In the last year, I've been through over a dozen cities and used public transport in all of them.
It is wild just how confusing and complex buying a ticket can be. While some cities obviously take a user-centred approach to ticketing, others appear to take a Kafkaesque delight in a bureaucratic maze of zones, apps, and intricate restrictions.
One of the seminal texts in computer systems design is "Don't Make Me Think". Every time a service forces the user into making a decision, it is placing a cognitive burden on them. Computers' jobs are to make things easier for us fleshy meatbags.
There are some intractable problems with navigating unfamiliar spaces (looking at you Kyoto Station!) and a transport authority can't publish signs and make announcements in every conceivable language, but there's one thing they can control - ticketing.
Let me take you through some of the public transport ticket experiences I had - and explain how easy or hard they were to use.
Basel, Switzerland - free
Upon checking in to our hotel I was given a free Basel Card. It entitled me to free public transport across the city.
Zero extra cost. I didn't have to remember to take a physical card with me - the details were emailed as a PDF directly from the hotel on check-in.
I didn't have to show the bus driver when I entered a tram. If a ticket inspector was present, they could have asked to scan it.
This is close to the platonic ideal of "Don't Make Me Think" public transport. I didn't have to work out zones, fares, or timings. I didn't need to interact with people or machines. I didn't worry that I was somehow doing it wrong and was going to get shouted at.
Milano, Italy - contactless
I tapped my credit card on the reader. Whether it was a bus, tram, or metro the process was the same. Tap, wait a few milliseconds, beep. On the metro the gates opened automatically. On the tram, I just sat down after the beep.
The fares have a bit of complexity based on how frequently you travel. If you catch another bus within 90 minutes it only counts as one fare.
I didn't care because the daily price was capped.
Once I'd taken a few journeys it wasn't going to cost me any more. With a fee-free credit card it was simplicity itself.
If I had been on an extremely tight budget, I might have done some thinking - but as the daily cap was less than the price of a cocktail, I didn't bother.
Warsaw - paper ticket validation
I walked up to a touchscreen kiosk, selected the 🇬🇧 flag, and bought a 3 day paper ticket for a few € using contactless. The machine spat out a small paper ticket.
I hopped onto a tram, shoved the ticket in a slot and the machine printed a timestamp on it. Well, in theory. It didn't work the first few times for inscrutable reasons.
From then on, I didn't have to do anything. I jumped on whatever public transport I wanted. Only once did a ticket inspector come round demanding to see everyone's proof of validity.
The ticket was a slightly inconvenient size for my wallet - being much smaller than a credit card - and I think the kiosk should have validated it automatically. But, for general transport purposes, it was great at not forcing me to think.
Tallinn - scan the app
Install an app, choose ticket type, pay, done.
Every time I entered public transport, open the app, click the ticket, wave the resultant QR over a scanner.
Obviously choosing a ticket type is a little thinky. Do I want a single ticket, a day pass, something longer?
I'm not averse to installing an app when necessary. Thankfully, this transit app worked on GrapheneOS. There was an optional registration step which I skipped because I was unlikely to come back any time soon.
Riga - scan the bus
OK, this was just weird!
Much like above, install app, choose ticket, pay.
Despite buying an all-you-can-eat ticket, I still had to register on every bus/tram I got on. That meant hopping on, finding a QR code, opening the app, and trying to scan it while the driver attempted a new land-speed record.
Melbourne - annoying
We wanted to visit a mate in the suburbs of Melbs. For this we needed to buy a plastic card. We then needed to load it up with (I think) multiples of $5. Our return fare was about $7.50. So our actual journey cost something like double what the fare was.
There was no obvious way to get a refund for the credit amount, nor for the cards. So we gave them to a friend to distribute to any other tourists she hosted.
Paris - ridiculous
Fuck Paris. The only way to buy a metro ticket is to download an app. Fair enough. But, after downloading the app it tells you to install another app!
What the actual fuck? A convoluted, messy, and frustrating situation which has resulted in awful reviews for them.
Trains and metro travel require separate tickets at different prices. You can't easily hop from one to another. You need to think carefully about the route you're taking. A more convoluted route may be significantly cheaper because it doesn't involve swapping between services.
