Trying to get out of New York yesterday I got the first glimpse of the New York subway system of the future. New York is in the process of raising fares, while doing away with token booth operators in favor of the smooth efficiency of a fully automated system that never strikes. Yesterday was the first day you could no longer buy tokens, you no longer had a choice between the slick digital MetroCards, and the more old fashioned anonymous tokens. In theory you still have a choice until May 4th of whether to buy your card from a person or a machine. Thats the theory.

However, on the very first day of the new token-less regime, the “computers were broken” in the token booth at Bliss St. Station where I was trying to board, so subway riders only option was to line up at one of the 4 card dispensing machines.

Except, that 2 of the 4 machines were broken, with cardboard notes to that effect, and 1 machine only accepted credit cards, and only to renew an existing MetroCard. Leaving 1 card dispensing machine to minister to the needs of almost the entire body of subway riders. The line stretched out of the station and down the stairs.

New York’s machines are some of the best I’ve ever seen. I find them clear and straightforward, they are easy to read, they give change. Compare them to the horrible expirence of say the BART ticket machines and they simply glow. But they don’t work for everybody, they really don’t work for the elderly, and beyond that building a system without escape hatches (like tokens) is just dumb.

In the bad old days I would grouse about GM and Firestone contributing heavily to Bloomberg’s election campaign, but in this bright and shiny new era of closer harmony between the public and private I doubt anything so straightforward happened. I can only imagine that Bloomberg Financial has taken out a heavy investment in asphalt futures, and they want to move New York to a 100% driving city in order to raise prices.