A few months ago, i was contacted by STIB (MIVB), the Brussels public transport company. They were asking me if i wanted to be a tester for their new card.
The deal was rather interesting: i would be a tester for three months, and in exchange i could ride for free. A present worth 120€, not too shabby. The test phase would run from october to january.
A minor slippage occured. We’ve all been there: shifting deadlines, last-minute issues, and all that. The funny thing is that they didn’t really communicate about it. All of a sudden the tests would start in december and end in februari, and that had been the plan all along.
OK. I received my Mobib card. It looks like a proton card, but must contain RFID-like components, because you just swipe it along the reader – beep – and that’s you. You can press buttons if you want to add passengers, etc. You effectively reload your card like you would a proton card. I’m told this system is already used in Tokyo.
This would reduce queues at the machines. It would make reloading easier. I think it might also make the controller’s job easier – maybe the RFID-like component could also allow the controller to check who’s paid and not. Maybe.
I’m pretty sure there’s a large percentage of freeriding. Cheating pays off since there are very few controls (although the fine has gone up recently). So one could suspect the STIB of wanting to keep that in check.
Now the first period of tests has started (22dec – 31dec). In this period of time i’m supposed to do something like 10 tests. Since i was out and about in the city today, i decided to do five or so if i got the chance. I went through the effort of going to two different stations.
Now how can i put this ? The machines didn’t work. Whether i slid my card close to the front of the machine, waved it around, slid it along the top, the sides, pressed the buttons … nothing. The screen remained empty. The people were looking at me queerly while i was doing my card voodoo to the Mobib machine.
Well, this should make my test reporting very, very simple.
Mmm… RFID — in addition to the machines you want to read your card not working, there might be many machines “out there” which you don’t want to be able to read your card.
The problem with RFID stuff is that it makes you very easy to track electronically. I don’t know if that is a good idea? Perhaps CCC is making me paranoid, but I’m told one can never be paranoid enough…
When I saw the web-spot announcing the new system for the first time (by the way, the used the Ubuntu wallpaper there) I thought it was going to be… confusing, or maybe it was just a bad introduction. It’s a pity it didn’t work this time. On the other hand, I don’t see how it’s gonna help reducing fraud
@Zugaldia: I’m on a limb here (maybe i’m plain wrong), but it depends at how much of a distance you can read the card, and deduce whether they’ve paid for the present trip.
@Philip: yep, i’ve wondered that myself. I think a healthy dose of paranoia is never misplaced
Hé, mais faut que t’en parle la-bas