Author: Simon Rockman / Source: Forbes
Old Street is known as Silicon Roundabout because of the high tech firms in the area. And we all know how high tech makes for a faster easier life.
Except on the tube. Underneath the actual roundabout is Old Street tube station and it has a problem.
Queues.
The station becomes so busy the morning congestion is only alleviated by the station staff opening the gates so that people with a season ticket don’t need to tap their NFC card. In the evening queues build up out of the station.
And one of the reasons it’s particularly bad is technology. At most stations people are tapping in and out with a card. Denizens of Silicon Roundabout are using the Pixel phones, Apple watches and all kinds of smart devices, and that causes queues.
When TfL conceived the Oyster contactless system it had grand plans for it to become a new currency for London. You’d be able to by chocolate from the machines on the platform using your card.
But two things stood in the way of this. The first is that Oyster uses a technology called MiFare which has been comprehensively compromised. The second is that TfL is an incompetent organisation which could manage a money making opportunity of it was just a lemonade stand.
So TfL abandoned that and is now well down the road to replacing Oyster with other forms of contactless. The standard for credit cards is called EMV, you probably have one in your pocket.
TfL likes people using their bank cards because it reduces the need to handle cash.
Particularly the need to have ticket offices which handle cash, as that would mean…The post How NFC Will Gum Up The Tube appeared first on FeedBox.