[EngManagerIsMe]

Hamburg's busses don't have coin boxes or sell tickets/fares? You don't have any mechanism that requires swiping a card, tapping a device, showing a card/ticket to an operator, or otherwise proving you have, in fact, purchased a fare?

In Seattle, we tap our cards on something that looks like this: https://seattletransitblog.com/2011/06/28/dont-tap-orca-here...

It's pretty quick, but on the busiest bus routes it slows things down.

Edit: Reading up, it looks like they don't really have those things, and rely on a combination of very infrequent inspectors (which do slow things and cost money) and the honor system.

[thecopy]

In Switzerland there are no gates or a need for "showing a card/ticket to an operator, or otherwise proving you have, in fact, purchased a fare".

You just enter the bus/train/tram vehicle. Maybe a ticket controllant comes, maybe not (most often they dont come and check)

EDIT: To get a ticket you simple open the app and "check in". When you leave the transport you open the app and "check out". At the end of the day the system calculated the cheapest ticket for you based on that 24h period. This works across the entire country. From local buses to high speed intercity rail

[snvzz]

So you need a "compatible smartphone" to travel?

That's messed up.

[thecopy]

There are also ticket machines at almost every stop, if you dont have a smartphone. You can pay with cash, card, and i believe with Bitcoin too

[snvzz]

I'd rather an IC card such as the SUICA Japan has.

[morelisp]

You are haltingly recapitulating Evgeny Morozov's essay "Why You Should Ride the Metro in Berlin" (which is really about public transit in a large portion of Europe).

The inspectors don't slow things down. (They do cause other more serious issues, but still far less than anywhere in the US.)

[lispm]

There are zero barriers. We just go in: bus, train, ferry, platform, station.

[morelisp]

Ferries technically have a barrier, which you'll appreciate once you're on the water.

The Berlin F24, on the other hand...