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Clipper Card website uses Driving Directions on its map
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Brad Allen
Jun 13, 2012, 1:17:08 PM6/13/12
to
This is typical Government failure.
Well, I have been searching for a place to refill my Clipper Card.
Since all the local Walgreens are two bus rides away (i.e., 2 hours,
one hour for each leg of bus, one way -- 4 hours for the whole trip),
except for the downtown one with all the criminals hanging out outside
at 1st Street & Santa Clara Street (think of a 400 square foot area
that is like Oakland), I am in search of a Clipper Card refill place
near my home that also has other useful shopping nearby.
I found a location on the Clipper Card web site on a bus line that is
some walk from me but at least isn't two bus lines, that when I called
to confirm said "Yes, we will start to do that next month.", i.e., not
yet. Then I started to find another closer location, but its address
and location wasn't near any shopping location I knew of, and in fact
knew that that location was bogus, from having driven through there
when I had a car.
So, I started to use alternate mapping systems to determine the exact
location. The error was that Google Maps had the pin a couple miles
away from where it was supposed to be. No problem: I reported the
error to Google Maps, used another map source, and found out where it
actually is. It turns out that location does refill them now, is
open, and is also near the place that doesn't yet have it. So, in the
Clipper Card web site, I clicked on the map pin for the other nearby
place to see if it gave me directions. Yes, it had a Directions
option, so I hit it, and entered my address.
Well, it gave me driving directions, right there, on the Clipper Card
web site. Are they insane? There was no option to tell it to give me
any type of bus or mass transit options. Yes, some people will want
to drive to get their clipper cards. That is perfectly reasonable.
But to force a Clipper Card user to drive to get their clipper card
refilled is one of the most absurd notions I've ever heard of in a
long while. With the massive cost savings of having an actual car to
do your business rather than having to have the financial black hole
of using buses (at least in Santa Clara County (VTA)), no one in their
right mind would even have a need for the Clipper Card in the first
place here if they had or had access to a car. Therefore, the only
reason you'd have a Clipper Card in the extremely vast majority of
cases is that you don't even have access to a car, and therefore need
to use mass transit to go get the card refilled!
Perhaps it's different in San Francisco where Clipper Card is from --
everyone must have cars so they can go do their shopping -- but here
in San Jose, either you have a car like you are supposed to, or
somehow you're stuck without one and THEN you use a Clipper Card.
In that latter case, you need to know how to get to the place to
refill your Clipper Card on the bus!
This is typical Government failure, and why we should have never let
Government get so large in the first place. If we didn't have
Government run transit, then the transportation options available
would not have this insanity. But I suppose there's always been
a sort of Welfare type of bus system ever since the advent of the
automobile. It fits the same rules as welfare -- inadequate,
not business oriented, impossible, and impedimentary. While
Clipper Card seems like a reasonable idea to those of us forced
to occasionally use a bus here and there for a week or so, it
turns out it's just the same as the rest of the bus system:
a total mess.
For a different matter, tomorrow I'm going to court for a traffic
ticket in another county that doesn't yet use Clipper Card, so at
least I was able to find out the proper way to use paper passes for
that day. But if I was a monthly Clipper card holder and wanted the
fare upgrade option available to paper pass holders, that wouldn't
have been available. That's changing the fare options for that route.
Perhaps that's just a sneaky fare increase for the riders of that
route, which in that case is fine except for not informing the riders:
they ought to just come right out and say "We are raising fares by not
offering you a discount any more" so we aren't left confused about how
we're supposed to do it.
As Clipper Card's debut hits full force this month, it seems rather
poorly thought out and executed, after all this time to have to fix
all the errors and smooth it out like they should have already been
able to do by now. I can understand two months ago when it was first
being introduced, but now, it ought to be working like clockwork and
everyone ought to have all the ifnromation available to them at their
fingertips. The way they are doing it is instead just a mess and with
lots of broken things and errors.
Well, I have been searching for a place to refill my Clipper Card.
Since all the local Walgreens are two bus rides away (i.e., 2 hours,
one hour for each leg of bus, one way -- 4 hours for the whole trip),
except for the downtown one with all the criminals hanging out outside
at 1st Street & Santa Clara Street (think of a 400 square foot area
that is like Oakland), I am in search of a Clipper Card refill place
near my home that also has other useful shopping nearby.
I found a location on the Clipper Card web site on a bus line that is
some walk from me but at least isn't two bus lines, that when I called
to confirm said "Yes, we will start to do that next month.", i.e., not
yet. Then I started to find another closer location, but its address
and location wasn't near any shopping location I knew of, and in fact
knew that that location was bogus, from having driven through there
when I had a car.
