A Contactless Future for NYC Transit: The Rollout of One Metro New York
Hey New Yorkers! Let’s talk about your favorite thing in the whole wide world!
The subway!
Yes, that ancient locomotive that somehow manages to move millions of residents of NYC from one place to another without totally giving up midway. What a champ, folks.
But let’s not address its mind-boggling disruptions.
Or its Olympic-level delays.
Or even its vast range of confusing smells.
Let’s, instead, talk about its future.
Specifically, its bold attempt at rethinking commute, modernizing transit, and increasing accessibility.
Let’s talk contactless, y’all.
Goodbye MetroCards, Hello OMNY
Did you know Boston’s CharlieCard is inspired by the folk song character Charlie riding the Boston transit? Or that Chicago’s Ventra card is a reference to its nickname as the ‘windy city’? And that London’s Oyster card is a loving nod to the abundant oysters of the Thames?
Well, now you do.
New York’s MetroCard, however, is not a reference to anything. This fairly generic, unimaginative name (sorry not sorry) has failed to properly capture the essence of the city since its inception.
Enter OMNY. Or One Metro New York. A representation of a united city — this diverse bastion of five boroughs! — riding the public transit together. How romantic.
In addition to being a rebranding of the MetroCard, OMNY is New York’s first foray into contactless fare payment systems. So instead of swiping your MetroCard, you’ll simply tap your smartphone, or contactless card, to gain entry through the subway turnstiles. Tap and go, folks!
This is especially important as MetroCard’s infamous swipe is a relic of the old (read: crumbling) transit infrastructure, put in place by the MTA in 1993. While other major cities have been quick to implement SmartCards or contactless systems, the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority has struggled to put this into practice before this year.
But why should I care about contactless? I barely care about the subway.
Me, too, dear rider. ME, TOO. But there are numerous reasons you should care about contactless:
1) It will remove friction — You know the summertime hell at Times Square station. No more waiting in line for someone to get their swipes right!
2) It will reduce operating costs and other miscellaneous fees — Station attendants, processing fees, actual cost of materials and ink — you name it, contactless is out here to save it.
3) It will increase security — Raise your hand if you’ve ever dropped your paper thin MetroCard somewhere. Or worse, had it stolen. Contactless methods are easier track down to a specific user and, hence, much harder to misplace. In cases of theft, they’re also easier to cancel, track down, or replace.
4) It will help shape ridership behavior — Imagine a world where offers and loyalty programs personalized for you appear on your contactless payment method!
This can encourage sustainable commuting patterns, something that New York could really use to combat overcrowding.
Singapore offered free rides during early mornings to its commuters to reduce congestion on trains. It worked. The possibilities are endless with the magic of targeted taps.
5) It signals a shift for the MTA — New Yorkers, you love the MTA, but you also mostly hate it. This transition to contactless is bold and new, two words we never use to describe the organization. We are witnessing something amazing and important happening right now: MTA is innovating.
Okay, contactless is cool. But the transition to OMNY is completely unrealistic, right?
Actually, not quite.
Now that MTA is basically a startup bro, they are employing a genius strategy for the OMNY rollout: a test and learn phase with strategic checkpoints.
- On May 31st, 2019, OMNY went live at select stations.
- In 2020, there will be a ticketing app for OMNY.
- In 2021, there will be a physical OMNY card.
- In 2022, there will be OMNY vending machines.
- And in 2023, there will be no more MetroCard.
This means that the OMNY rollout spans 5 years.
While this plan seems unnecessarily long to some, it’s devised with great intention. All these checkpoints ensure there is enough data gathered from the last phase to iterate and tweak things to guarantee a timely, seamless delivery at each deadline.
Instead of waiting until completion in 2023, MTA is working more like a startup and less like a government agency.
With average annual ridership of almost 2 billion, MTA simply cannot afford to wait until 2023 to measure success. If something goes wrong, recalling cards, closing stations, or fixing unexpected software failures will bring the city to a standstill.
So MTA embraced Agile and experimentation.
Earlier this week, it was announced that MTA reached 1 million taps in 60 days, much faster than they anticipated. This currently averages out to about 22,000 taps a day!
The future
While contactless is a step in the right direction, there are certainly some gaps the MTA should address sooner than later.
Right now, you can only pay with your contactless credit or debit card or through your iOS or Android digital wallet. For a pilot program that is aiming to gather as much data as possible at prominent stations, this fails to take into account people who do not have smart devices (looking at you, Brooklyn) or contactless bank cards. Since MTA will not get around to issuing OMNY subway cards until 2021, this will cause a gap in thorough understanding of ALL of its commuters.
Regardless, the future looks bright.
MTA launched Transit Tech Lab in late 2018, an accelerator program for public transportation solutions. This platform enables different companies to pilot their technology with the MTA and transform NYC infrastructure. Some of the problems they are looking to solve immediately:
- How can the MTA better predict subway incident impacts and serve customers with minimal impact?
- How can the MTA make buses faster and more efficient?
Am I skeptical? Yes. Come on, it’s the MTA.
But I am also hopeful. Because somehow — in its devious, mysterious ways— MTA always comes through.
Now excuse me while I wait on this platform for 30 minutes. Or 3 years. Who really knows.
