Ghost trips appearing on the London Cycle Hire scheme
 

In message Y8W9o.93300$6C1.13499@hurricane, Roy Badami
writes

On 15/08/10 18:41, Paul Terry wrote:

Oyster cannot support the £300 charge made for lost or terminally
damaged bicycles.

And yet it can support an annual Travelcard that costs many times that
sum...

But the travelcard has already been paid for - Oyster is simply acting
as a convenient medium for using the purchase.

In the case of a lost bicycle, TfL need to have a mechanism to initiate
a £300 payment.

It's a pity that Oyster couldn't have been upgraded to have the
necessary capabilities...

Well, I suppose TfL could insist that anyone using an Oyster for bicycle
hire must have at least £300 credit on their Oyster, but would that
really be attractive to anyone?
--
Paul Terry

Ghost trips appearing on the London Cycle Hire scheme
 

On 15/08/10 19:35, Paul Terry wrote:

Well, I suppose TfL could insist that anyone using an Oyster for bicycle
hire must have at least £300 credit on their Oyster, but would that
really be attractive to anyone?

I'm not suggesting it should use Oyster prepay. I don't see why an
Oyster card couldn't carry a "bike scheme key" as a product loaded onto
it in exactly the same way as it handles other products. Payment could
be using whatever the bike scheme actually really does use (credit card
number on file, presumably?)

-roy

Ghost trips appearing on the London Cycle Hire scheme
 

On 15/08/2010 18:41, Paul Terry wrote:
In message mcU9o.38403$GW1.14027@hurricane, Roy Badami
writes

It seems a great shame they need to send you a new RFID device for use
with this. Surely the scheme should have been designed to use Oyster
Cards...?

Oyster cannot support the £300 charge made for lost or terminally
damaged bicycles.

A registered Oyster does know who you are, however, and can simply post
or directly deduct from your current account the fine for the damage.

Ghost trips appearing on the London Cycle Hire scheme
 

On 15/08/2010 19:15, Roy Badami wrote:
On 15/08/10 18:41, Paul Terry wrote:
In message mcU9o.38403$GW1.14027@hurricane, Roy Badami
writes

It seems a great shame they need to send you a new RFID device for use
with this. Surely the scheme should have been designed to use Oyster
Cards...?

Oyster cannot support the £300 charge made for lost or terminally
damaged bicycles.

And yet it can support an annual Travelcard that costs many times that
sum...

It's a pity that Oyster couldn't have been upgraded to have the
necessary capabilities...

-roy

Give it time, I imagine that this will eventually be the case.

Ghost trips appearing on the London Cycle Hire scheme
 

On 15/08/2010 19:39, Roy Badami wrote:
On 15/08/10 19:35, Paul Terry wrote:

Well, I suppose TfL could insist that anyone using an Oyster for bicycle
hire must have at least £300 credit on their Oyster, but would that
really be attractive to anyone?

I'm not suggesting it should use Oyster prepay. I don't see why an
Oyster card couldn't carry a "bike scheme key" as a product loaded onto
it in exactly the same way as it handles other products. Payment could
be using whatever the bike scheme actually really does use (credit card
number on file, presumably?)

-roy
That's what already happens with Oyster in some cases, such as if you go
below £5, in which case the Oyster automatically tops it up. Funds for
that will directly from your debit or credit card.

Ghost trips appearing on the London Cycle Hire scheme
 

In message MQW9o.46545$ss1.15033@hurricane, "
writes

On 15/08/2010 19:15, Roy Badami wrote:

It's a pity that Oyster couldn't have been upgraded to have the
necessary capabilities...

Give it time, I imagine that this will eventually be the case.

Given that TfL haven't included Oyster readers on the bike terminal
stations, I fear that it could be a very long time.
--
Paul Terry

Ghost trips appearing on the London Cycle Hire scheme
 

"Paul Terry" wrote in message
...
In message MQW9o.46545$ss1.15033@hurricane, "
writes

On 15/08/2010 19:15, Roy Badami wrote:

It's a pity that Oyster couldn't have been upgraded to have the
necessary capabilities...

Give it time, I imagine that this will eventually be the case.

Given that TfL haven't included Oyster readers on the bike terminal
stations, I fear that it could be a very long time.

I read somewhere that for speed of introduction they'd bought an off the
shelf system exactly as used in another city somewhere. But many media
reports have already indicated that Oyster readers will be retrofitted.

Paul S

Ghost trips appearing on the London Cycle Hire scheme
 

In message , Paul Scott
writes

I read somewhere that for speed of introduction they'd bought an off
the shelf system exactly as used in another city somewhere.

The Bixi system, as introduced in Montreal last year.

But while the docking stations are virtually identical to the Bixi ones,
it looks to me as though the pay stations have been redesigned for
London:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mo...ay_Station.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/celesteh/4843798568/

But many media reports have already indicated that Oyster readers will
be retrofitted.

Yes, there has been a vague statement to that effect, although other
reports state the opposite:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07...ke_hire_delay/

In any case, it seems needlessly extravagant to retrofit if the pay
stations have already been redesigned for TfL. After all, the hardware
could have been built-in but left switched-off until TfL were ready to
offer Oyster usage.

I still think there are great problems in allowing payment by Oyster -
the Oyster card will have to be registered and linked to a bank account
in order to retrieve the potential £300 for a non-returned bike. This
adds a whole new level of complexity to Oyster - especially for tourists
- since there is no way to visually differentiate between registered and
non-registered Oyster cards.

--
Paul Terry

Ghost trips appearing on the London Cycle Hire scheme
 

On 16/08/2010 12:52, Paul Terry wrote:
In message MQW9o.46545$ss1.15033@hurricane, "
writes

On 15/08/2010 19:15, Roy Badami wrote:

It's a pity that Oyster couldn't have been upgraded to have the
necessary capabilities...

Give it time, I imagine that this will eventually be the case.

Given that TfL haven't included Oyster readers on the bike terminal
stations, I fear that it could be a very long time.

Perhaps they want to see how it takes off after the full launch, due
later this month?

Ghost trips appearing on the London Cycle Hire scheme
 

On 16/08/2010 16:33, Paul Terry wrote:
In message , Paul Scott
writes

I read somewhere that for speed of introduction they'd bought an off
the shelf system exactly as used in another city somewhere.

The Bixi system, as introduced in Montreal last year.

But while the docking stations are virtually identical to the Bixi ones,
it looks to me as though the pay stations have been redesigned for London:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mo...ay_Station.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/celesteh/4843798568/

But many media reports have already indicated that Oyster readers will
be retrofitted.

Yes, there has been a vague statement to that effect, although other
reports state the opposite:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07...ke_hire_delay/

In any case, it seems needlessly extravagant to retrofit if the pay
stations have already been redesigned for TfL. After all, the hardware
could have been built-in but left switched-off until TfL were ready to
offer Oyster usage.

I still think there are great problems in allowing payment by Oyster -
the Oyster card will have to be registered and linked to a bank account
in order to retrieve the potential £300 for a non-returned bike. This
adds a whole new level of complexity to Oyster - especially for tourists
- since there is no way to visually differentiate between registered and
non-registered Oyster cards.


But you would need to register the Oystercard for cycle hire and it
would have to be linked to your account?