Most passengers using the public buses agree that the new rav kav smart card has simply complicated life and has slowed the boarding process for passengers riding buses, especially commuters with chodshei cofshei monthly passes, who in the past simply had to display it as they walked past the bus driver, but today, are compelled to swipe it on the digital reader, which takes significantly longer.
In addition, too often passengers try boarding a bus to learn their card is empty or has an insufficient balance, or many passengers ask the driver to print a hard copy documenting how many rides remain. Drivers often refuse, explaining they do not have enough paper in the printer to complete the shift as they have to give riders receipts. This results in bad feelings or worse, and contributes to the delays that are plaguing the system.
Towards alleviating some of these issues, the Ministry of Transportation is looking into smart card readers that will permit card holders to see for themselves how many rides remain on their card, removing this chore from the driver and hopefully expediting the process of boarding buses.
Riders using the Jerusalem light rail are also complaining, explaining they have a few brief seconds to read the balance on the card and the time allotted is insufficient. After the card is swiped and their ride registered, the machine cannot read the card’s balance.
The units being evaluated are very small, “small enough to place on one’s key chain” HaMevaser reports and it appears they may be distributed to riders or sold at cost to permit one to check one’s smart card at any time, on the road or at home.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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Along with all of that you can add the idiotic fact that the cards are expiring and no one even knew there was an expiration date to them until they ran out!
This will now require the entire country to go to the initial issuer of the card to renew it and to each and every company separately to transfer the prepaid rides onto the new card! Only the initial issuer can renew the card and only the seller of rides can transfer the old, prepaid rides to the new card.
Cards began expiring this month and there is already chaos as a result. According to one source all this is due to the garbage software the Ministry of Transportation used to establish the system. I suspect a few lawyers are going to do very well from all this.