On Jul 23, 10:19*am, David Walters wrote:

On Fri, 23 Jul 2010 01:53:33 -0700 (PDT), Mizter T wrote:

On Jul 23, 9:22*am, David Walters wrote:
You can opt to auto-renew but I don't know why you would ever want to
do that. Even for the annual access charge you might as well only renew
it when you use it.

What's unclear is how key-holding members will reactivate their key
with a new access period - e.g. say I've got a key and want 7-day
access, will I have to go on-line first and 'order' that, or will I be
able to turn up at a docking station and sort it out - though I'm not
sure the latter will be possible as IIRC there's no key 'hole' in the
pay stations, just in each of the cycle docks themselves. So if one
just turns up with a key that doesn't have an 'live' access period/
membership associated with it will one even be able to just take a
bike and get 24-hour access - or will the key be no good unless it's
re-activated online? (I suspect the latter.)

There is a key reader in the pay stations which lets you do things like
check your hire history so you might be able to also pay for access there..

Oh ok, that escaped my notice when I've taken a look at them.


I've just read the T&Cs properly and it makes the auto-renew a bit
clearer.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/termsandconditions/15869.aspx

"If you agreed to Auto Renewal, we will deduct the relevant Access Fee(s)
for you and each Additional User on the date that you present any of
your Key(s) at a Docking Point to undock a Cycle following expiry of
the previous Access Period."

So if you opt for auto renew at the daily rate and use bikes in 4 24
hour periods over 7 days you will be charged £4 and not £7.

Or at least I think that is what happens....

That seems to make sense - in fact it seems quite sensible (and good
investigating!) - this means occasional users could have Auto Renewal
set-up for 24-hour access and whenever key is used it'd start a new 24-
hour period (unless one was already live).

One question I have is, if a user were to have 7-day access on Auto
Renew, how easy would it be for them to downgrade it to 24-hour access
if they just wanted to use the system for a day (rather than a week) -
would they be able to do this at a pay station, or would they have to
do it online? I'm not too sure whether offering 7-day access on Auto
Renewal might cause more confusion than the benefit it'd offer to the
perhaps relatively low number of people who might find it useful -
that said, perhaps I'm wrong in thinking that.