[W. K. Lis]

I demand that the following people (and their families) must use PRESTO.

TTC Board Members

• Chair - Councillor Josh Colle
• Vice-Chair - Alan Heisey Q.C. (Citizen)
• Rick Byers (Citizen),
• Councillor John Campbell
• Councillor Shelley Carroll
• Councillor Vincent Crisanti
• Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker
• Ron Lalonde (Citizen)
• Councillor Joe Mihevc
• Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong

Metrolinx Board of Directors

• J. Robert S. Prichard, Chair
• Upkar Arora
• Rahul Bhardwaj
• Bryan Davies
• Iain Dobson
• Janet Ecker
• Bill Fisch
• Anne Golden
• Marianne McKenna
• Rose Patten
• Bonnie Patterson
• Howard Shearer
• Carl Zehr
• Bruce McCuaig, President and CEO

As well as the Mayor and all the city councillors. If they don't use PRESTO, they should abstain from discussions and decisions about PRESTO.

 

[mind_the_gap]

I was wondering, are the Presto readers on TTC buses and streetcars touchscreen?

If so, the default ("Tap Card") screen could be altered to something like this:

By default, a standard TTC fare would be selected so you don't have to touch the screen. But if you need additional fares, there would buttons provided on the screen for you to touch. If you select "regional fare" or "additional passenger", the device would go to a secondary screen to select the appropriate regional fare, or select how many additional passengers.

This would resolve the issue of not being able to pay with Presto on Downtown Express routes, TTC services operating outside of Toronto, and for additional passengers.

To take this even further, the Presto device could use GPS data to its' advantage, for example a TTC bus travelling in York Region would by default deduct a YRT fare, and you would have to add a TTC fare if you are travelling to Toronto.

They could change the beep the device emits so a driver know which additional fare you've paid.

I got this idea from Helsinki's new smart card implementation. There they have touchscreen readers, 3 fare zones, and a lower fare for a transfer-free streetcar journey. So the setup I depicted above is necessary there.

 

[W. K. Lis]

There are people who don't know how to use any touchscreen at all. Will need a couple of generations to pass to use such a version 5.7.3 or whatever.

 

[PinkLucy]

Those people better not travel by air because there are touchscreens everywhere at the airport

 

[amnesiajune]

The TTC would probably have fares set up like YRT does - the bus is programmed to charge a higher fare on Express routes. It does have one loophole though - you can transfer from non-express buses without paying the extra fare.

 

[rbt]

Those people better not travel by air because there are touchscreens everywhere at the airport

Wouldn't surprise me if a high %age of transit users (compared to total population) haven't been in an aircraft in the last decade.

Also, there would still need to be an interface for the blind which doesn't involve the touchscreen.

 

[EastYorkTTCFan]

Wouldn't surprise me if a high %age of transit users (compared to total population) haven't been in an aircraft in the last decade.

Also, there would still need to be an interface for the blind which doesn't involve the touchscreen.

don't forget about people who can't read english as well

 

[dowlingm]

touchscreens boarding a vehicle? That will be awesome for average journey times as it takes 2-3 minutes at any stop with more than a handful of people at it to actually get on board. Why should you need to manually add a regional or express fare? As for additional passengers, that pushes against the Metrolinx credo that all paying passengers have a card of their own (and the under 12s who will be paying on TTC once John Tory is back in his corporate boardroom)

 

[rbt]

As for additional passengers, that pushes against the Metrolinx credo that all paying passengers have a card of their own (and the under 12s who will be paying on TTC once John Tory is back in his corporate boardroom)

Folks doing the "group" thing are forgetting subway stations will require you to tap-out by the time Spadina line opens. Group fare won't do much when the gate only lets 1 person out of the system.

 

[PinkLucy]

I would have liked the additional fare option the other day when bringing an out-of-town friend on the TTC.

 

[nfitz]

I would have liked the additional fare option the other day when bringing an out-of-town friend on the TTC.

I keep an extra Presto card around for such things.

 

[MetroMan]

I would have liked the additional fare option the other day when bringing an out-of-town friend on the TTC.

I keep an extra Presto card around for such things.

People are looking for niche uses that PRESTO shouldn't have to account for. When I travel to other cities, I either buy a disposable transit card or if I have friends in that city, they lend me theirs or have their own plus their partners' card. If they don't, I just get my own.

It's far less complex if each card represents a rider.

 

[amnesiajune]

Folks doing the "group" thing are forgetting subway stations will require you to tap-out by the time Spadina line opens. Group fare won't do much when the gate only lets 1 person out of the system.

That's not clear yet. None of the new gates have the tap-out terminals on them (even though they were considered in the design). It looks to me like they may just have the extension run on TTC fare, with free transfers from YRT and Go Transit to York University (i.e. the only station with tap-out will be at York, and regular TTC users won't need to use it).

 

[Napoleon]

That's not clear yet. None of the new gates have the tap-out terminals on them (even though they were considered in the design). It looks to me like they may just have the extension run on TTC fare, with free transfers from YRT and Go Transit to York University (i.e. the only station with tap-out will be at York, and regular TTC users won't need to use it).

You could also do it Tokyo style with gates separating different fare-paid zones within stations.

 

[nfitz]

That's not clear yet.

TTC board voted to implement tap-out months ago.