Comment Re:Oystercard: transfer of costs to the passenger (Score 1) 140
I don't get why Western countries seem to have problems with providing affordable yet ubiquitous electronic currency. Limiting these uses to transit just serve to annoy users. The approach Hong Kong took with the Octopus card should be the example to follow. Not only can they be used for nearly all types of mass transit (except for taxi), they can be used at nearly all fast-food joints (e.g. McDonalds), all major convenient stores (i.e. 7-11, and typically people top up there card over there), even major restaurants now support this contact-less payment system.
If this is adopted by other parties, users should feel less apprehensive about storing value onto these cards.