Scan Plan

And now, another random Hong Kong Survival Tip:

If you wish to enter or exit from the MTR, ensure that you do not queue behind people with large handbags.

Move instead behind people who have the courtesy and foresight to take out their Octopus card (the electronic stored-value pass) in advance and have it ready for the turnstile scanner.

Should you ignore this advice, you will inevitably be held up, because people often place their Octopus card at the bottom of their handbags so that they can just drop it on top of the scanner. Most of the time it works all right, but sometimes the card migrates and is not where they expect it to be, therefore the scanner can't pick it up.

When this happens, people will swipe the bag all over the scanner, hoping it will find the card. Naturally this causes a logjam of commuters; what should have taken five seconds (had they not been so lazy and had their card in hand) now takes two or three times as long.

Sometimes the scanner is right out of range and the person will then open the bag and rummage through it instead of stepping aside while they hunt for the errant card, thus effectively shutting down the turnstile and creating a scrum.

Such people ought to pulled aside by MTR staff and given a lecture on polite behavior, but that will never happen because the company has no spine and prefers instead to make signs and drone endless announcements that everyone ignores. So if you value your sanity, be on the lookout for large handbags and steer yourself to another turnstile.

You'll thank me for it.

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