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TransLink's final three electronic fare card name suggestions lack any sense of fun
Tpass, Compass, Starfish. No, this isn't an introduction to the worst group of rappers in music history. These are the trio of names currently under consideration for TransLink's new electronic fare card.
Late last year, TransLink put out a call for fare card name suggestions. Having received 54,000 entries, a crack team whittled the choices down to the three abysmal selections above. The public will pick the final name by an online vote (going on until January 28). However, TransLink has given us the blandest, most inoffensive, and not-at-all inspiring group of names from which to choose.
Tpass is by far the most lackluster of the suggestions. According to TransLink's website, it was picked as a finalist as "T" could stand for "Transit, Travel, or Transportation"—or as it notes later, "Transaction". (Can you tell TransLink's is already thinking about future branding and marketing initiatives?) Fiscal opportunities aside, the name is dull. It would make sense in a place that begins with the letter T (Toronto, Terrace, Transylvania) but Vancouver? At the very least, one of the suggestions to vote on should have been "Vpass". (I imagine my suggestion of "V-Card" was just a little too cheeky for the TransLink team.)
And Compass? When was the last time anyone used a compass? Maybe back in 1870 while prospecting for gold, or during those orienteering trips you took with your Brownie troop when you were five. Want to know how to find north in Vancouver? Look for the mountains. Want to find anything else? Use your GPS—conveniently located in the car that you drive as you would never be caught dead on transit.
Starfish is the most understandable of the three sanitized names under consideration. After all, there are actual starfish on the coast of B.C. But really, when was the last time you saw a starfish except the last time you dragged the kids down to the aquarium? The only real justification as to why this name is a finalist is to imitate Hong Kong and London (with their fare cards known as Octopus and Oyster respectively). Piggybacking on other cities' branding? Poor form, TransLink.
If you want a fishy name that really speaks to West Coast culture, "Sockeye" would have fit the bill perfectly—or perhaps "Falcon", a homage B.C.'s former minister of transportation who oversaw the approval of the Canada Line, the Gateway Expansion project, and the controversial Bill 43, which saw TransLink's board of directors transformed from a democratically elected entity into a group of handpicked "professionals" working alongside a mayor's council.
Translink is spending $171 million—up from an estimate of $100 million in 2009—on an arguably unnecessary fare card system. You think they would have at least have fun with the name.
Follow the should-have-been-in-marketing Miranda Nelson on Twitter.
Perhaps Translink can add a few more choices so Vancouverites can become truly engaged in this selection.
As for the names...every set names we tested in one form or another got the same reaction you gave to these ones. (Personally, my favourite was 'George' but it didn't make the cut.) Any name by itself will have limited impact - it's the graphic treatments, the images and promotion that will truly make the major difference. In that regard, all three of the names up for voting now have pretty good potential.
The quote is actually "an arguably unnecessary fare card system", which it is. *Many* people have debated and continue to debate the necessity of the system. According to PricewaterhouseCooper's own reports, the percentage of fare evaders using transit on the Lower Mainland is only 2.5.
Electronic fare cards make sense in places like London, Hong Kong, Seattle, and San Francisco because transit operations were divided between a number of different companies. On the Lower Mainland, only TransLink runs the show.
I'm willing to entertain the notion that this fare card will revolutionize transit, absolutely I am. Maybe it really will help with transit planning and eliminate fare zones (although, couldn't TransLink just decide to eliminate those anyway?)
However, I'm also realistic enough to anticipate that the estimated two and a half years of infrastructure construction will take longer than that. I have ridden the bus and SkyTrain enough to know that turnstiles are going to create bottlenecks, no matter how well prepared TransLink thinks it is. Much like Fox Mulder, I want to believe. Unfortunately, without the gift of clairvoyance, I fall back on past experiences that I have had and they tend towards bad.
Still doesn't change the fact that these names are terribly bland.
This is just another example of how out of touch and arrogant TransLink is. We have a high unemployment rate here, I’m sure that UBC students could use a summer job as fare attendants to deter “cheats”.
I don't see TransLink being around much longer if (when) the NDP get into power. TransLink is full of Liberal sycophant appointees who do whatever the Liberals want. Behind the scenes, the NDP and others alienated by TransLink have TransLink in their cross-hairs.
Ken Hardie did not mention anything about fare evasion and smartcards.
I do agree the names suck. The left out my favorite, otter.
That being said, run "otter" or "oyster" thru urbandictionary. I wouldn't worry about alternate meanings of "starfish".
Public transit should be free for all users.
It's the car drivers who should be billed per kilometre for their use of public roads and the negative impact they exert on public safety and public health.
'RainCheck'
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