A bus rider without a smartphone pays £264 extra a year
Why should I have to pay more for buses if I don't use a smartphone?
In a letter to the Guardian, Owen Fraser of Aberdeen describes how First's monthly bus pass is available only through its app, while the weekly pass can be bought on board. Because he runs a non-standard phone operating system, he ends up paying £264 more over a year. He argues accessible public transport should not depend on which software a passenger uses, and notes supermarkets' app-only loyalty schemes follow the same pattern.
I am spending £264 extra over the course of a year simply for not using a phone that this specific app is designed for.
- HiPhish
In Germany I have a monthly plan. I got a physical card with an NFC chip inside it. No app shenanigans. I can pause and renew my plan from home: log into the Bahn website, go to my account settings and adjust things there.
The real issue is not smartphones, iOS and Android or apps. The issue is that independent technical standards are intentionally ignored. There is no reason that I should not be able to set my plan through curl and hand-draw the QR code with pen and paper. Sure, I would not want to actually do it like that, that's not the point. The point is: if I can use curl and pen & paper, then I can use whatever else I want. If I want to use a smartphone I should be able to code my own app according to a well-documented public API. Those APIs already do exist, otherwise the official app would not work, so it's no extra work for the service provider.
We need a law that mandates open specifications for access to all publicly available services.
- unified101
The actual answer is there's operational cost to handling cash, or payment methods beyond the ones that cover 99.9% people well. You pay more for the extra hassle the whole system has to serve that .1%
You may not like or disagree with it. But it's the true answer.
- hobo123
In Germany we used to have the Geldkarte (money card), which was similar to a credit card, but anonymous, it didn't require Internet, you could charge it with money at an ATM and use it for payments. You could also put bus tickets on it.
Maybe 10 years ago the whole project was stopped, sadly, and now we have the plague that requires everyone including handicapped people and seniors to use (often old and insecure) smartphones.
- pjmlp
Same is happening in Germany as well, including the supermarket apps mentioned at the end of the article.
Even better, in NRW region some ticket models are only available on the app, nowhere to be found on the ticket machines or at the counter on the stations.
- Elfener
I find it weird that you have to pay every time you get on a bus in the UK it seems?
Are there no passes? e.g. in Budapest I have a monthly public transport pass and I just board the vehicle when it arrives without having to validate or purchase a ticket every time.