MetroCards will continue to work through 2023, so don't worry about rushing to replace your phone or bank cards. The new system shouldn't be picky about payment types, either, so you can expect Android Pay, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay (among others) to function just as well while you're scrambling to catch your ride to work.

The city is late to the party when it comes to tap-to-ride systems -- just ask the Londoners who've been using one for years. However, its introduction could speed up (or at least cement) the adoption of NFC in the US. When roughly 6 million people are riding the NYC subway every day, that's a lot of people who'll eventually need to tap cards and phones on a daily basis. If tap-to-pay doesn't become ubiquitous in the US in the near future, that 2023 MetroCard cutoff might just finish the job.