BART, TransLink Use Pilot to Find and Fix Technical Issues

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the value of pilots to technology adoption in response to Steven Walling’s poll of ReadWriteWeb readers and Michael Idinopulos’ article questioning the value of pilots.

Since then, I’ve been looking for examples of pilots intended to find and fix technical issues with new systems. Here’s one: BART (the regional rail transit system in the Bay Area) and TransLink (the new integrated fare payment system for all Bay Area transit agencies) are conducting a pilot ahead of full rollout of the new payment option:

Over the next several months, TransLink will be rolling out to limited groups of BART customers. This rollout period is essential to ensuring all technical issues are resolved as we prepare to promote TransLink to all BART customers.