So, I started to use alternate mapping systems to determine the exact
location. The error was that Google Maps had the pin a couple miles
away from where it was supposed to be. No problem: I reported the
error to Google Maps, used another map source, and found out where it
actually is. It turns out that location does refill them now, is
open, and is also near the place that doesn't yet have it. So, in the
Clipper Card web site, I clicked on the map pin for the other nearby
place to see if it gave me directions. Yes, it had a Directions
option, so I hit it, and entered my address.
Well, it gave me driving directions, right there, on the Clipper Card
web site. Are they insane? There was no option to tell it to give me
any type of bus or mass transit options. Yes, some people will want
to drive to get their clipper cards. That is perfectly reasonable.
But to force a Clipper Card user to drive to get their clipper card
refilled is one of the most absurd notions I've ever heard of in a
long while. With the massive cost savings of having an actual car to
do your business rather than having to have the financial black hole
of using buses (at least in Santa Clara County (VTA)), no one in their
right mind would even have a need for the Clipper Card in the first
place here if they had or had access to a car. Therefore, the only
reason you'd have a Clipper Card in the extremely vast majority of
cases is that you don't even have access to a car, and therefore need
to use mass transit to go get the card refilled!
Perhaps it's different in San Francisco where Clipper Card is from --
everyone must have cars so they can go do their shopping -- but here
in San Jose, either you have a car like you are supposed to, or
somehow you're stuck without one and THEN you use a Clipper Card.
In that latter case, you need to know how to get to the place to
refill your Clipper Card on the bus!
This is typical Government failure, and why we should have never let
Government get so large in the first place. If we didn't have
Government run transit, then the transportation options available
would not have this insanity. But I suppose there's always been
a sort of Welfare type of bus system ever since the advent of the
automobile. It fits the same rules as welfare -- inadequate,
not business oriented, impossible, and impedimentary. While
Clipper Card seems like a reasonable idea to those of us forced
to occasionally use a bus here and there for a week or so, it
turns out it's just the same as the rest of the bus system:
a total mess.
For a different matter, tomorrow I'm going to court for a traffic
ticket in another county that doesn't yet use Clipper Card, so at
least I was able to find out the proper way to use paper passes for
that day. But if I was a monthly Clipper card holder and wanted the
fare upgrade option available to paper pass holders, that wouldn't
have been available. That's changing the fare options for that route.
Perhaps that's just a sneaky fare increase for the riders of that
route, which in that case is fine except for not informing the riders:
they ought to just come right out and say "We are raising fares by not
offering you a discount any more" so we aren't left confused about how
we're supposed to do it.
As Clipper Card's debut hits full force this month, it seems rather
poorly thought out and executed, after all this time to have to fix
all the errors and smooth it out like they should have already been
able to do by now. I can understand two months ago when it was first
being introduced, but now, it ought to be working like clockwork and
everyone ought to have all the ifnromation available to them at their
fingertips. The way they are doing it is instead just a mess and with
lots of broken things and errors.
Brad Allen
Jun 13, 2012, 9:21:08 PM6/13/12
to
Followup to my trip:
It was good for me to do all the planning and press ahead to find a
good destination. I was able to find a single bus that is my most
near bus that goes to that shopping mall, with one ride, and in
addition, it has a 24 hour Safeway, and a pretty useless Light Rail
leg in case I ever want to go all the way to the Great Mall which has
one other store I use. No Walgreens anywhere, but I found the check
cashing place that I discussed earlier (as having the wrong Google
Maps pin location), and they dealt with my Clipper Card.
Both cashiers said they forgot how to use the Clipper Card terminal.
One of them went over, and tried it, and it gave her some errors like
"Invalid Card". I insisted the card was OK since I had been using it
fine. She seemed to log back out and log back in or something like
that, and then that time it worked fine. So, good to know that
forgetful cashiers and nonworking software/hardware seems to still
work out.
VTA sucks so I couldn't find a Clipper Card terminal on the light rail
platform at that intersection, so I boarded and tagged off instead of
on, which AFAIAC was a good faith effort. It told me a balance that
freaked me out since I had misremembered the initial balance, so I got
upset, then I thought about it and realized it was a different card,
and the balance was correct, and I was happy then. I confirmed online
when I got home.
Apparently, Light Rail to Bus is not a free transfer! It charged me
again.
Interesting to note that I had no show-stoppers today with my Clipper
Card, but at every step, there was a small problem and a nuisance.
And, I'm pretty patient and resilient with a lot of this stuff, but
others may find it rather nuisansome and annoying. I can forsee most
riders using only cash for as long as that is valid fare.
It was good for me to do all the planning and press ahead to find a
good destination. I was able to find a single bus that is my most
near bus that goes to that shopping mall, with one ride, and in
addition, it has a 24 hour Safeway, and a pretty useless Light Rail
leg in case I ever want to go all the way to the Great Mall which has
one other store I use. No Walgreens anywhere, but I found the check
cashing place that I discussed earlier (as having the wrong Google
Maps pin location), and they dealt with my Clipper Card.
