besiBiryerde Transit Card, Istanbul

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The besiBiryerde Transit Card pays the fare on Istanbul's city buses, Metro and tram lines, ferryboats and funiculars.

It's a contactless, disposable RFID card (that means it has an electronic circuit in it) good for five fares on almost any means of public transport in Istanbul. The besiBiryerde card replaces the traditional paper single bus tickets and Metro tokens, and supplements the Akbil electronic transit pass.

The besiBiryerde's incredibly clunky name (BESH-ee-beer-yehr-DEH) means "five-in-one" in Turkish: five fares (bes kullanimlik) on one non-refillable card. (For a refillable card, get the Istanbulkart.)

The chip in the besiBiryerde is supposed to be able to communicate with the turnstile up to a distance of 10 cm (4 inches). The company that developed the card would like to think this allows you to walk through the turnstile with the card in your pocket or purse and not have to pause or stop at the turnstile to register your fare.

In practice, I think few people are exactly the right height for their pockets to pass so close to the card reader. I think you'll probably have to put the card close to the turnstile, either by having it in your purse or wallet and putting that close to the turnstile, or having the card itself out and available and touching it to, or waving it near the turnstile RFID point.