YTV Travel Card-failure

I was really close of not posting this earlier, but a recent development on the travel card development pushed it over the “publishing edge” so to say. The subject at hand is the YTV Travel Card – a wireless card that is used in public transporation systems in the Helsinki area; the old instructions can be found here. With some years of experience behind now, I think we can say that the YTV travel card has been somwhat of a disaster for the council & cities involved.

The first group of problems is partly technical and partly economical; the technology chosen was proprietary and not a standard RFID technology, which has since led the system to be incredibly expensive. Moreover, the sole supplier of the cards is stopping their manufacturing, forcing the council to a) order a whole lot of of cards to cover the need for the next few years and still b) to overhaul the entire system in a few years time to something else. The latter, while also presenting an opportunity to fix the various problems, is naturally very expensive.

The second group of problems relates to usability which is, quite frankly, terrible. It should be stated right off the bat that the usage when the card is loaded with “time” is quite easy; you just show the machine your card and off you go. Thus, usage of monthly tickets is a breeze – and the reader works even if your card is in your wallet or something. I’m personally on a “monthly” ticket, so I don’t have to deal with most of the problems I talk about here. But many people do.

Anyway, the device looks like this thing here on the right. There are some buttons, lights and a display. And lots of problems:

• The basic logic: It works so that you show your card to the machine by placing it in the middle of the buttons, thus effectively blocking out the buttons you are supposed to be pressing to choose a ticket. Oh, except for some tickets which you have to insert in a slot at the bottom of the machine.

   

• The symbols: 0, 1 and 2. Intuitively they mean nothing to people. Wouldn’t it have been better to use icons or simplified maps instead? Maybe they make sense when one is explained what they mean: 1 buys an intracity ticket, 2 buys an intercity ticket and 0 buys a tram ticket. Nope, they still don’t make sense.

   

• The tactile sensation: Sometimes the buttons need only a light touch to register the trip. Sometimes they need repeated pounding with such force that most senior citizens are incapable of pressing the button. This easily causes multiple purchases and general aggravation.

   

First the card readers in buses were in a location where the drivers couldn’t see – this caused the number of passangers without a proper ticket to rise by 30%. Then the readers were moved up front where the driver could see them – at a cost of €350,000. This kind of mishap could’ve been prevented with proper field testing in the first place.

Now the latest idea is to come up with additional buttons, intuitively called “L” and “3“. As there are now 5 buttons for a 4-button system, this will cause there to be three kinds of systems; one found in buses and trains, one in trams and one on the Suomenlinna ferries.

What do you think the “L” stands for? Could it be short for Lähi or Local? Maybe you can buy an intra-city ticket with that. Wrong. Actually, L buys you a ticket that’s good in Espoo, Vantaa, Kerava, Kirkkonummi but not in Helsinki. 3, on the other hand, buys you a ticket that’s good in all areas, including Kirkkonummi and Kerava. The validity also takes a step backwards – except for the tram ticket, a ticket used to be valid on all forms of transportation in all cities involved: trains, buses, trams, subway, even the Suomenlinna ferry. Except now with Kirkkonummi, it’s valid for trains only. With the new buttons, some simple text is also added on the buttons to explain what they mean – in Finnish and Swedish, which of course is completely useless to all foreigners who would most need the help.

After all this complaining, I’m sure a lot of people who like the system would spring forward to defend it. And sure, when it works, it works pretty okay. But unfortunately the truth is that people eventually learn to use even inconvenient systems when they “have” to; the fact that many people learn to adjust to deal with the system is not a sign that the system is well-designed.