A Symbol of New York Is Gone

"For decades, the default answer has been something else: You swipe a MetroCard. Something like a flimsy yellow credit card, the MetroCard has bound together nearly everyone in the city-real-estate moguls and tenants, Mets and Yankees fans, lifelong New Yorkers like myself and new arrivals from Ohio. Any tourist who visited New York inevitably got one. But now the MetroCard era is about to end. Today is the last day you can purchase a card."

"The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the organization that operates the city's public-transit system, has for years been phasing out the MetroCard in favor of contactless payment-tapping your phone or a credit card, much as you would at any store. The new system, known as OMNY ("One Metro New York"), will bring together the benefits of technological progress: tens of millions of dollars in savings for both riders and the MTA each year, shorter lines, less plastic waste."

A visit to the New York Transit Museum shows children already assuming contactless phone tapping replaces the MetroCard. The MetroCard, a flimsy yellow, credit-card-sized medium, connected generations of New Yorkers and tourists but is being retired; today is the last day to purchase one. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has been phasing the card out in favor of contactless payments via phones or credit cards. The OMNY system aims to reduce costs for riders and the MTA, shorten lines, and cut plastic waste. Other major metro systems have already adopted tap-and-go technology, leaving New York to catch up.

Read at The Atlantic