Free Wisdom Online: RFID on Buses in Rio de Janeiro

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Brazilian buses now have [RFID](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFID)
readers.  The readers are exactly like the ones I saw in Finland: a
box about 5x10x20cm with a screen that says "Passe" when you swipe a
plastic card with an RFID chip in it.  This would all be very modern
and civilized if it weren't for two things that make Rio busses quite
different from those in Helsinki:

- First, there is a narrow turnstile that you need to get through.  I
    can only get through it _sideways_ myself, and I am pretty
    thin. (So your average hamburger-fed American might as well forget
    about it.)  After a while you also learn a particular butt
    maneuver that allows you to get through the turnstile without
    using your hands.  It's a bit tricky, since you have to move
    sideways, yet butt-first at the same time.  It's very entertaining
    to watch people do it.

- Second, you don't actually usually swipe a card.  Instead, you pay
    R$1,80 in cash to a "cobrador" sitting on a chair next to a
    turnstile.  'What's the reader for?' you might ask.  Well, after
    you pay your R$1.80 the cobrador swipes _his_ card by the reader,
    which opens the turnstile.  Some of the clever ones even tie the
    card to the back of their hand so that they could swipe them
    faster.  You _can_ actually buy your own
    "[RioCard](http://www.riocard.fetranspor.com.br/riocard/)" and
    swipe it instead of paying cash, but doing so is
    [complicated](http://www.riocard.fetranspor.com.br/riocard/),
    involving multiple steps over the Internet and requiring that you
    provide tons of information about yourself.  As a result, I've
    only seen one person using the card so far.

The RFID + cobrador combo examplifies a common pattern of technology
use in Brazil where advanced technology is combined with manual labor.
A few weeks ago I was standing in line at a restaurant holding a piece
of paper that had a sticker _with a barcode_ stating the price of my
entry, as well as a check in one of the columns showing the price of
my drink.  So the cashier was supposed to scan the sticker, then enter
the code for the drink, then ring up the total.  However, there was
only one cash register, and a line started growing longer.  So, two
women started walking down the line, taking everyones cards, adding up
the total on a calculator, and writing it on the card, so that the
cashier could just type in the total (saving about 10 seconds).  So,
there is a modern cash-register with a scanner, but there is only one,
and it's cheaper to send several women with calculators to figure out
the totals.

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