In Sydney the basic problem is what's the point of having a smart card system when you have a (very) dumb fare system?

Greg

--- InTramsDownUnder@..., Matthew Geier <matthew@...> wrote:
>

> Tim wrote:

> > The Travel 10 tickets on Sydney Buses is a good idea, no accidental deductions there.

> >

> But not a good idea in that you have to carry multiple versions

> (distances) and know which one to use for a particular journey at the

> start. A 'Smart' system would have an 'electronic purse' , you would tag

> on, ride to where you need to go and 'tag off'. The system knows how far

> you travelled and deducts the correct fare from the purse.

>

> Every time I ride a Sydney bus, I lament that the system should be

> figuring out my fare for me, not me having to guess at the start.

>

> (As a result, nearly every time I board a Sydney Buses Bus, I ask the

> driver 'what colour travel 10 to {place}' ?).

>

> How many people in Sydney regularly over-ride the number of sections

> their travel 10 is valid for ?

>

>

> > These Oyster, octopus, Myki things should be better at not deducting fares by mistake.

> >

> Generally these systems are pretty good, but not perfect. However to

> counter systemic abuse, they will tend to over charge on error not

> undercharge and then dump the onus on the user to claim the overcharge

> back. If it was the other way around, people would 'accidentally' cause

> it to error all the time, get and get a free/cheap ride. Then there is

> no incentive to operate the system properly.

>

> As it is people tend to think fare evasion is a victimless crime. After

> all the train/bus/tram runs anyway if I'm on it or not. The number of

> people who still think you buy a ticket for the ticket collector at the

> other end to collect and not as payment for services rendered.....

>

> I rather fell sorry for ticketing systems designers. It's a difficult

> task to get right, and the travelling public will deride it and try to

> break it, no matter how well you designed it.

>