Chicago Card

For some reason the card expires. You have to use its balance up, go to an office to have the balance put onto a new card or, if like me you live outside Chicago and come on weekends, you can ask for reimbursement. Unfortunately, it came in form of magnetic strip cards. I am not sure how it will work on PACE and of course, I doubt I can transfer for $0.25.

However, this way I was left with non-functional card. Guess what is inside, an electronic chip and an antenna.

The chip is on the right upper side, which probably explains why some people with a worn card have still good luck using the card by touching that corner to the scanning disk on a bus. The "worn" card probably means that it was bent and the copper wires forming the antenna inside the plastic were overstretched and broke.

What you see above is a card and below it is what was left after the plastic of the card was dissolved away by an organic solvent.

8 May 2009