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What is going on with the Smartrip sensors in Metro in the stations (not the buses)????
I hadn't been riding the metro lately until recently cause of the rain (I normally commute on my bicycle) and slight cold.
But I noticed 2 things that have been happening on the Metro and wondered if all you other Washingtonian riders have noticed.
1) The gates and sensors don't open up as quick as they use to. THey use to read MUCH faster and I was noticing this cause lines were getting backed up. Gates were slamming on people, some dude this morning got REAL pissed getting slammed in the gate (yikes!). The sensors were much faster, what is going on hasn't anyone noticed this?
2) The second is the Smartbenefits, I 've gone to 2 stations in the span of a week and they still can't activate the SmartBenefits to put money on the card. An attendant had heard this from other riders when I talked to him last Friday and thought things would be reset Monday (today). Nope.. in fact I saw another guy at the machine try to do this and it didn't work for him either.
Anybody got a clue as to what the heck is going on??!?!?!?
It could be just that location regarding the Smart benefits. Mine loaded just fine on Friday afternoon. I do notice the delay in opening of the gates though. That never bothered me, but what did was the fact that sometimes only one of them would open initially and the other half would open with a delay... thus having me slam into half of one.
What is going on with the Smartrip sensors in Metro in the stations (not the buses)????
I hadn't been riding the metro lately until recently cause of the rain (I normally commute on my bicycle) and slight cold.
But I noticed 2 things that have been happening on the Metro and wondered if all you other Washingtonian riders have noticed.
1) The gates and sensors don't open up as quick as they use to. THey use to read MUCH faster and I was noticing this cause lines were getting backed up. Gates were slamming on people, some dude this morning got REAL pissed getting slammed in the gate (yikes!). The sensors were much faster, what is going on hasn't anyone noticed this?
2) The second is the Smartbenefits, I 've gone to 2 stations in the span of a week and they still can't activate the SmartBenefits to put money on the card. An attendant had heard this from other riders when I talked to him last Friday and thought things would be reset Monday (today). Nope.. in fact I saw another guy at the machine try to do this and it didn't work for him either.
Anybody got a clue as to what the heck is going on??!?!?!?
1) You know how they changed the fare structure? Well, the computers that read SmarTrip cards are really ****ty. Like, they were probably made in the 1980s. Basically, the extra memory needed to know all that extra fare information makes the reading of the card slower. I too was attacked by a fare gate, so now I usually wait for the gate to close before I scan my card.
2) No idea, frankly it's best to have incredibly low expectations when using anything Metro-related.
They updated the system or something, and that's why the gates are slower. I don't know how that works, but that's why.
As far as SmartBenefits, it wasn't working because of the end of the fiscal year. However, I was able to reload mine last Friday, so maybe try another station?
1) You know how they changed the fare structure? Well, the computers that read SmarTrip cards are really ****ty. Like, they were probably made in the 1980s. Basically, the extra memory needed to know all that extra fare information makes the reading of the card slower. I too was attacked by a fare gate, so now I usually wait for the gate to close before I scan my card.
2) No idea, frankly it's best to have incredibly low expectations when using anything Metro-related.
You are probably right. I just hope they fix it soon.
Maybe we should switch to magnetic strips like the metrocard in NYC and replace our fare gates with turnstiles. Cheaper and safer.
Neither. It would cost at least $10-$20 million to retrofit Metro stations, probably closer to $50 mill. And the jail-style turnstiles they have in NYC are awful. They are also, from what I can tell, not reversable, which DC Metro's are. (at the very least, they are not bi-directional like the wide gates here)
As for safety, I'll take something I can jump over in an emergency, like the Metro gates, versus a metal wall, where people can get crushed.
Metro's were safe and fine until the fare structure changes which slowed them down. I could ALWAYS tap the card and walk through without missing a beat. Now if I try doing that there's a fair chance I'll get castrated by the gates.
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