Though likely to revolutionize the way New Yorkers use and regard public transit, NYC Transit's new monthly and weekly MetroCard unlimited ride transit passes got off to a relatively uneventful start this week. Anecdotal evidence suggests that while many are buying the passes, some regular transit riders are waiting until the value of their regular MetroCard runs out, vacations have been taken or the new system has had some time to prove itself. Riders' biggest gripe so far is a computer problem that completely neutralizes the pass for 18 minutes after it is swiped. The system is supposed to do this only for the subway station it is swiped in, not for the entire system - this is supposed to be fixed in the fall.

Perhaps most noteworthy was the amount of media attention NYC City Council Speaker and NY gubernatorial candidate Peter Vallone garnered with a report on the chronic problem of MetroCard double-swiping. The City Council report said that some straphangers who switch subway turnstiles after receiving an error message have had fares erroneously deducted from cards. The MTA attacked the report as political, but paper Transit Authority signs have gone up in some subway stations that instruct riders to stay with the same turnstile after receiving a "swipe again at this turnstile" message.