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G4EBT > RIGHTS 27.03.09 11:12l 134 Lines 5534 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 0D0491G4EBT
Read: GUEST
Subj: Re: UK bus passes: G6KUI/G0TEZ
Path: ON0AR<F1ZNR<F4BWT<DK0WUE<7M3TJZ<ZL2BAU<GB7PZT<GB7MAX<GB7SYP<GB7FCR
Sent: 090327/0811Z @:GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU #:25707 [Blackpool] FBB-7.03a $:0D0491G4
From: G4EBT@GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU
To : RIGHTS@WW
Pete, G6KUI wrote:-
>I don't know what illegal databases have to do with it,
>but I wonder about Ian and him making it up as he goes along.
Ian, G0TEZ:-
}8 Years ago, after a long struggle I finally got a bus pass - very
useful. 2 years ago, the local busses all installed readers for the
}RFID chip in the card and now we just lay the card on the reader.
}In my case it prints a ticket saying "Disabled" and a multi digit
}number. I wonder what the number links to and what else is on record.
Pete:-
> You must have a special one just for you. Everyone else has a buspass
> that does not have to be read by anything. I, and everyone else that I
> know, just show the pass and a free ticket is printed out. My busspass
> has never left my wallet since I got it. It is viewable through a clear
> plastic window.
> There is a barcode on the back, but it has never been used so far.
My experience is in line with Pete's.
My "bus pass" issued by the local council, but the concession is funded in
whole or in part by the government, can be used for four purposes and says
on the back "one card - four ways to use it":
Bus pass,
Leisure services (for concessionary prices)
Libraries - it doubles as a library ticket for book, CDs etc.
Free internet access at locations where it's provided, mainly at
libraries.
The card is free, and allows free bus travel in any area in England off
peak (9.30am-11pm Mon, Fri, all weekends and Public Holidays) but for ten
pounds, I could get free travel in the local area (not other cities)
during peak times too.
I rarely use in locally - it takes too long to go by bus as they stop
every hundred yards, take circuitous routes into town and the timetable
can't be relied upon, except from the town terminus coming home. A five
mile bus trip into town takes 30 - 45 mins - by car, 10-15 mins.
I could travel to other towns in Yorkshire - York for example, but again,
it takes an eternity. 2.5 hrs for a 40 mile trip. Instead, I drive 35
miles to the York Park and ride, where I can park my car all day free and
go by bus into York free.
I use it in Sheffield and take the tram into the city centre on the park
and ride scheme, and Nottingham too. We go to London several times a year
by car to visit our elder son and his family in SW London.
The buses take an eternity to travel on - no use if we're in a hurry - we
take the underground (not free), but if we aren't in a hurry, we use our
bus pass for free travel.
At no time has any bus driver anywhere done more than take a quick cursory
glance at our bus passes, let alone scanned them. The don't have an RFID
chip or anything, just a photo and a bar code on the back, which - if it
were ever scanned, probably translates into "freeloading old fogey".
For what it's worth, although prior to 2008, many local Councils including
mine, had free bus pass schemes for over 60s and disabled people. From
April 2008 Free off-peak bus travel anywhere in England for was introduced
for over 60s or 'eligible disabled' people resident in England. Scotland
and Wales also have schemes.
Local authorities may offer further benefits to their residents, such as
free travel outside off-peak times or reduced tram or rail travel, but
these will apply only for travel in the local area, not elsewhere in
England.
What is 'eligible disabled'?
You are eligible disabled if you are:
*Blind or partially sighted
*Profoundly or severely deaf
*Without speech
*Have a disability, or have suffered an injury, which has
a substantial and long-term effect on your ability to walk
*Do not have arms or have long-term loss of the use of both arms
*Have a learning disability, or;
*Would - if you applied for a licence to drive a motor vehicle under Part
III of the Road Traffic Act 1988, have your application refused under
section 92 of the Act (physical fitness) on grounds other than persistent
misuse of drugs or alcohol.
Of all the databases which I know the government has, and uses, loses and
abuses - often illegally, in connection with my personal data, including
selling details of my car, name and address to criminal gangs, my bus pass
is the one that causes me least concern.
Only when ministers and senior civil servants are charged with and
convicted of criminal negligence will the misuse of data be brought
under control.
In many cases, the very existence of such data is disproprtionate and
probably unlawful, but unfortunately, thel ikes of Gordon Brown utterly
lack the guile and imagination to turn this to their political advantage
by purging this stuff and rerstoring our freedoms.
The basic problem is that becuase the technolgy exists to gather, store
and retrive this information, politicians have an irresisitable urge to do
it. Power junkies - it started with Tony Bliar, often under the guise of
anti-terrorism.
The worm is turning, but it's too late for this government to relent -
a decade of Bliar and Brown has sealed their fate. Gordon (not-flash)
McBrown, Blears, Jowell, Harperson, McDarling et al are destined for
oblivion.
They've all got their snouts in the trough, yet have the temerity to
criticise bankers bonuses. It's ok for us to do that when our only
perk is a free bus pass, but not for freeloading expense-fiddling MPs
hiding behind rules that they themselves write.
Best wishes
David, G4EBT @ GB7FCR
Cottingham, East Yorkshire.
Message timed: 08:06 on 2009-Mar-27
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