The difference between pennies and free is substantial. For tourists, navigating each system’s ticketing system is a pain. Even as a New Yorker, the antiquated paper mechanisms of the AirTrain are often enough to nudge me into a car.
As someone who was traveling a lot pre-pandemic and does tend to take public transit when there are good options available--I am always shocked at just how bad so many ticketing systems are for someone who is unfamiliar, may very well be tired/stressed, and may not even speak the language. It's not even just the ticketing. It can also be which piece of paper goes into the turnstile etc.--while the people lined up behind you are getting increasingly annoyed.
Heck, after not using for quite a while, the contactless ticketing in my home-ish city wouldn't work for me for unclear reasons when I tried to take the subway and I ended buying a new card.
Every bus company that I have used in recent years (UK, Norway) has an app that allows for route planning and buying tickets. In many cases it is an umbrella app that covers all transport in a given region. So if you have a smartphone there is no paper ticket.
That can be a nuisance if you don't have a roaming subscription on your mobile I agree and you do need a smartphone. But you only need to find somewhere where there is wifi to do the download and then register a credit or debit card with the app.
