Charlie's Coming
A couple days to go before the MBTA goes wild on Monday and begins distributing free CharlieCards willy nilly throughout the system.
Primer: CharlieCards are the plastic "smart cards" with the computer chip inside that last three to five years and that will offer the cheapest ride on the T when the fare hike comes on Jan. 1. Prepare ye.
Anyway, here's a link to a PowerPoint presentation given to the press today to show how the T plans to distribute these cards. Note towards the back of the PPP (always wanted to write that) the times and stations where the cards will be flowing. We got our first one today. It worked. (the PowerPoint loads slowly, so be patient)
One weird thing -- you don't feed the CharlieCards into the vending machine to add value. You "tap" them on the little black reader. Tap the first time to begin loading money, but make sure to tap the second time (when instructed) so the value "explodes" on to the card. That's the T's wording. Not ours.
By the way, the above 'toon is from 1948, showing the card's namesake "Charlie of the MTA" trying to nab lunch from his daft wife. Why didn't she just stick some money in that bag?
