The positioning of the device you need swipe looks a little inconvenient. You'd need to look down and stoop a little to touch your card to it (assuming the picture in the article is representative of normal positioning).<p>In the London Underground, the Oyster Card readers are placed on top of the dividers between the turnstiles, so you just move through as normal and swipe as you go.<p>I also wonder whether combining a credit card and subway payment card is necessarily the best idea. If you want an Oyster Card in London, you can usually grab a pre-paid one in the terminal itself, or in a newsagent by the entrance. If you lose your card, then you've only lost what you put on it.<p>Getting a contactless card seems more work, and I'd be a little more nervous about it being taken whilst I was waving it around.
I wish I had access to Mayor Bloomberg on this one. This entire pilot has been surrounded by mysticism. How many companies were allowed to bid for this "pilot"? Why will it take 5 years to mimic what other countries have done already? Why is a credit card company and not pure contactless OEMs or service providers not the ones doing the pilot? Why 5 years to do the implementation?<p>I bet you that my company (or any other NFC startup, for that matter) would've done the entire implementation in less than 1 year and at 1/10th the cost. Shady MTA, shady!
Reading into this more: While we surely need an easier way to swipe for a subway ride, other than buggy MetroCards, why is .24% usage considered a success? Worth the cost?