Damn'it..... You Board Last When Paying in Cash (Pittsburgh, Progress: live in, delivery)

[Blackbeauty212]

Originally Posted by ferraris

BB, I think you're distracting from your point when you exaggerate the times. I don't know if you're doing it on purpose as hyperbole or if you're perception is just off, but it does not take an average of three full minutes to pay cash. If the machine spits out the dollar enough times the driver eventually just lets the rider on without full payment in my experience; it would have to spit the same dollar out something like 30+ times to take a full three minutes.

There is a slight delay when waiting for the light to turn green after a cash payer, but it's 2-3 seconds, not 10.

I believe you that your bus was 15 minutes late, but I don't buy that it was entirely due to five people paying with cash.

EDIT: And for what it's worth, I agree with you that ConnectCard should eventually be the only form of payment. But until that time, cash payers aren't second class riders.

No exaggeration on my part..... You have almost 30 people waiting Negely, the first P1 pulls in. Majority of the people have CC, but there are cash payers in between so its stops the CC flow of people onto the bus as each person fumbles to get the machine to accept their old bills or whatever. The driver actually had to take the the dollar off one Woman and feed it himself I guess she didn't have the Face Up or something, but he did it once and it took. Then a few more CC stream on seamlessly after they had to wait for the Green light of course.

Then another Cash Payer boards again In and out, in and out.....bus driver bangs the farebox, in and out, in and out we still go, then she tries another dollar, it takes on the first try.. Still with a good 15 people trying to board, and of course this is Negley @ the Rush Hour so people just keep crossing the busway rushing to catch the bus...Then another P1/2 shows up, I could tell as the flood of people rush to the back of the platform...

We even skipped Herron and still got downtown 15 mins late.

[charisb]

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty212

No exaggeration on my part..... You have almost 30 people waiting Negely, the first P1 pulls in. Majority of the people have CC, but there are cash payers in between so its stops the CC flow of people onto the bus as each person fumbles to get the machine to accept their old bills or whatever. The driver actually had to take the the dollar off one Woman and feed it himself I guess she didn't have the Face Up or something, but he did it once and it took. Then a few more CC stream on seamlessly after they had to wait for the Green light of course.

Then another Cash Payer boards again In and out, in and out.....bus driver bangs the farebox, in and out, in and out we still go, then she tries another dollar, it takes on the first try.. Still with a good 15 people trying to board, and of course this is Negley @ the Rush Hour so people just keep crossing the busway rushing to catch the bus...Then another P1/2 shows up, I could tell as the flood of people rush to the back of the platform...

We even skipped Herron and still got downtown 15 mins late.

I believe it. It is obvious who rides the bus regularly. People often do not get their wallets out until they are at the pay box. At an intersection like Forbes & Shady, you can have 15 people boarding. If you have to wait for everyone (or most people) to pay, and you miss your chance at the light cycle, it can take a while.
It is all fine and good to say people should leave earlier, but the bottom line is that people will not take the bus if it is slow/off schedule/always late. And we should want people to take public transportation--it reduces pollution and traffic congestion.

[norcider]

Millennials are always running late. Probably why they have such a hard time finding employment.

[sealie]

charisb, given that berating people on the internet and calling them old stupid backwards Yinzer dinosaurs does not seem to be effective thus far, how would you address the issue?

[tclifton]

You realize you still didn't answer the basic question, right?

I'm standing at a bus stop, along with 25 other folks.
Do we start a poll before the bus comes to find out who's paying with cash and who isn't? (and ask everyone as they wander over if they have cash or not?)
Otherwise, how will we know the order that we're to get on the bus?

[charisb]

Originally Posted by sealie

charisb, given that berating people on the internet and calling them old stupid backwards Yinzer dinosaurs does not seem to be effective thus far, how would you address the issue?

Wait--are you saying that I am doing that? That certainly isn't my intention (and I have never, nor would I ever, use the term 'Yinzer').
I just think we do need reform and improvement to our public transportation system as it is now.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by gortonator

the visa ad is so good and appropriate to our dino cash forum members who don't use buses, BB posted it twice (one since removed)!

Perfection in every way

I personally don't see why everyone is giving BlackBeauty such a difficult time. It's obvious that there's an "old Pittsburgh" (the Yinzers) AND a "new Pittsburgh" (the Progressives) not only in real life but also on this sub-forum, with this thread's divide being a perfect illustration of that.

