Orca Card

Life in Seattle and its surrounding cities and counties is about to get a little easier for those who take public transportation. Several transportation agencies have a new project. It will simplify and accelerate the process of paying for transportation. Enter ORCA Card.

The ORCA card is a universal access pass that works on multiple agencies’ systems surrounding the Puget Sound. You might say “One pass to rule them all”. In fact, ORCA is an acronym for One Regional Card for All.  It uses RFID to hold your currency and pass information, and accesses it when you tap the sensor.   You can add value in person, over the phone, and online. It’s the last option that likely speed adoption. Being able to add value to your card outside of business hours empowers the customer, increases the usability of the system, and increases the likelihood that the customer will keep using it.

Costs

By now your probably wondering how much it costs. To get the card, it’s currently free. However, this is true for a limited time. Keep in mind that they’ll charge you to replace an existing card. Given that the cards are expected to last “approximately five years with regular use“, the replacement cost is trivial.

The cost for your travel is separate. Trying to estimate what you should spend each month can be difficult. I live in Seattle, so I use the King County Metro site. Here’s the basic rule for King County – All of Seattle is 1 zone, Everything else is another. Here’s a chart for the fare information.

Challenges

The first of a few challenges for ORCA is the same as any new project – gaining adoption. My friends and I are early adopters, and we’re already sold on it. However, getting the masses to use it will take a fair amount of effort. The second challenge is their website orcacard.com which is poorly designed, has suspect accessibility, and lots of ugly query string URLs. They need to contact Mastodon Labs to solve these problems with a website redesign.

Tips

1. Get your card now, while they’re free.
2. Get two cards – one for you, one for guests. So when you have a friend or family member come to visit you, they can use the second card and not worry about how much to pay and carrying exact change. Also it can be a backup for you, should you misplace your primary card.
3. You don’t need to ask the driver for a transfer, the ORCA knows if its a transfer the next time you scan your card.