One final thought about Ventra.

[randomness]

It occurs to me that I haven't yet tried to put money on my card.

From @Ventrachicago:

With #Ventra's convenient vending machines you can check your balance, add value, or smash your head against the side until you pass out!

Ut-oh.

Comments

[bloodstones.livejournal.com]

My fb feed is unsurprisingly full of people complaining about how they haven't gotten their ventra cards, can't activate their cards, can't put money on their cards, how it appears that the ventra rfid chip is somehow interacting with the chip in other cards with rfid and making them not work unless you take the correct individual card out of your wallet.

I only skimmed the article, but I think it said that in response to the backlash against getting the ventra cards operational that they're extending the usage period for the chicago cards until 12/15 which means at least I can use mine on my (hopefully last for the foreseeable future) trip there the week after next.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

not work unless you take the correct individual card out of your wallet.

Huh. That's an interesting complaint, because I thought that was always true with Charlie Cards. Is that not true with Chicago Cards?

I guess it could be that they never had multiple RFID cards in their wallets before.

I think it said that in response to the backlash against getting the ventra cards operational that they're extending the usage period for the chicago cards until 12/15 which means at least I can use mine on my (hopefully last for the foreseeable future) trip there the week after next.

That's also how I read it.

[bloodstones.livejournal.com]

Nope. The U of C id has an rfid that gives us access to buildings and the complaintiff* said that he never had to take it out of his wallet with the chicago card but now he does with his ventra card. It's possible that some unknown variable changed but this was a student in my department so I'm going to assume there was some hypothesis testing.

*I think this should be a word now

[ceo]

I've never had that problem with CharlieCards.