Philadelphia Keeps Genders Separate on Bus Passes

[Shana A]

Philadelphia Keeps Genders Separate on Bus Passes
Filed by: Alex Blaze
March 23, 2011 4:00 PM

http://www.bilerico.com/2011/03/philadelphia_keeps_genders_separate_on_bus_passes.php

When you buy a monthly public transport pass in Philadelphia, you have to choose if you want a boy-pass or a girl-pass if you're buying online. In person, the agent at the counter will judge for herself whether you should be using a boy-pass or a girl-pass.

I'm not exagerrating. Check out the SEPTA site yourself (screenshot right); they make you tick off the month you want to use the pass and which gender you are, that's it.

The idea seems to be in place to prevent card-sharing, since apparently the gender marker completely prevents that. Two men or two women would never share a bus pass because that's gay.

[Vicky]

Its wonderful to live in a sophisticated city where my transit pass can be "shared" as long as only one of me rides at a single time, and a single piece of rolling stock.  I can't swipe the pass, get to a seat, and then hand it out the window for someone else to get on with.  Now as far as the daily passes go, they are not electronically read, and I have seen up to four people crash on a bus.