By: Giselle General

This is part of an ongoing series of posts discussion issues I personally encounter while taking public transit in Edmonton. Links to other posts will be added on an ongoing basis:

• Part 1: Do You Want a Ride?
• Part 2: I Don’t Want To Be Raped Again
• Part 3: I’ll Make It on Time, I Think?
• Part 4: You Don’t Want Me To Be Driving
• Part 5: I Think I’ll Walk Instead
• Part 6: Transit Access Influence House Shopping
• Part 7: The Evolution of Audio Announcements
• Part 8: Cheating to Survive by Evading Transit Fare
• Part 9: Sprinting While Connecting
• Part 10: Transit Routes Made us Move
• Part 11: The Construction Zone Bus Stops
• Part 12: Report it on the App
• Part 13: A Month of Cool Transit Milestones
• Part 14: The Construction Neighbours
• Part 15: Being the Human Transit Navigator
• Part 16: The Transit Advocacy Group is Here!
• Part 17: Who To Call for Help? You Don’t Know?!

What is a Captive Transit User? I learned about the term for the first time from the City of Edmonton’s website. The easy definition is: someone who takes public transit because it’s the best (or only available) option for them to travel around. The part about feeling ‘captive’ comes from the restriction that sometimes comes up, perhaps because one is too poor to own and maintain a vehicle, one does not know how to drive, or for medical reasons, cannot operate a vehicle. In many ways, I relate to this a lot. Though I’m pretty fortunate to afford the occasional taxi ride, and with my husband having a car.

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Joy to the transit nerds and transit users this month! The ability to pay transit fare through debit, credit, and e-wallets have finally arrived.

Kudos to both the city government social media pages and the city council politicians promoting it heavily. Right when I started seeing the social media posts, the timing had worked out perfectly because I had two dollars or so left in my ARC card. The flashing yellow light in the ARC card scanner on the bus was a clear sign that I have to top up. But I got to try to pay up with my own payment cards instead.

Now, I know that my debit card has some strange 70% success rate. In some places where I don’t even spend a lot of money, like the café by my work building, or even when grocery shopping, sometimes it doesn’t work. So that cold morning waiting for the trusty number 2 bus to take me to downtown, I tried my debit card, hoping for it to work. And it did NOT!

So my freezing hands had to dig out my credit card right away to tap it while the bus is running so it doesn’t get late the closer it got to downtown. The detour to 107 Ave plays a role on whether I’d arrive 2 minutes or 15 minutes after the projected time from Google Maps.

I continued using my credit card for those next three workdays. Then I checked the transactions through my online banking. I was not surprised seeing a single charge in one day despite taking two trips. Looks like the ARC or ETS system tracks all trips and then determines the final charge at the end of the day, which makes sense to me. But I was confused at the amount. $5 seemed too low. But the transactions were still marked Pending, so I figured I wait.

The following week though, when I logged in again to my online banking, the fee changed to $6 per day. That sounds about right.

My ARC card is in a keychain with some bling, my house key and a sturdy plastic sleeve with my card covered with cute transit-related stickers from a local artist. Unfortunately, that very first day I was paying with my credit card instead of my ARC card, I lost the whole keychain! I was relieved that I have the other way to pay for bus fare, but I’m more upset about losing the stickers that I put on my ARC card. I also had to send my husband on an errand to have a new key for me. I have a replacement ARC card now, and I’m eagerly waiting for those amazing transit-related stickers to be available again.

One time this week, I tapped my new ARC card on the scanner in front of the bus and it flashed red with the very aggressive BEEP sound. The screen said “cannot read” as opposed to “low balance”, and as I was about to tap it again, the driver immediately said “you can pay with debit now.” The very reflexive way the driver said it made me realize, that the ability to pay with debit, credit and e-wallets is likely something that passengers have asked about so many times. Luckily for that trip, my second attempt tapping the card worked!

I gave myself a full week to try this out before I felt comfortable enough to tell my brother. He’s been waiting for this for so long. We hang out about once a month, and when it is a location near a bus stop with frequent routes, or near the WEM transit centre, he would take the bus home. At random times he had asked me for change or tickets if I had some to spare. At one point, I even gifted him an ARC card that I preloaded with money. He’s complained to me several times when he had to refill the card with money in winter, as the machine by WEM transit centre glitches a bit when it’s too cold. I know this problem very well, I’ve experienced it myself and sent a few complaints to the city through the 311 app.

He was so happy when I told him. His wallet is very compact, the type that has room for maybe a few cards and bills, not even a compartment for coins. He’s forgotten his ARC card a few times. But that won’t be an issue anymore. Then again, he just moved to a new apartment rental that is way southwest of our city ward, an area served by only a 3-digit, community bus route. It’s likely he will use the bus less frequently anyways.

But at least for him, and for anyone else who would be a very occasional user, this option will serve them well.

People just need to remember that the scanners get confused when several cards and wallets are within the scanning proximity. So it’s best to take out the card that you intend to use, instead of tapping your whole wallet to it.

And I really hope that people do tap off when leaving the bus or an LRT station.

On Christmas Eve my ARC card ran out of money again. Instead of using my credit card, I used it as an opportunity to get rid of some change from my wallet. As my coins jangled through the cash fare box, I asked for a transfer. It was a bit amusing how the driver had to set up the transfer ticket sheet, as if no one has asked them all day so far. As I held my transfer ticket on my way to Christmas Eve dinner, I’m glad to experience for myself all the digital and physical payment methods offered to passengers.

The few paper tickets I have though, they will be souvenirs I’m saving, along with all the transit-related merch, books and old bus passes I’ve collected over the years!