Transactions: ORCA

RantWoman has been stepping through various beginning of the month financial exercises.


One is to put another month pass on her ORCA card. RantWoman's baseline financial picture includes an infusion of funds early in the month but not soon enough to have a new pass available on the first of the month. RantWoman is THRILLED that she can now add either the current month or a month ahead. Done, all the way to October!

The next financial matter is to check on transactions from RantWoman's ORCA wallet. RantWoman has way too much college and conversant in multiple languages. But the patchwork of bus zones, transfer rules, transfer windows, and other minutia needed to use public transit in the Puget Sound makes RantWoman's brain melt. Responsible people who get paid to deal with these things assure RantWoman she is not the only person afflicted with this problem and they are working on it. In the meantime, RantWoman keeps money in her ORCA wallet and has been letting ORCA and bus drivers figure out what is needed for different circumstances. Possibly, RantWoman should just not audit her ORCA transactions!

Over the last about 10 months, RantWoman has intended, out of her ORCA wallet to:

--to pay one way student fare for irrepressible nephew to school 2 or 3 times during a school vacation period

--to pay fares two different days round trip to Lynnwood for companions who qualify for regional reduced fare prices.

--to pay full non-peak adult fares twice on the same day for a friend, Mrs. Dr.Computer Science Professor visiting from out of town who could perfectly well pay her own full fare, but RantWoman was glad to see her and wanted to be welcoming!

RantWoman has INTENDED to pay all of these fares. RantWoman has dutifully informed drivers of her desire and has received contradictory information about whether the ORCA wallet transactions need to be announced before or after RantWoman taps her card about her own pass. RantWoman's various travel companions all received transfers too.

Somewhere in this sequence, RantWoman thinks she probably added $5 to her ORCA wallet, but RantWoman definitely thinks more than about $4 should have been deducted from her wallet. There. RantWoman has now said her piece. RantWoman will add one detail in an email to topical people for free. Other than that, RantWoman guesses it is up to people who get paid to think about this to decide how big and urgent this problem is. In particular, are there hundreds of other people like RantWoman crazy enough to expect ORCA and bus drivers together to handle all these complexities?