Madness!
The ticket readers use your phone's NFC chip to validate. So there's no technical reason why they can't just use contactless payment cards.
To be fair, change is coming… in 2030!
Japan
Last year we took a trip to Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima, and Kyoto. We picked up a physical Suica card (because the digital one only works with iPhone). We topped up the card with cash (which was a bit of a pain). An annoying start - but from then on it was seamless. The same card worked on trains, busses, and trams in all the cities we visited! Brilliant! We didn't need to think at all. Compare that to Germany where every city has its own special app and it was always a pain to remember which one to open.
I understand that Japan's public transport system now accepts foreign contactless cards - which should make things easier for travellers.
So what's best?
In an ideal world, all public transport would be free and plentiful. In our less-than-ideal reality, it seems obvious to me that public transport should above all be simple.
Tourists don't want to grapple with the complexities of zones, split tickets, random charges, and a different app for each city.
Regular travellers don't want yet another piece of plastic tat in their wallets, or to work out in advance what precise combination of journeys they need to take in order to optimise their spending.
One app is fine. Having to install a different app for each city you visit - even within the same country! - is infuriating.
Visitors should not have to think about how, where, when, or why they need to validate their tickets. Nor should anyone need to figure out which modes of transport are inclusive or not.
For the casual visitor, contactless payment with a daily / weekly cap is the simplest possible charging mechanism. It's cheaper for the cities to not have to build, develop, and support apps.
If you've come across a better public transport ticketing system - please let me know in the comments.
44 thoughts on “Public Transport - Don't Make Me Think!”
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| Reply to original comment on kuemmerle.name
@Edent London is quite good for locals, or for adult tourists. Falls down for tourist families. We try to avoid the Tube if we do go to London. Might start going to London again when the kids are older.
| Reply to original comment on mastodon.social
@Edent Luxembourg has the best system that I’ve heard of, though I personally haven’t tried it. All public transport is free with no tickets. The only exception is if you want 1st class. https://luxembourg.public.lu/en/living/mobility/public-transport.html
Public transport
| Reply to original comment on front-end.social
Tulip
Just got back from a little trip to Luxembourg, and yep. You just hop on whatever bus or tram, no need for tickets, no need for an app, no need to open your emails. You just step on, and step off. It was wonderful, and I feel like it shows the ideal world we could have
Came here to mention Luxembourg too. We experienced this a few years ago and honestly found it confusing at first just because we couldn’t quite believe it was free! Wonderful idea. Everywhere should do it.
Guy
Since 2025, Belgrade's public is also free 🙂
Belgrade enjoyer
Officially free or "free" as it was in 2023-24 when they've were changing the operator and there were no way to pay for the ride?
@Edent travelling with kids is even more complicated! Often hard to work out if kids of different ages are free or discounted. And if they’re using contactless bank cards, how are you meant to get the child fares?
| Reply to original comment on mastodon.me.uk
@Edent Had to chuckle at the Paris part 😁
| Reply to original comment on fosstodon.org
@Edent and may I add how annoying any zone-based system is? And having to stress about transfers.
| Reply to original comment on social.lol
@Edent I was very impressed recently with Trieste. Fully integrated public transport, with everything payable with contactless credit card. No app or ticket needed! ❤️
| Reply to original comment on mastodon.online
@Edent for Paris metro we just bought the Navigo contactless card and charged it with some money at a kiosk.
It kinda works the same way as the EasyCard in Taipei.
At any kiosk you can hold it and it shows the balance on the card.
| Reply to original comment on mastodon.social
@Edent I suspect @jon would be nodding in sorrow at the bit about Paris. For what it’s worth, the rest of France is normal, in comparison.
| Reply to original comment on mas.to
@deadliftbear @Edent yes Paris is a unique hell. I’ve resorted to topping up my Navigo from my phone, as that’s the least hellish version. As trying to get through the barriers in the metro without a physical Navigo is a complete mess.
| Reply to original comment on gruene.social
Andrii Turik
So in Warsaw and in whole Poland you can use app that is called https://jakdojade.pl/onboarding , you can buy tickets via this app and store it on your phone for all big cities, admittedly cities can do better to promote this app but it's pretty neat, thoroughly recommend!
