Why, oh why, is it so hard to buy a digital bus ticket in 2026?
jotaen
20 points
6 comments
November 10, 2026
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Discussion Highlights (5 comments)
greatgib
That is the curse of the current century. To me the same problem is affecting politics. We use to have the world running on common sense, everyone would have worked on the goal of efficiency and progress. But now since a few decades, society is going downward. We are encountering thousand frustrations like that, everyday, it doesn't make any sense, but no one will fix anything, because no one is responsible, it is the process, it is "how things are supposed to be". There are very few corporate or political leaders that will be like a normal person and say: "fuck it, that is not possible, come here engineers, you have 5 hours to fix that so I can have my app work in a single click."
VohuMana
The parking app for my city is similar to this experience. I feel so old when I’m like I remember when this used to be an easy thing not even 10 years ago, get out of my car, go to the meter or kiosk, pay with cash or card, and get a little slip of paper to put on my dash. Now it’s a mess of reauth prompts, offers from select “partners”, and other additional hoops. Even more fun sometimes the backend is slow or broken a cop tries to give you a ticket even though you can show him you paid but “that’s not what his device says”
satiric
Where I am (Seattle) they've implemented regular tap to pay and Google Wallet integration (no Apple Wallet integration, because Apple says screw you). Whether you're a tourist using your credit card, or a local commuting on a monthly pass, it's very easy. I don't know why but I don't often see others use it.
brokenmachine
Ordering food is the same. In the dark ages you just called a number, said what you want, and if you were a regular and they knew you, then you were done in less than 20 seconds. Now it's a nightmare of two-factor garbage on top of vibe-coded garbage on top of middlemen selling your data. Everything sucks now.
eviks
Distributed incompetence is a hell of a drug and can unfortunately persist until the next technological shift