What services or apps did you see abroad and wonder: why don't we have them?

Sydney lets you use your credit card to tap on to trains and buses, which is very nice

We have the tech in the USA but it’s only ever used for coin counting machines (which themselves are relatively rare).

Basically every building in Ireland is wheelchair accessible in some form.

Has been for well over twenty years at this point.

It had a number of unexpected consequences, like making it much harder/illegal to rent flats over shops in much of the city centres.

This depends on where in Europe. From personal experience of a relative (going back 20+ years), the Netherlands is very accessible by wheelchair.

Blinkered nonsense.

Yes, of course Europe doesn't have any US laws but to suggest that it doesn't have legislation about accessibility is simply wrong. Guess what... the legislation generally applies to buildings and construction post-dating the legislation. Applicability to earlier structures will vary depending on feasability and justification (cost, traffic).

Europe is diverse. The parts of Germany I happen to know, are mostly ADA compliant, or even more so. From the little bits I know about stuff like that. Anything wheelchair accesible I tend to notice as avid bicyclist. Other things are clearly visible, audible, or tactile. Like textured markings on the ground for the blind, braille markings on all sorts of buttons, near screens, acoustic signaling at street crossings, in stations, doors of buses & trains, lifts, in all sorts of public spaces. If there is something wrong with that, say a lift for acessability of platforms, it's in the local news. Which doesn't necessarily means it gets fixed fast, depending on who manages that property. Let's say Deutsche Bahn, which is mostly foobared.

Anyways, that is NOT the case in the parts I know of the US. Much less markings, much less signaling, much shrug, so what?

I guess the US are diverse too, uh?

What comes to mind for .de and its ADA-equivalents are:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behindertengleichstellungsgese...

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrierefreiheit

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrierefreies_Bauen

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodenleitsystem ( I like to walk on these! )

Also funny, in the middle of the night, when there is no traffic at all, are the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncopation 's the traffic lights produce.

Beeping or 'knocking' drifting slowly apart, to randomly come to be synchronized for a moment, then drifting apart again. I think I'd go crazy when I'd have to live near such things.

Otherwise, during daily life I tend to be annoyed by all that beeping.

What an Orwellian nightmare. These systems require real-time GPS data.

Just as buying a ticket with cash is becoming increasingly hard in parts of Europe, I can see a near future where having a phone sending constant GPS updates becomes a requirement (a requirement in an strict sense, or the sense that the alternative is unreasonably cumbersome or more expensive)

Queensland, Australia introduced state-wide $0.50 public transit fares a year ago, and it’s been a raging success. Conveniently, this also eliminates the entire problem class of needing to calculate fares. Mind you, for those unfamiliar, QLD is a state 2.5x larger than Texas, 5x larger than all of Japan, 7x larger than Great Britain, and is bigger than all but 16 countries.

More than that (which is an amazing feature, don't get me wrong) is the fact that there is a single app for every public transportation system in the country.

Compare that to Italy/France/Spain (those that I know) where, depending where you are traveling to, you have to download, sign in, and give your credit card details to N different apps in different states of disrepair/being barely maintained.

Virtual credit cards (I use Revolut) that I then delete mitigate that, but still, what a mess.

I'm a bit confused - how does this differ from something like The Tube in London where I tap on and tap off and it'll charge me based on the entry and exit points and whatever the appropriate "zone" travel I did was?

I believe Copenhagen has this too now. I visited in the same week they were launching the system (last year?) and it worked perfectly. All you had to do was press a button on your phone as you enter and leave the station and it automatically calculates what you owe. I loved it. It also worked throughout all of the different train systems.

I don't understand how so many tech-minded people on this site completely disregard the value of privacy. How is this a win?

Certain parts of France and Germany, that I know, use something similar for regional trains and buses: FAIRTIQ

This. It also caps your fares in a day to the cost of a daily ticket, so you don't get overcharged.

In India water is free in almost all restaurants.

Even if you don't order anything, you can just drink it and leave.

Some fancy restaurants don't allow it though.

I thought the author from the US where water is usually served for free, pretty much in all restaurants?

I use mobilepay when paying online. Its quicker than the credit card.

But the service is owned by the greedy banks so it will probably end with me abandoning it because it will get too expensive when they have enough users.

I like the keys. The key has the locker number on it, so you don't have to remember anything. And there's no way to screw up setting the pin because of a language barrier, since there are basically no instructions needed for key lockers. FWIW the key lockers are more common in Japan as well.

There’s probably an economy around those keys - people who lose them have to pay an (overinflated) deposit, some company is overcharging the locker owner for key replacements, etc. At every layer someone skims a bit of money, so nobody in power of changing the system is actually incentivized to do so.

In London contactless payment via credit/debit/Apple/Android has automatic daily and weekly caps

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/find-fares/capping

Depending on the frequency of travel, it can be cheaper to get season tickets though

I don't think so (not a Londoner)

It was my impression that the whole thing was just about simplification in order to provide a better service.

Sydney too, for quite a while (I am sure at least 5 yrs maybe 10)

How does someone login via this system? I'm asking because it has the force of law. In that sense, I can't imagine that passwords alone would be enough.

That's very interesting. How do they know what's outgoing? Do they have to check the address of each letter, or is there like a separate compartment for outgoing mail?

This is only true in rural areas and most suburbs. In the city, you often have to take it to a blue post box.

Although some carriers will pick up outgoing mail in an apartment building if you leave it where they can see it and indicate it clearly.

You can get them to pick up parcels now, at least.

It helps that, to be able to use an IBAN for withdrawals, you basically have to "sign" a recurring transfer agreement. Otherwise it's pretty much always a "push" transaction from buyer to seller.

Better than being able to commit ACH fraud merely by virtue of having the bank's routing and account number.

Side note: shout out to both MB Way and Multibanco payments in Portugal that have made it so I haven't have to give payment information to an online vendor in years.

Why is that shocking? You can't really do anything with my bank account's IBAN unless you want to send me some money.

Not sure if I understand correctly, but are you saying that IBAN leaks personal information?

ThirstyInRome I presume (the only iOS app returned when searching for ‘Fountains in Italy’ :-)