Swiping technique

[nanila]

Poll #14131 Swipey swipey

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 22

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How do you swipe your Oyster/metro/RFID card?

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A quick tap directly over the reader
10 (45.5%)

Slap, hold and twist as you pass through the barrier
8 (36.4%)

Waft without making contact
1 (4.5%)

Other
3 (13.6%)

Other?

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I used to be a Wafter. However, when I started checking my Oyster balance online regularly, I discovered that the barriers would frequently open for me but fail to register one endpoint of my journey. After the umpteenth time of having to file for a refund from being hit with the maximum daily charge, I decided to change. So now I'm in the Slap-and-Hold camp.

Comments

[sfred]

Slap and hold; not sure about the twist bit.

[nanila]

I think I was figuring the twist bit happened naturally as you walked through the barriers - do you wait for the confirming beep before you proceed forward?

[sfred]

Yes.

[nanila]

Very wise. I tend to go charging through like a rhino. Occasionally this has resulted in me whomping into the gates. :P

[sfred]

I've had too many incidents of whomping into the gates and then not being able to get through at all without a TfL staff member helping...

[cosmolinguist]

I don't use an Oyster card enough for me to be sure, but then I realized I do the same with the swipey keyfob that gets me into my office, and was able to vote confidently. :)

[nanila]

:D Yes, I didn't want it to be exclusive to Londoners (since contrary to popular belief* it is not the centre of the universe), hence the slashy definition bit.

* e.g. that of Londoners

[alwayswondered]

You know that Quick Tapper who doesn't tap quite long enough or in the right place, so the barrier beeps and refuses to open, and then they keep doing exactly the same thing over and over again despite the fact that it clearly isn't working, oblivious to the queue of people piling up behind them?

I always get stuck behind that person.

This is why I'm a Slap-and-Holder.

[nanila]

HA, yes. Although my favourites are the people who walk right up to the barriers and *then* fish around in their bags/pockets for their card. No no no no NO! Bad commuter etiquette, BAD.

[liseuse]

Because I don't use my Oyster card very often I am a Slap-and-Hold person. I want to make sure it's going to work!

[nanila]

Yes, it's especially important if you don't have it linked to your personal data and therefore can't access the balance online. A lot of barriers fail to display your PAYG balance so you might not know you've been charged falsely for an incomplete journey for too long to do anything about it.

[kaberett]

When you use both hands to locomote, and you've got to be far enough back that you're not on the pressure pad so's the reader might actually register your card, and there's no way not to lean awkwardly...

[nanila]

SUCKS. Also, buses, where you can get on the bus and then not go down the aisle to swipe your Oyster. Accessibility FAIL.

[kaberett]

IT IS REALLY BIZARRE APPARENTLY YOU JUST TRAVEL FOR FREE IF YOU ARE A WHEELCHAIR USER ON A BUS BECAUSE YOU ARE ASSUMED TO HAVE A FREEDOM PASS???

[nanila]

EVERYONE ON A LONDON BUS IS FROM LONDON DON'T YOU KNOW AND PEOPLE IN WHEELCHAIRS ARE OVER 65 YEP YEP

[kaberett]

NO THIS IS THE WORST THING my local "free public transport" card worKS ON BUSES BUT NOT THE TUUUUUUUBE :D

IN THE SENSE OF "WORKS ON BUSES" WHERE UH ACTUALLY "THE READER DOESN'T RECOGNISE IT BUT THE DRIVER JUST WAVES ME ON DISGUSTEDLY IF I'M WALKING THAT DAY"

[nanila]

THIS IS A VERY GOOD SYSTEM WHEREIN GOOD MEANS CRIKEY-WHO-DESIGNED-THIS-FECKING-BOONDOGGLE

[kaberett]

(One automatically qualifies for free public transport of one receives Higher Rate on the Mobility component of Disability Living Allowance. The majority of wheelchair users probably do. I don't, because the ways in which walking makes a mess of me are not ones that the DWP/Atos have any interest in admitting. Ergo I receive Lower Rate Mobility, and have a free bus pass because nobody wants me to drive, but getting someone to say "this person really shouldn't drive" in a medical-certificate-y sort of a way is (a) expensive and (b) time-consuming, if your condition is not (ahahahaha) one of the ones that automatically excludes you from driving according to the DVLA...)

[emelbe]

I am totally a slap and hold for our RFID transit widgets. No twist though, if you stay much longer than it takes for it to beep or adjust the position in any way other than "remove" after it beeps it makes this horrible YOU DID IT WRONG STOP DOING IT WRONG STOP IT NOW NOWNOWNOW noise. I hate that noise. I also have one of the first gen cards and I think there might be a tiny fracture in the circuit so if it's bowed just wrong because I have one too many receipt in my wallet or if it's THAT reader in THAT terminal or THAT reader on THAT bus, it just makes that awful sound over and over again until I take it out, mutter the magic words*, and then calmly proceed with my day.

* The magic words may or may not be, "Jesus fucking Christ, just fucking work already."

[nanila]

The Tube gates only give a single polite beep, but then they remove all pretense of gentle reminder by going GRRRIND-KERCHUNK since the opening mechanism still engages. It's...fairly horrible.

[pulchritude]

I never even realized that one could waft one's Oystercard over the reader....

[nanila]

Oh yes, I was very excited when I discovered this, and played with the distance above the reader to see what the maximum was (between two and three inches). But then I discovered the overcharging phenomenon and stopped the experiment.

[pbristow]

OK. The fact the barrier opens for you but your passage isn't logged is just *insane*. Either the damn system saw a valid card and identified it, or it didn't. If it didn't, then it shouldn't be opening the barrier.

So it seems that that the means of identifying the individual card doesn't have anything like enough data redundancy/deliberately-illegal-permutations built in, and was resonding to a valid identity code that was not your own.

Either that or the system is so ridiculously badly designed that the barrier-opening & passage-logging actions are each triggered off completely separate sensors.

GAHHHH!!!! =:o[

[nanila]

Yes, since it happened to me at three different stations on a regular basis (Kings X, South Ken, Gloucester Road), I figured it must be a problem with the system. Who knows which of the ones you've postulated here it actually is, though.