On our way to get MTA bus passes, I got the strong feeling my civil liberties were slipping away. Downtown LA.

The infamous downtown informant.

So on our way to get bus passes in August something horrible happened.

“We ran out,” said the clerk (No,that’s not the horrible thing.)
“What do you mean, you ran out? It’s August 2nd!!” BusTard shot back.
“Metro gave us only 50 passes. They are phasing them out,” the clerk answered.

CLICK FOR MORE AFTER THE TRANSFER

The vendors got brochures that said this:

“Soon we’ll be replacing your old paper pass with the new Transit Access Pass: TAP! It’s a durable plastic card you can use...”

Yet the riders are getting no such info. In fact if you go to METRO’s “redesigned” site, do a search; here are the results you find: RESULTS

If the info is on the website in regards to the timeline for paper passes going away, a press release, anything email us.

METRO is canceling the monthly bus passes later this year. Soon everybody will have to get TAP cards.

Metro is so fond on the whole meetings thing (meetings that we at the bus bench told you are complete bullshit, though fun for the entertainment factor)  you would think this bit of info would have been something that would have been more widely disclosed.

How much power are we going to give METRO?

This has the potential of violating the civil liberties of the public transit user.

Currently to buy the TAP you are not required to give your information, but eventually it could be a requirement.

The TAP card can then be used to trace every move you make, every step you make, METRO will be watching you.

Like a stalker.

How would car drivers feel if that had to put a device that could potentially track their every driving move in their car?

Why should I trust a security defense company with my travel information? The TAP technology was bought with Homeland Security funding and is supposed to protect against terror, so eventually I can see them requiring us to give our personal information. Your trip from Pershing Square to North Hollywood maybe thwarted, because you're on the "no ride" list.

METRO got 16 million dollars to protect us from terror.

Why is my public transportation status seemed to be a license for the government to potentially impose on my civil liberties? I know what's coming. Why should the public wait until they are on the floor and getting kicked before they say something?

As an owner of a personal vehicle the cops can only stop and search you if they have probable cause. As a transit rider the cops can stop and question you just for being on the bus or train.

What's the next step?

The company that has the TAP, fare gates contract is Cubic, a defense contractor that brags on it's website on how it assists in the “War on Terror”.

That has outrageous potential for harm. It's like giving a 13 year old boy a loaded gun and telling him not to play with it.

The Department of Homeland Security is exempt from the Privacy Act. The potential for the abuse of our civil liberties is very, very real.

The civil liberties of American citizens have been slowly eroding and LA seems to be ground zero as a test ground for  urban cities in regards to tracking. Half of the people here are either too ignorant to realize what kind of impact this will have down the line (impacts like little microchips in your brain) or too busy being community builders, so they don’t want to be rude.

It always seems to be too late to complain once your head is blown off.

by Browne Molyneux

Comments

[Bert Green]

I wondered when they were planning to phase paper passes out. They have done an awful job of explaining the process. You'd think they could at least send brochures to the vendors that they shorted.

So, I guess they will have to institute an electronic terminal system at every vendor, like the lottery, where the cards can be activated. Or maybe you won't be able to buy TAP cards at all at stores.

On the other hand, the good thing about the TAP is you can get your pass refilled at the subway station vending machines. (Once you have a card, that is). And you can still buy the card with cash (but NOT at the subway station, at least yet).

[Simon]

This has been mentioned before, but I still don't understand what you're supposed to do with a TAP card at Metro Center when you switch from the red line to the blue line.

I haven't been there since the Lakers season ended, but the tap pylons were back at the entrance so ... do you run back there and tap or just get on the blue line having not tapped?

[Bert Green]

They say you are supposed to tap each time you change lines. I imagin that will change once they install the fare gates, however.

[browne]

"do you run back there and tap or just get on the blue line having not tapped??"

Simon, if you do that, you will have broken the law. They will arrest you and you were never see your parents again.

On a serious note, yes you are (supposed to by a new ticket or tap or do whatever it is when you get on a new train.) If you go from the Blue Line to the Red Line (or vice versa at 7th and Metro), that's a different line and you have to buy another one way ticket, though I've rarely seen this enforced (actually I've never seen it enforced) on the Blue Line.

The Sheriff and white shirts tend to get on and check for passes south of downtown around Washington.

The Green Line to Blue transfer at the Rosa Parks Station whole different story, they make this VERY clear. With about a dozen or so cops and regular checks to make sure the passengers from the Blue/Green line station in Watts on the edge of Compton buy a new one way ticket. They have often have cops stationed at the Green Line up escalators.

I think it's kind of odd how they do this uneven enforcement. I think it's silly for people to have to buy a new one way ticket if they go one or two stop on the blue or red line and have to transfer.

Browne

[BusTard]

Having some considerable experience jumping the NJT, NY Metro and PATH turnstiles, well, I find Metro in L.A. a rather pathetic challenge.

Moreover, the obese sheriffs and tenderfoots in white shirts do not appear as if they could even begin to sprint in time even to my casual stride.

Bring on the TAP!

[Marcotico]

You raise some pretty valid points, but I can share my experience of the smart card in London, and it was great. I had a monthly bus pass, and topped up my card with $50 in reserve for whenever I wanted to take the tube (which was much more expensive). The card was smart enough to deduct either the one-way fare or the day pass if I took multiple trips.
It really made taking transit as effortless as driving, in the sense that you didn't have to worry about having fare on you, and you didn't have to take the pass out of your wallet, you could just swipe your wallet against the reader.

[Browne]

Marcotico

No problem at all with the TAP, simply the people who are making the TAP and how it's getting funded. I like things easy. I'm easy. I just don't like Cubic I think they have a bad aura.

Though thank you for sharing your experiences. I hope METRO is reading so they can understand what pleasant experience is.

Pee smells, not pleasant. Dirty busses, not pleasant. A system that I know even without terrorism aspect is going to be a logisitic nightmare when we have to transfer between the blue and the red or the green and the blue, not pleasant.

I hope they set it up so it's one tap per your time in the system like they do in NY.
Browne

[human]

now that tap cards are actually required to get monthly passes, it may be time to revisit this.

fwiw, it doesn't matter if they ask for your personal information or not. it's still a violation of privacy. correlating a tap card to a person is pretty easy. searching for the tap card in the mta's logs is trivial. nyc and sf's way of doing things is only slightly better. with riders periodically getting new cards, you need a more complex search, but it's easily automated.

i genuinely hope the mta does the right thing with this. if they don't cave to law enforcement every time they're asked for records on a given tap card and use the mountains of data on ridership patterns to improve service, i'm okay with it. but, that hope relies on trusting the mta.

[human]

got my first tap card today. didn't need to divulge personal information.

mta customer relations' replied to my concerns about privacy violations with this: "Thank you for your e-mails of January 4th regarding TAP. We have
forwarded copies to TAP Customer Service. The TAP Staff can be
contacted directly via e-mail at: "customerservice@taptogo.net" or by
telephone at 1-866-TAPTOGO (1-866-827-8646)."

in case you were wondering about "e-mails" (plural), i also questioned whether the tap system was indeed more environmentally friendly as they are claiming.

love the runaround.

[browne]

I am going to revisit this.

"it's still a violation of privacy. correlating a tap card to a person is pretty easy." human

Yes I agree. Great comments. Next week, I'll have time.

Browne

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