Fare curiosity

This week Rantwoman made two curious discoveries on the street level at the International District tunnel stop.

First, RantWoman discovered what she thinks must be the same kind of ORCA card reader on Metro's buses. RantWoman supposes this is one of the desired functions before the impending opening of Light Rail, but RantWoman still finds this placement going INTO the elevator curious. Arguably it makes sense for time periods outside of Free Ride Zone hours. What happens for people who do not use the elevator? Will these readers take as long to wake up and read as some of the ones on buses do?

RantWoman has observed that sometimes in the loading or unloading of people in wheelchairs, drivers and passengers forget to ask about or offer fares. RantWoman has no opinion about any vast revenues foregone in this oversight: Most people RantWoman knows who use a disabled pass pay their monthly pass fee. Most likely the time to deal with fare would just add to the time already needed to deal with the wheelchair lift. In other words, RantWoman is way more likely to get worked up about other problems, but she still does not understand the placement of the ORCA reader.

The other wonderful but also perplexing discovery RantWoman made was the ATM-like dispenser of Sounder Tickets. This dispenser has several features RantWoman is highly impressed with: braille and raised lettering with various kinds of instructions about what to press for audio, where to insert bills or coins and most fun of all, sequences of raised arrows one can follow from one set of needed buttons to another. The only thing that perplexed RantWoman was a slot which RantWoman supposes would receive either an ORCA card or more likely a credit card. There were small visible directions that seemed to suggest inserting a credit card, but there was nothing tactile to help RantWoman figure out for sure.

RantWoman has an ORCA card. She had no intentions of going anywhere on the Sounder. RantWoman did not try this wonderful gizmo so maybe she missed an audio explanation of the mysterious slot. She is however, curious: what if she wanted to add money to her ORCA card? What if she wanted to buy someone else tickets with money out of her ORCA card wallet? RantWoman supposes that transit planners are busy just trying to get the darn light rail open this week, so RantWoman will file the questions and note the curiosity.