@Edent alas, the Warsaw experience breaks down if you try to use the Metro—the gates struggle with scanning the paper tickets. I never had luck getting one to work the first time; one set of gates at Rondo ONZ didn’t work at all, and a local tapped me in with their smartcard. If you buy an electronic ticket you have to find one of the handful of gates with a functioning QR reader. So the Metro still needs some work for a frictionless experience.
| Reply to original comment on urbanists.social
Missing Japan Already
As Texans we are unfamiliar with public transportation. So our recent trip to Japan showed us how awesome it can be. We got JR Passes - not sure it worked out financially, but it was incredibly freeing to be able to travel basically anywhere on this one ticket. Having a tiny square of pasteboard worth 700 USD with no recourse if lost or damaged though...that could be improved. Make it electronic.
Some Tokyo rail systems use tap-to-pay. Liked that very much, but quickly learned that each traveler must have their own credit card account, not just a duplicate card on the same account. Fortunately we did.
When the JR Passes expired and we had to use the ticket machines, that was more challenging, but we did master it.
When we go back, we won't get the JR Passes, but we love the public transportation there.
@Edent I visited Bologna, Italy last week, and it had the same system as you describe for Milano. One problem with it was that when I was researching the fares, I was not able to easily find official sources saying it worked like that there. I was only able to figure it out thanks to some discussions on Reddit and Facebook my search engine spit out.
| Reply to original comment on mastodon.social
@Edent Catania, Sicily. Bus from the airport has a sticker that implies you can tap to pay, but, no, you have to get a paper ticket from the office (multiple providers) and then the driver scans your ticket.
| Reply to original comment on hachyderm.io
@Edent But yes, I actually like these tap-on/tap-off systems and I think they're the next best thing when public transport is not free. In my country, Czechia, I know at least Brno and Liberec have a similar system, but Prague (the capital, where I live right now) does not, which I find mind boggling. It's the biggest tourist destination in Czechia, it would make life so much easier for tourists if it had a tap-on system!
| Reply to original comment on mastodon.social
@Edent Ireland's transport is awful everywhere, Dublin tries to be better, but our 90 minute tap on/off is executed so poorly vs somewhere like Helsinki 🙁
| Reply to original comment on bark.lgbt
@Edent I recently spent much of a Eurostar trip trying to work out how to buy a metro ticket from Gare du Nord to Gare du Somewhere Else. Ended up queuing to buy a little cardboard ticket from a person with cash, like it was the 80s
| Reply to original comment on mastodon.green
@Edent Good piece. No ticket needed, contactless and "simple ticket you can buy physically or online, for cash or by card" are, I think, complementary strategies that work best together, when each can address different needs and the various weak points of the others.
Zone and mode divisions are the worst, and even crazier to me is the concept of having a separate "inner city" zone, or even two, when surely one ought to encourage suburb-dwellers to commute into the inner city by public transport. Especially if they've already chosen to live in the city limits!
| Reply to original comment on mastodon.com.pl
@Edent Linz, Austria also has something like this, but instead of tapping with a card, you do a swipe in an app that you have to register with beforhand. It's nice that you can also put "companions" down, so you can then get tickets for multiple people at once from a single account.
Even then, I found it slightly annoying that I had to set it up, I would have still preferred to just tap my card in the tram.
| Reply to original comment on mastodon.social
@Edent yea Melbourne realllly shot them selves in the foot with MyKi.
| Reply to original comment on eigenmagic.net
@Edent I hear that HK is quite bad for foreigners. You have to get the app and top it up BEFORE you travel. You can’t top up the app locally without a local credit card. Risk is not having enough credit to get back to the airport! 😵💫🤦♂️
| Reply to original comment on mastodon.social
Paris is a pain. Small correction, though. It is trams and metro that require separate tickets. You have two types of tickets: Metro/RER-Train and Tram/Bus. Staying within your type, you can change as often as you want. You'll be happy to know that they already simplified the system. 😀
| Reply to original comment on bsky.app
@blog
I like that Warsaw wants you to stamp the 3 day ticket to mark when you "started" and doesn't pre-stamp it... that way if you have visitors you can buy the tickets ahead of time and then hand them out, tell them to stamp them that one time and then have a good time. Hotels and hostels could have a small stash of them and sell them (like they used to have postage stamps if you asked).
