One in five MetroCard swipes falls short

As the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (NY) looks to a contactless future, an agency report estimates that MetroCards fail 20% of the time, requiring passengers to swipe their cards more than once to get through the turnstile. MTA officials chalk up the failure rate to multiple factors. Sometimes the card is defective, expired, or damaged; other times the riders are at fault for the “mis-swipes,” as the MTA calls them “There’s a mystical thing going on,” observed Gene Russianoff of NYPIRG’s Straphangers Campaign. “You are your card. Some people are a type-A personality and swipe too fast. Others go too slowly.” An MTA spokesman said that contactless smart cards will solve the problem. Link to full story in New York Daily News.

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