Got into a verbal tiff with the stupid woman running the gate at my MARTA station this morning. I was listening to some music and minding my own business when, as is usual with MARTA's old, worn out gates, my monthly pass card didn't work. The stupid woman running the gate said, "Aaah, naaw," and made a mysterious hand gesture, all the while jabbering into her cell phone. Attempting to back up through the queued up people and figure out what she meant by her gesture, I decided to try the next gate. "Naaw, naaaw," she said, and went back to her phone conversation. She finally slouched over to the handicapped entrance and with extra head nodding indicated that I was supposed to go through there. As I passed, I said, "Maybe you could get off that cellphone and do your job."
Her instantaneous and outraged reply: "Maybe you could take off your headphones so you could hear me."
She didn't like what I had to say next: "I'm not on the clock yet, miss. You are." She shouted something at me as I walked away but I didn't bother to listen. Stupid people are recognizable by the flapping of their gums long after they've been bested, I find.
The new Breeze gates at MARTA aren't showing much promise. The 5 Points station has the gates fully installed, at least on the Forsyth street side which is where I enter & exit the station. Only the north bank of gates is accepting riders, meaning you can't walk straight in from the south part of Forsyth street entrance and card yourself in. You have to walk in and jostle over to the other bank. And you can't exit through the north gates. I have a sinking feeling that this is intentional. If not, the design of the gates is such that there's nothing preventing an entering rider from scanning his card, only to come face to face with an exiting rider at the very same gate. With the old gates there was a sort of chute that kept that effect to a minimum, but the Breeze gates are just flat doors. Brilliant. Not to come off too cynical, but I put the over/under on a major, system-affecting malfunction of the Breeze gates at around 3 months.
Oh, and I've asked twice, but I must be the only person who's asking, since it's not on the FAQ section. But I'm going to go ahead and assume that MARTA will do away with the unlimited-use weekly or monthly card model. Every ride will delete value from the card. That's probably ok for me, who rides a predictable 2x per day to & from home, but look for a huge outcry from those who use MARTA as their primary means of transportation.