Oyster Card - Sweet!
Just wanted to write about one of the technologies that goes unappreciated - The Oyster card.
The oyster card replaces the old paper tickets for the underground. Instead of having to pass your ticket through the gates you can touch the gate with your oyster card. You don't need to take the oyster card out of your wallet.
The old ticket system meant that I used to have to look for my ticket take it out of my wallet and then take it through the gates. This would take me at least 8 seconds - often a lot longer as I am one of those forgetful people that could never remember which pocket he put his ticket back into and ended up spending a good deal of time going through his pockets looking for the ticket.
With the oyster card it is always in my wallet. I don't need to take it out of my wallet and look for it. This saves me at least 6 seconds every morning. Multiply it by 400,000 people that take the Northern line every morning and the oyster card saves Londoners travelling on the northern line 2,400,000 seconds. This is equivalent to 83.4 working days. Seeing as most people travel 2 way this is 166.6 days.
So the time saved means that one person travelling the northern line can afford to take half a year of holidays just by the efficiency brought in by the oyster card.
When technology is introduced and it is done well no one really notices it and no one really talks about it. Think about all the headlines that hit the papers whenever a government IT project goes wrong or goes over budget. The oyster card is one of the best things I've seen in years - it's simple and effective and doesn't really need to be talked about (unless you are technology appreciating geek like me).
How can it be improved? I think you can have it so that it uses bluetooth from your phone so you don't even need to take out you wallet - you can walk straight through. This will save me another 2 seconds and you can do the efficiency savings for the 2 seconds for 400,000 northern line travellers....
The oyster card replaces the old paper tickets for the underground. Instead of having to pass your ticket through the gates you can touch the gate with your oyster card. You don't need to take the oyster card out of your wallet.
The old ticket system meant that I used to have to look for my ticket take it out of my wallet and then take it through the gates. This would take me at least 8 seconds - often a lot longer as I am one of those forgetful people that could never remember which pocket he put his ticket back into and ended up spending a good deal of time going through his pockets looking for the ticket.
With the oyster card it is always in my wallet. I don't need to take it out of my wallet and look for it. This saves me at least 6 seconds every morning. Multiply it by 400,000 people that take the Northern line every morning and the oyster card saves Londoners travelling on the northern line 2,400,000 seconds. This is equivalent to 83.4 working days. Seeing as most people travel 2 way this is 166.6 days.
So the time saved means that one person travelling the northern line can afford to take half a year of holidays just by the efficiency brought in by the oyster card.
When technology is introduced and it is done well no one really notices it and no one really talks about it. Think about all the headlines that hit the papers whenever a government IT project goes wrong or goes over budget. The oyster card is one of the best things I've seen in years - it's simple and effective and doesn't really need to be talked about (unless you are technology appreciating geek like me).
How can it be improved? I think you can have it so that it uses bluetooth from your phone so you don't even need to take out you wallet - you can walk straight through. This will save me another 2 seconds and you can do the efficiency savings for the 2 seconds for 400,000 northern line travellers....
posted by Amir at 8:57 PM
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