| Reply to original comment on mas.to
@jon @deadliftbear @Edent at least they removed the zone system. I had 10 tickets stuck on my phone since the beginning I can't use. The crazy thing is that anyone actually _living_ in the Paris area is very likely to have an unlimited pass. The "figure out the crazy things" is something they never see, but that we impose to visitors...
| Reply to original comment on mastodon.tedomum.net
@Edent Easy card in Taiwan is a payment card for transportation and shopping you can recharge in many shops.
Deutschlandticket in Germany a monthly ticket for all public local and regional transportation you can get via central app or the app of your regional provider.
| Reply to original comment on norden.social
Tom Newton
On the Swiss method (free for tourists) your hotel can usually get you the pass prior to check-in, so you can use it as soon as you arrive (eg airport to hotel)
@Edent #Avignon - scan the bus, with twists: like Riga, install app, choose ticket, pay, then on each bus you have to find the QR code and scan it, but you show the driver before they let you on. Plus, Avignon city services and "Region Sud" buses use different apps with some services accepting both and I didn't understand how you found out which. Finally, you can buy paper tickets for city services from machines at some stops, and for some regional services but they charge more than the apps.
avignon
| Reply to original comment on masto.bike
@Edent of course, the "show the driver before they let you on" makes dwell times incredible. That was on a "Region Sud" service. I hope that city services work differently!
| Reply to original comment on masto.bike
My wife and I visited London for the first time last year and we loved the tap on/off system on the buses and trains. Nothing to buy, just use your credit card.
@blog BART / Muni San Francisco: Buy a Clipper Card at a convenience store and load money onto it. Tap the Clipper card on the pedestals going into and out of the BART stations or on the reader on the bus (and the reader is not in the obvious place on the fare box). Annoying AF.
Why no credit cards at US transit pedestals? Simple: US banks are greedy mofos and charge outrageous tap fees compared to Europe just because they can, because they have a monopoly and USG won't regulate them.
| Reply to original comment on mastodon.social
@blog I remember the good old times Germany also had just one app.
It was the start of handyticket, which I used at least in Hamburg, Munich and Nuremberg.
And I used it on my SonyEricsson W880i via WEP. 🤣
| Reply to original comment on sueden.social
@Edent Melbourne makes me sad
| Reply to original comment on hcommons.social
@Edent Barcelona: If you happen to be a Spanish national, download an app (only valid on Catalan public transport), set up an a pre-pay account, but you must provide your Spanish national ID.
Everyone else: Buy paper tickets where vending machines exist, paper travelcards available online for collection at ticket vending machines at major stations.
| Reply to original comment on mastodon.online
Rian van der Borgt
In Tallinn you can also use contactless, with daily capping.
@Edent In Tallinn you could just tap the credit card (works on all validators since this month). The cost is the same as buying a ticket by other means.
Anyway, great article! I'm currently working on a public transit app (we haven't got enough of those lol), and planning to add guides for buying tickets for every city.
| Reply to original comment on en.osm.town
@Edent The Netherlands is moving to the same model as you describe for Milano, contactless with a regular payment card ^^
https://www.ovpay.nl/en
Home | OVpay
| Reply to original comment on infosec.exchange
graham
[in Japan]
However, Apple did their own thing; Android went with an incumbant intermediary (osaifu keitai), a notoriously unreliable bit of software, which hobbled the Android platform for years as it picks and chooses what it'll work on. It cost Google Pay a lot in adoption.
Otherwise, Suica, which is based on Sony's Felica systems, has been very decent here for a long time.
My understanding is that foreign visitors still can't use Suica on Android.
Happy to be corrected if that's out of date.
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[…] In his blog post yesterday, Terence Eden observed that of all the cities he’s travelled to over the last year, Paris had the most-ridiculously-unhelpful public transport ticketing system: […]