5 new things with OMNY in New York City

[Music] do you know what I hate most about using  these MetroCard machines not the fact that it has   a bad user experience or that they don't always  take cash or card or that they function so slow   and cause long lines the part that I hate the most  is having to touch it these machines can get so   gross you'll see machines with spilled food greasy  fingerprints or unknown liquids and not only that   sometimes the sensors on these machines can't  detect your finger when you touch the screen and   so you kind of have to find the right sweet spot  when you're selecting buttons on the screen it's   not a true touchcreen but sometimes you have no  choice but to use these machines thankfully today   we have contactless payment available this has  been available for all Subways and buses all over   New York since 2019 now 4 years later there are  five new updates to these OMNY machines which are   the contactless payment system in New York and if  you're curious as to what these updates are that's   what we're going to talk about in this video so  keep watching and if you've ever struggled with   using a metro card hit that like button welcome to  Urban caffeine my name is Thea and you're watching   a channel that keeps tabs on public transit in  New York City if you like topics like these make   sure you subscribe and hit that notification  Bell so you won't miss future videos having a   cont contactless payment system that's open loop  meaning it can accept a universal payment method   like a credit card or a smartphone is a huge deal  because it simplifies taking public transit just   last week I made a video on how paying for public  transit shouldn't be the thing that holds people   back from taking public transit with New York's  OMNY system you don't have to get in line at a   vending machine and with rolling Fair cap which  I'll talk about in a bit you don't have to figure   out what type type of ticket to get or whether you  need unlimited for the week or not and with the   acceptance of universal payment like credit card  or debit card there's no need to get a different   ticket every time you switch different modes of  Transit like from the airra to the subway those   are huge reasons why the OMNY system is such a  big deal in New York city so let's start with   the first update which is the rolling Fair cap if  you don't know what Fair capping is check out this   video it's basically putting a li on how much  you spend on public transit in a given period   of time in New York the new Fair cap is $34 per 7  days so you never have to pay more than $34 in a   7-Day period before Fair capping was locked in  from Monday to Sunday so if you used OMNY from   Wednesday to Monday you were within two Fair cap  periods even though you used the system for only   6 days now Fair capping is rolling once you tap  no matter what day your rides are tallied for   the next 7 days and the 7-Day Fair cap will  start again the next time you tap after the   previous 7-Day period however tracking your trip  is proving to be difficult lately which brings   us to the next update in the beginning when OMNY  was first launched you were able to see your trip   history in your OMNY account you could see all  the stations you paid at and where you got your   free transfers and this was also where you could  dispute any wrong charges but there was a security   flaw with this turns out if you had someone's  anyone's credit card information you would be   able to see their trip history super creepy not  private at all this was announced back in August   and to this day the history tracker has been  disabled this is so frustrating because you're   just using OMNY blindly and you can't tally  up how many rides you've made I use an OMNY   card and I I load it with $30 or $40 at a time  and I can't look at all the charges on the OMNY   card all I can see on my credit card account  is a$3 or $40 charge everything that happens   within my OMNY card I can't tell whether I was  charged twice at a station or if I've had my free   transfer and I can't dispute charges because  I don't have that record of my trip I guess   one roundabout way to track your trips is to use  your credit card directly or your phone with the   credit card programmed into it but then you get  all these small charges of 290 in your statement   which if you're like me who likes to keep good  tabs on your spending it's frustrating because   it's just clutters everything I'm hoping to get  this fixed soon when that will be who knows I'm   going to check before I publish this video and if  anything changes from the time I record this video   to publishing it I'll make sure to pin a comment  not only do we have OMNY on subways and buses we   now have contactless payment at the JFK Airport  Air train and the Roosevelt Island Tram this is   a big deal because from airplane to Subway people  need to pay for the air Trin in between which used   to only take the metro card so even if people paid  directly with a credit card at the subway they   would have still needed to buy a metro card which  cost an extra dollar on top of the fair but now   people can just pay directly from airra to Subway  with a card or smartphone and no need to get in   line