Both cashiers said they forgot how to use the Clipper Card terminal.
One of them went over, and tried it, and it gave her some errors like
"Invalid Card". I insisted the card was OK since I had been using it
fine. She seemed to log back out and log back in or something like
that, and then that time it worked fine. So, good to know that
forgetful cashiers and nonworking software/hardware seems to still
work out.
VTA sucks so I couldn't find a Clipper Card terminal on the light rail
platform at that intersection, so I boarded and tagged off instead of
on, which AFAIAC was a good faith effort. It told me a balance that
freaked me out since I had misremembered the initial balance, so I got
upset, then I thought about it and realized it was a different card,
and the balance was correct, and I was happy then. I confirmed online
when I got home.
Apparently, Light Rail to Bus is not a free transfer! It charged me
again.
Interesting to note that I had no show-stoppers today with my Clipper
Card, but at every step, there was a small problem and a nuisance.
And, I'm pretty patient and resilient with a lot of this stuff, but
others may find it rather nuisansome and annoying. I can forsee most
riders using only cash for as long as that is valid fare.
Steve Fenwick
Jun 14, 2012, 12:36:42 AM6/14/12
to
In article <4fd8cb14$0$86781$742e...@news.sonic.net>,
each tiny District its own feudal domain, that there is insufficient
standardization. The Metro and WMATA in the DC area work great; NYC
couldn't exist in its present form without the various transit systems,
mass transit in Portland works great, et cetera.
Steve
--
steve <at> w0x0f <dot> com
"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of
arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to
skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, sidecar in the other, body thoroughly
used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!"
q...@sonic.net (Brad Allen) wrote:
> This is typical Government failure.
>
> Well, I have been searching for a place to refill my Clipper Card.
> Since all the local Walgreens are two bus rides away (i.e., 2 hours,
> one hour for each leg of bus, one way -- 4 hours for the whole trip),
> except for the downtown one with all the criminals hanging out outside
> at 1st Street & Santa Clara Street (think of a 400 square foot area
> that is like Oakland), I am in search of a Clipper Card refill place
> near my home that also has other useful shopping nearby.
[...]
> This is typical Government failure.
>
> Well, I have been searching for a place to refill my Clipper Card.
> Since all the local Walgreens are two bus rides away (i.e., 2 hours,
> one hour for each leg of bus, one way -- 4 hours for the whole trip),
> except for the downtown one with all the criminals hanging out outside
> at 1st Street & Santa Clara Street (think of a 400 square foot area
> that is like Oakland), I am in search of a Clipper Card refill place
> near my home that also has other useful shopping nearby.
> Perhaps it's different in San Francisco where Clipper Card is from --
> everyone must have cars so they can go do their shopping -- but here
> in San Jose, either you have a car like you are supposed to, or
> somehow you're stuck without one and THEN you use a Clipper Card.
> In that latter case, you need to know how to get to the place to
> refill your Clipper Card on the bus!
>
> This is typical Government failure, and why we should have never let
> Government get so large in the first place. If we didn't have
> Government run transit, then the transportation options available
> would not have this insanity. But I suppose there's always been
> a sort of Welfare type of bus system ever since the advent of the
> automobile. It fits the same rules as welfare -- inadequate,
> not business oriented, impossible, and impedimentary. While
> Clipper Card seems like a reasonable idea to those of us forced
> to occasionally use a bus here and there for a week or so, it
> turns out it's just the same as the rest of the bus system:
> a total mess.
The problem is that mass transit in the Bay Area is so fragmented, with
> everyone must have cars so they can go do their shopping -- but here
> in San Jose, either you have a car like you are supposed to, or
> somehow you're stuck without one and THEN you use a Clipper Card.
> In that latter case, you need to know how to get to the place to
> refill your Clipper Card on the bus!
>
> This is typical Government failure, and why we should have never let
> Government get so large in the first place. If we didn't have
> Government run transit, then the transportation options available
> would not have this insanity. But I suppose there's always been
> a sort of Welfare type of bus system ever since the advent of the
> automobile. It fits the same rules as welfare -- inadequate,
> not business oriented, impossible, and impedimentary. While
> Clipper Card seems like a reasonable idea to those of us forced
> to occasionally use a bus here and there for a week or so, it
> turns out it's just the same as the rest of the bus system:
> a total mess.
each tiny District its own feudal domain, that there is insufficient
standardization. The Metro and WMATA in the DC area work great; NYC
couldn't exist in its present form without the various transit systems,
mass transit in Portland works great, et cetera.
Steve
--
steve <at> w0x0f <dot> com
"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of
arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to
skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, sidecar in the other, body thoroughly
used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!"
spamtrap1888
Jun 14, 2012, 12:36:00 PM6/14/12
to
transfer multiple times, the Clipper Card should charge you no more
than the cost of a day pass.
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