare Permit, and am wondering how the RRFP will work with the ORCA card. I’m hoping someone can let me know because I am quite confused how it will work. Also, is the ORCA only for train, or bus as well? Guess I’m REALLY behind on the news! :-)

Thanks for any help…

By: ST to Decide on $1.75 Base Link Fare, No Free Ride - Seattle Transit Blog

ST to Decide on $1.75 Base Link Fare, No Free Ride - Seattle Transit Blog — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 21:49:25 +0000

[...] appropriate destination before boarding, or tap on and then “tap off” with the upcoming Orca smart fare/pass card. Each of these methods would be much faster than the current on-board payment system on buses which [...]

By: rex

rex — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 16:53:54 +0000

Hong Kong’s Octopus systems is also a fantastic system that we could learn from. The Octopus card is not only used for payment all public transport system, it can also be used as payment on parking metres and at most convenience stores where it can also be refilled.

By: adam

adam — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 19:40:24 +0000

tapping is a fantastic system. having spent time in both new york (metrocards – swipe in only) and london (oyster cards – tap in and tap out for rail, single-fare tap in on buses) – the oysters are far simpler to use. stick it on a lanyard, in your wallet, whatever– just hold the whole thing up to the reader and it beeps.

what i’m interested to see is how ST plans to program the readers for entry and exit to avoid fare evasion. what they should do:

buses: tap-in machines mounted at main entry door, tap-out machines on platforms. having tap-outs on the bus at the exit door is pointless.

sounder: machines tap in and out at all platforms. conductors carry little devices (see london: transit cops randomly board buses and check oyster cards for valid fares with small handheld readers) and assess fare penalties.

link: same as buses. tap in on the trains, tap out on the platforms. makes sure people dont quickly hop off at fare boundaries to tap out then jump right back on the train.

By: More RapidRide Details - Seattle Transit Blog

More RapidRide Details - Seattle Transit Blog — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:00:35 +0000

[...] of that project and available funding. These machines will accept a “tap in” from ORCA cards but are not currently intended to accept [...]

By: Anonymous at King County

Anonymous at King County — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 22:58:14 +0000

Search Google Finance for ASX:ERG (that’s the stock symbol for the ORCA smart card system vendor) and you’ll get an idea of why the system has been delayed for so long: the company that makes the cards and equipment is very, very bankrupt.

By: Scott Stidell

Scott Stidell — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:17:23 +0000

Nahhhh–I love this blog and get a lot of great info from it; I just thought the systems were so similar in scope (multiple means of conveyance, ride-free zones etc.) that there were some parallels that could be drawn. We found the system in Perth to be easy to use, as visitors more-or-less unfamiliar with the area (other than the buses seeming to always be on the ‘wrong’ side of the road!). ;-)

By: Oran

Oran — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 08:08:34 +0000

In addition to that, the readers could be active only when the doors are open and up to a minute after they close. That is useful if they want to do a distance or zone-based system on buses/trains under the proof-of-payment system, or prevent accidental deductions and cheating.

By: Matt the Engineer

Matt the Engineer — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:20:00 +0000

Ah, but the nice thing about RFID is that you can just be close to the reader. Just swing your purse by the reader or tap your wallet on it.

By: Morgan Wick

Morgan Wick — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:19:35 +0000

Right now you can just flash a PugetPass at the driver and it’ll count; unless there’s some visual evidence on the card itself that it’s in “pass mode”, you will have to actually tap the card. That makes it even more imperative that people actually have their cards ready BEFORE boarding the bus.

By: Morgan Wick

Morgan Wick — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:18:02 +0000

I think you may have created some idiots. See below. -| :D

By: Morgan Wick

Morgan Wick — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:15:43 +0000

“This is both good and bad. I’m not sure I’d like others behind me to be able to see my card balance as I use my card – just makes you a target for thieves – and I can see this slowing down the process as people check out their own balance. There should be an option to card users to not display the current balance on the card other than when you’re out of money on it.”

Now the equivalent of a store or a restaurant is not the same as a small, claustrophobic bus, but I’m a student at Seattle University (which gets shafted by the bus system by the way, most of its bus service is “on the way” to someplace else and they truncated the 9 several years back, so as a resident of the U-District, I have to take the 49 several blocks short of the actual school – not that I’m bitter or anything), and our student ID cards come with accounts we can use to pay for meals, and when we do so it displays our balance. It takes maybe two nanoseconds to see your balance, really, so I don’t see that being a slowdown concern, especially if the balance displays for only two seconds or so. The “target for theives” is a bigger concern, but ORCA cards will be targets to some extent anyway.

By: NSBill

NSBill — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:13:12 +0000

Think I buried the lead in my post. It’s not the “if” I’m concerned with. Not having visitor passes is not even an option. It’s the “how” I’m concerned with. If we want to go all ORCA, how does that work? That sounds like it could be awfully expensive and wasteful. Other city’s passes always seem to be paper. I’ve not been to London in a very long time though so I’m not familiar with the Oyster card setup which many folks here seem to make comparisons to.

By: Craig

Craig — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:22:27 +0000

Excellent point. T

his past election you actually didn’t have to buy a stamp. They had dropboxes. That’s what I did because I was too cheap to pay the 42 cents.