but because not everybody has a credit card  debit card or smartphone and they want to phase   out the metro card and just have the OMNY system  as the sole payment system on public transit New   York there needs to be a way for someone to pay  with cash when taking public transit they can do   this with an OMNY card that can be loaded with  cash or credit or debit card and where might one   get an OMNY card for the longest time they slowly  rolled out the OMNY card by just selling them at   convenience stores like CVS or 7-Eleven but omn  vending machines have been popping up in stations   all over the city not all stations have these but  they're slowly getting to all the stations it's   so unassuming too they just quietly rolled it out  you walk into a station and sometimes you'll see   an OMNY machine next to a metro card machine but  they're not functional yet and I assume there's   going to be this big announcement once they are  functional and people can buy OMNY cards but   just seeing these machines in stations it's a sign  of progress on that note make sure you follow me   on social media so you get the latest updates on  these machines these videos that I make on YouTube   have a lag time takes me about 2 weeks to make a  YouTube video but I share all the latest updates   as I get them on social media so make make sure  you follow and yes OMNY cards are more expensive   than the metro card but they are valid for 5  years so they're roughly the same special Fair   reduced cards are now available for seniors and  those with disabilities and you can get them in   person or online for students they don't have  them yet but I'm sure it's coming soon the MTA   website lists locations where people can go and  person and instructions for online access let's   take a moment and talk about the online process  of getting a special Fair card if someone were   to tell me I could get a special Fair card online  in my OMNY account I would logically think that   it would fall under account in the nav but no you  have to go through this chat box which works but   it's not that intuitive if someone hadn't told  me beforehand as a designer I feel that these   chat box are a last resort sort of thing if you  cannot find something through the nav I don't   know our Trends changing is chat box or digital  assistance the way to go now comment down below   but if you've gone through this experience of  getting a special Fair card online comment how   easy or how hard it is or if you had to call  somebody I'm curious so what can we say now the   roll out of the OMNY system has been slower than  expected and way over budget partly because it was   reported that there weren't that many people  working full-time on on this along with high   turnover and management turnover and management is  no joke whenever there's a turnover and management   there's potential for the sky to fall you  have this process going and suddenly it's   all disrupted because maybe there's an or chart  maybe the processes change and so the fact that   there were several turnovers Management in the  four years that OMNY has been rolling out that's   a quite a concern there but overall in General  when it comes to public works when it comes to   government when it comes to public transit in  the US progress is slow so the fact that the OMNY   system has all these new updates like rolling  Fair cap reduced Fair the use of it on other   transit systems outside of the subway and the  buses is reason to celebrate I know some of you   out there are thinking H my country has had this  for a very long time and the roll out was pretty   fast we know and we're jealous of it but instead  of telling us what we already know and what we're   already jealous of just just come celebrate with  us because any progress in the realm of transit   in the United States is well fought for a lot of  time energy and resources were put into that and   some people dedicate their life's work their  entire life's work to building Transit where   it does not exist it's hard to get any progress  done in the United States so any small victory   is worth celebrating because Behind these small  incremental winds people had to move mountains   anyway if you've made it this far my question  to you is how do you feel about the impending   retirement of the metro card comment down below  and let's reminisce together I remember moving   to New York and on day two I bought a monthly  unlimited metro card and that to me was ceremonial   I felt instantly connected to this city because I  just spent 120 something dollars on public transit   so it was like me saying hey New York I'm not  going anywhere I'm going to be here for a while   and that's all I got for you before you click out  make sure you like this video and hit subscribe   if you want to chat more about public transit in  New York or just New York things in general we   have an active Discord community you can access  Discord through patreon or the join button of   this channel thank you so much for watching  and until the next video Happy new yorking

Channel: Urban Caffeine

Views: 53,193

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Id: 5OTZuU-aVt8

Length: 11min 9sec (669 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 28 2023