The Yinzers are never in a rush to do anything and never have anywhere important to go that would require strict adherence to time constraints, hence they dawdle along with driving too slowly in the left lane; fumble to find exact change to feed a PAT bus farebox at rush hour; will hold up people behind them in line at the bank to talk to the teller about their cats (usually while doing something simple an ATM could have done for them in 1/4 the time); bang pots and pans out their windows when the Steelers score touchdowns; poke their noses where they don't belong; etc. Simultaneously, though, THESE are the "nice" people of Pittsburgh---the ones who still hold doors, tip their hats, strike up friendly conversations about the weather in elevators or at gas pumps, will stop to help a stranded motorist, etc.

The "Progressives" are generally younger, educated, liberal, and always busy, busy, busy. We're wired within numerous ever-expanding social networks---networks that often supersede our "real life" networks. We are always rushed, hurried, and stressed tying to keep up with the trends and societal norms---norms that the Yinzers couldn't care less about participating within. We're the ones who feel pressured incessantly to make up for economic value lost during the Great Recession and, of course, get irked when a Yinzer in a Buick crawls through the tunnel, making a food delivery two minutes longer and costing me $2 of my tip, or when a Yinzer scratches their head while trying to figure out why a PAT farebox won't accept their crumpled upside-down $2 bill on BlackBeauty's bus, contributing to her late arrival at an appointment with an important client. The "Progressives", especially Millennial contributors, tend to be more unfriendly, self-centered, jaded, and skeptical of strangers than Yinzers.

I think our city just needs to learn to accept both groups of people. Neither group is dying off. From my days of working at PNC I can safely assure you all that there were numerous Steelers-clad 20-somethings afraid of ATMs "cuz my mama told me they steal money", indicating a fresh wave of Yinzers are in the pipeline. At the same time there are also more "Progressives", especially in trendy East End neighborhoods like Lawrenceville, Shadyside, and Polish Hill, than ever before---usually eating vegan fair trade fro-yo on their way to co-ed nude Bikram yoga on their bikes with their poodles in tow.

[Blackbeauty212]

Originally Posted by sealie

charisb, given that berating people on the internet and calling them old stupid backwards Yinzer dinosaurs does not seem to be effective thus far, how would you address the issue?

I never called any old and stupid or backwards, so lets not put words in peoples mouths. However the replies here have validated my insinuations.

Originally Posted by tclifton

You realize you still didn't answer the basic question, right?

I'm standing at a bus stop, along with 25 other folks.
Do we start a poll before the bus comes to find out who's paying with cash and who isn't? (and ask everyone as they wander over if they have cash or not?)
Otherwise, how will we know the order that we're to get on the bus?

How about, there needs to be no order, PAT just needs stops taking cash on Buses and forces everyone to use a CC, like other modern Mass Transit systems across the US that gets it. That solves all the "Cash Payers takes too long to pay and causes heavily used routes to run late".

Even assessing a .75 surcharge to People like Evergrey who refuses to modernize out of pure stubbornness, will go a long way at getting people off paying cash @ the farebox. May not work for all, some people may still prefer to pay cash (even with the Surcharge) over adapting. PAT will appreciate the extra revenue they bring, but it will marginalize these people even further to where they'll have pretty much NO effect on reliability of service because they'll be so few and far between.

[gortonator]

Originally Posted by charisb

Wait--are you saying that I am doing that? That certainly isn't my intention (and I have never, nor would I ever, use the term 'Yinzer').
I just think we do need reform and improvement to our public transportation system as it is now.

Removal of a cash option will happen, just like cash will greatly disappear in society as a whole over the next 10-30-ish years. Cell phone based payment methods are just gaining traction (Google Wallet, etc), and as always happens in society, change will be driven by the young and techy-adopting new ways and old people who resist will ever-shrink in number by percentage and eventually die. Seems harsh, but that's the way it is.

It's worth noting that the US is very behind in some elements of finance. I don't think a personal check has been written by anyone in Australia for at least 5 years. Paying without a chip-and-pin credit card is getting increasingly hard in many countries - if you say you don't have a pin they either refuse or look at you with great disdain. And surely I don't need to mention pennies, and crumply papery dollar bills. Head north of the border to see how real currency looks like - even if they do have something called loonies . At least they're washable

[doo dah]

Oh, let's just round up all those old yinzers and, hm, *concentrate* them somewhere, someplace where they don't have to ride the bus and get in the way of the YOUNG PROGRESSIVES.