Tickets Are Politics: The Democratic Life of Transit Cards™

“Every tap is a vote you didn’t know you cast.” A global history of fare media showing how transit cards encode democracy, surveillance, and sovereignty.

Tickets Are Politics is a prestige nonfiction book that reframes ubiquitous transit fare media as civic infrastructure and a contested democracy. From nickel tokens to biometric gates, each era of fare media—magstripe, smartcards, mobile wallets—is shown to redefine democracy, equity, and surveillance. The book argues every ride is not just transit, but participation in a politicized system, punctuating analysis with cultural nostalgia like the Bowie MetroCards. This universal, timely subject matter makes it a high-value IP with a strong political/cultural thesis, primed for a prestige book and potential docu-series conversion.