Perspective
The United States Needs a Universal System to Pay for Public Transit
Why doesn’t the United States have a national system for transit payment? In some countries, a single travel card works to ride any train, bus, subway or tram.
I have a confession to make. I’m not proud of it, but my own laziness often drives my transportation decisions when I’m in a new city.
Case in point: I recently flew into Austin’s airport and needed to get downtown. I had a couple of smart cards in my wallet and a few transit apps on my iPhone, but none would get me anywhere in Austin. If I wanted to use public transit—something I generally like to do—I’d have to figure out how to buy a ticket for the local Capital Metro system. An advertisement in the airport invited me to download the Capital Metro app, but my lazy brain wasn’t having it. “Nope,” it said. “Too much of a hassle. Just grab a Lyft; the app is already on your phone.” And so I did.