7.17.2007
i.heart.the.charlie.card.
I took the bus and t down to mgh today, and it reinforced how great the new charlie cards are. Not only did I not have to dig through my change jar for quarters, but I just scanned my wallet, and the $1.25 was automatically deducted from my account. Then, when I switched to the t, I didn't have to pay the full t fare. No. With a swipe of my wallet, only $0.45 was deducted- the difference between the bus fare of $1.25 and the t fare of $1.70. Plus, these fares are already discounted. For those poor saps who are still paying cash for t rides, the fare is $2.00, and $1.50 for a bus ride, and no free transfer- the same ride would have run me $3.50. So by picking up a charlie card, I saved $1.80, and made my life infinitely easier. It's about time boston caught up with the likes of london and their oyster cards.
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Yea, charlie cards are great BUT that RFID chip in them could be an issue someday... the mere fact that you can swipe you wallet rather than having to take the card out means that, hypothetically speaking, anybody with an RFID reader could have access to your personal information while you wave your wallet around. (hey look, this woman lives 'here' and this is her bank account number)... At this point, I'm just being paraniod, yes, but those RFID chips are in your passport, work IDs, etc... and we should all be wondering how great of an idea it is to have something that can be read at some given distance as these things start getting stuck into everything we own or will ever purchase. (RFIDs are how stores track their inventory - they are in the product packaging - and I think is what makes those sensors beep as you walk out the door with your newly swiped merchandise).
Incidentally, you can buy wallets that are lined with something (kyrptonite? - more likely lead, or some lead-containing mesh) that blocks the transmittal of the radio frequency in the RFID chip... we got them when we got our new passports, which are impregnated with the chip.
like I said, I'm paranoid. But I've had too many issues with crazy men to NOT think of stuff like this.
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