The MetroCard Will Soon Be Extinct
If you’re so inclined, now’s the time to start saying an overwrought, five-year-long goodbye to your bland (and advertising-laden) old friend, the MetroCard. By 2019, the city is hoping to have fully switched over to a higher tech system that would allow riders to pay fares using their smartphones.
The update, similar versions of which are already in place in other cities, incoporates “near-field communication or radio frequency technology” to let riders tap and pay using key chains, credit cards, or smartphones. All of which would be much faster—no more standing behind the jerk who tries over and over to get their card to swipe, or panicking when you become that jerk—and save the city millions of dollars a year in the cost of printing cards.
Doesn’t seem like a tough sell, but, y’know, start building up your stash of “vintage” cards while you can. Someday, somewhere, someone’s going to want to make jewelry out of it.
Follow Virginia K. Smith on Twitter @vksmith.