Fare evasion to rise with CharlieTickets?
BadTransit describes just how easy it is for a group of people to beat the fare at a card-machine station:
... Noticing there was no T employee anywhere to be seen, one of them bought a ticket from the vending machine, put it in, and entered. He turned around, waved his hand in front of the sensor as if to exit, and the doors opened and the the other 4 or 5 walked in. He laughed saying he probably could have just reached around the plastic door, waved his hand over the sensor, and opened it without paying anything. ...
even worse...
Today at the Kendall station, anyone could easily have gotten on for free by doing that while the attendant was busy trying to explain to an extremely irate monthly passholder why he had to wait 20 minutes before he could try his card again. I was just hanging around the ... er what do you call the new turnstyle thingies?.. and realized that just walking in front of them caused them to open. Probably wouldn't have been to hard to just reach the sensor from the other side, either. Anyway, the attendant was too busy not opening a gate so the poor guy just get through to notice much of anything else.
Charlie Card confusion
I actually like the new system (similar to the one in Wash., D.C.) but there is another problem right now: the T wants you to continue to buy tokens to use in stations where the Charlie Card turnstiles and other paraphernalia have not yet been installed. So, basically, I shelled out $50 to buy a Charlie Card last week and then last night the woman in the booth said I couldn't go through with my card at Chinatown because there was no machinery to recognize my card. Can't they just give everyone a transition period? I mean is it my fault they don't have the whole subway set up yet with Charlie Card turnstiles!??!? So now I have to buy tokens again. I thought I was done with all that.
I have that problem too. I
I have that problem too. I luckily am mostly using stations that still use the tokens so I can stick with them, mainly, but it's completely frustrating to keep having to buy a paper ticket to use once.