On Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 10:31:47PM +0000, Neil Williams wrote:

Idea: Why can't taxis accept Oyster? It would obviously have to be
outside the cap etc, but it would seem a good idea? No fumbling for
change, and taxis not blocking the bus lanes for too long?

Now this is something I've always thought would be a good idea. It
would also mean that people who are too disabled to use a bus - or for
whom buses need to wait around for ages to extend the wheelchair ramp;
or indeed for whom buses need to have expensive wheelchair ramps
fitted - could just call for a taxi and pay with their "Freedom Card".
I believe that there is a fairly low upper limit on how much cash you
can load onto Oyster, so that would need increasing to something of the
order of two or three hundred quid to cope with heavy users.

I can see that corporate expenses departments would love it, as it would
make taxi journeys easier to keep track of.

Another easy way to decrease the amount of time taxis wait would be to
make the meter always round fares up or down to the nearest pound.
Can't imagine drivers liking that though, as the GBP7.20 fare where the
customer just pays 8 quid cos they can't be bothered with the change
presumably makes up a decent proportion of their income!

--
David Cantrell | Godless Liberal Elitist

The voices said it's a good day to clean my weapons