It is strange when something is right in front of you and you just don’t see it. Until WHAM it feels like you have been hit in the face by a brick.
That sums up how I am feeling right now.
As a person who uses public transportation quite often, I had seen advertising and equipment repeatedly for the new Presto system. But until one of our researchers gave me this information, I was in the “dark” about it, I even thought that it made sense. Why not have a system in place to transfer from one transit system to another.
The Presto transit system is based on the Presto “smart” card.
When boarding a Presto enabled bus, train, etc. Riders tap their card card, embedded with an RFID chip, on to a reader. The reader will then check for either a valid transit pass, or automatically deduct the lowest available fare from the card.
Presto is in use in these Ontario cities and systems:
GO Transit
Oakville Transit
Burlington Transit
Brampton Transit
MiWay (Mississauga Transit)
Hamilton Street Railway
York Region Transit/Viva
Durham Region Transit
OC Transpo (2012)
Toronto Transit Commission
Here is a promotional video:
Presto requires “proof of eligibility” (ID) to purchase a “smart” card and also promotes the future ability of loading money onto the card with your smart phone.
More gadgets and systems being added into the smart grid, and furthering the Canadian cashless society.
This just one more step closer to the cashless control grid that is being put into place (with increased speed). A system that controls and traces your every move.
As of 2015 all American cars will have black boxes (the kind that are in commercial jets), that record everywhere that you travel to in the car. Some car rental companies have already started to use this technology. To add extra fees when a person crosses state/provincial boundaries, etc.
Now with the Presto card, public transit users can also be tracked from the information in the RFID chip.
Isn’t living in a control grid of a society great! Not only is everything thing that you use in your home, recorded and stored. Any traveling you do will be as well. The loving governments around the world tracking every move the lowly plebs make, until finally those governments are amalgamated into the global government. And those control systems get centralized. Which won’t be hard, they are all based on the same technology.
Money quote for me so far: Over the past few years, the Province has implemented spifecic programs to provide a range of funding for transit and the TTC. The funding for some of these programs is, however, contingent upon TTC participation in the PRESTO system (i.e. CSIF; gas tax). In addition, the Province has also stated that the adoption of the PRESTO farecard system will be a requirement for new transit projects (i.e. Transit City; subway extensions). The reality is that through these various programs, there is a significant amount of funding for various transit initiatives that is linked to TTC’s participation in PRESTO. If the TTC did not join PRESTO, it could put funding for these programs at risk. The decision for the TTC to join PRESTO, therefore, has potential implications that go well beyond the smartcard system itself.Based on the factors discussed above, there is sufficient justification for the TTC to commit to the concept of smartcards and for joining the PRESTO system. (emphasis added)Such a useful word, implications.Steve: Yes. Queen’s Park is right no matter what it costs. Can you say eHealth?
Cycling is free
In Ottawa, OC Transpo has decided to install these as well. I have seen some.
Hello people…. ID to ride a bus….NAZISM
I use public transit and I am appauled and refuse.
Buy the premium priced encrypted Presto card.
Jct: Now, all they’ve got to do is find a way for us to transfer our credits from card to card and we have a new alternative currency we don’t pay any interest to use. See my Brantford Bus Bucks campaign to pay students with bus tickets credited to their smart card account.