By Jung Gatoona

A few days ago, my uncle from Seoul had visited Los Angeles and I was to meet up with him at LAX using the Metro Green Line. After arriving at the airport, I met up with him and we decided to head back home using the Green Line once more. Upon arriving at the rail station, I informed my Uncle that he needed to purchase a ticket from one of the vending machines. Of course, as he was the guest, I had to pay. As I fumbled through my pockets and bag in search of change to pay for his fare, we heard the train above us arrive. And, before I had the chance to insert $1.50 and buy my uncle a one-way ticket, the train had already departed. “Darn it,” I said annoyed, “guess we’ll have to just wait for the next one.” I knew that being a Sunday, it would be a long wait till the next one arrived.

As I walked over to the turnstiles with my uncle behind me, I tapped my TAP card and walked on through. Looking back at my uncle, he was holding the paper ticket at hand, and searching desperately around the turnstiles to find a place to validate it. As I stood watching him try and tap his paper ticket at the turnstile, I laughed out loud and told him to just walk on through. It was a common thing to see at rails stations, tourists trying to do the impossible, by trying to validate their paper tickets at turnstiles, not realizing that they are in fact unlocked already. As we headed to the platforms above while standing on the escalator, my uncle noticed my TAP card at hand.

Curious, he asked, “Why didn’t you just use your card for me and yourself, so we could have avoided the whole situation back there?”
“I don’t understand,” I replied.
“In Korea, you can ride the trains together with multiple people using a single card.”
“You can?”
“Yes, for example if you were to come to Korea and take the train with me there, I could have used my card to pay for both your fare and mine.”
“That’s pretty awesome! I wonder why we don’t have that here?”

The question stuck, why don’t we have the ability with our TAP cards to pay for multiple people at one given time? With TAP cards now able to function as cash-wallet cards, it seems giving transit users the ability to deduct $1.50 multiple times depending on how many times they “TAP” it at one location to be a no-brainer.

Even allowing a single TAP card to hold multiple day passes so a group of people can explore LA using the Metro system with just one card seems like an easy and extremely useful idea to implement. As of now, if you try to validate your TAP card at a turnstile for a second time, the screen gives you an error message, forcing you to wait several minutes before you can tap your card again at the same station. Even on TAP’s official website, they answer the question, “Can I allow others to use my TAP?” with “No. Only you are authorized to use the TAP card assigned to you.”

How awesome would it have been if I had the ability on that particular day my uncle arrived, to be able to tap my card at the turnstiles, let my uncle go through, and tap again for myself to go in after him? It would have saved us time, and given us the option to go green by choosing not to buy a paper ticket. Wasn’t “going green” one of the initial statements by the agency to promote TAP cards?

I looked around the web, in search to see if any transit agencies in the United States offered such a function in their cards. And, it seems New York’s MTA and their Pay-Per-Ride MetroCards do offer, giving its customers the ability for up to 4 people to ride together on a single Pay-Per-Ride MetroCard. How does it work? According to their website, “if multiple people are riding together on the same MetroCard, the first person can swipe the card through the necessary number of times, and other riders can walk through the turnstile following them.” I say that’s pretty useful.

Seeing that New York has it, it begs me to ask. When will such a useful ability be allowed, if ever, on our own TAP cards here in Los Angeles?

Edit: I've been receiving some comments and questions in regards to how a such a function, if provided on our TAP cards might affect users. Below are my answers.

If there's already a monthly pass added on a TAP card, could that same TAP card pay for other people as well?

Yes, as long as you have cash or a day pass on it in addition to a monthly pass, you should be able to pay for your friend. The first time you TAP, the machine will acknowledge your monthly pass. TAP again, and the machine will deduct $1.50 or validate your day pass on the card.

If someone steals your card or you lose it, couldn't someone tap the card multiple times at one point, letting everyone in and depleting your entire balance in the process?

Yes and no. Say you had $100 dollars on your card, and you lost it. If a limit to how many times a person can tap a card at one point is set, you would have plenty of time to call in and notify the agency of a lost card. For example, New York's Pay-Per-Ride MetroCard only allows 4 deductions at one time.

How would transit security know that I paid for my friend?

Now that fare inspectors have the ability to read TAP cards with a reader, they should be able to determine how much was deducted from your TAP card, and how many day passes are in it.

You'd end up with too many complaints about accidental double-TAP-ping at gates and pylons.

For stations with turnstiles, tapping twice accidentally shouldn't be a problem. The turnstiles can be set so that one won't have the ability to tap again unless someone has passed the gate for each tap.

Illustration | Jung Gatoona