Tom Anderson wrote in message ...
On 7 Jan 2004, Steph Davies wrote:

Here's an idea for a workaround though, which simply involves
maintaining a prepay balance and a tweak to the system.

snip

Both of these suggestions are basically about an oyster which tracks your
usage, and then decides which ticket would have been cheapest (or in the
case of the Davies proposal, just goes with the ticket you asked for) and
issues it to you retrospectively. If this were done generally, it would be
rather good, and simple to use: you just travel, and get charged a monthly
(or whatever) direct debit. Essentially, a sort of pre-pay capping system
operating backwards in time.

I suppose the problem would be with people failing to pay their direct
debits; perhaps there could be some sort of substantial deposit to cover
that, which would be no worse than buying a ticket up-front today.

Also, you might find the problem was quite computationally complex if

another snip .....

Anyway, yes, basically, it would be nice if machines could do my thinking
for me.

Phone and utility companies have always billed their customers in this
way, often with built-in discounts or price caps calculated at the end
of the charging period. Some also offer a discount on the NEXT bill
if you pay promptly. I would prefer a 'post-pay' credit account
system of this type although I think it might well have to be
direct-debit only. Maybe one day (reliable vehicle detection
technology permitting) you could pay your congestion charges and
Oyster charges on the same TfL monthly 'travel' bill. Anyone failing
to pay their direct debit would simply have their card cancelled until
they cleared the debt - and lose any accrued discounts.