Tuesday 31 May 2005

Reintroducing the human factor

It was not too long ago that most bus tickets were disposable magnetic strip cards, read by the appropriate hardware. The various rules about expiry dates and valid times were enforced automatically by The Machines, issuing their judgements by sequences of beeps.

Now many tickets are just receipts, printed in the same way as everything else. It takes a little longer to get on the bus, but now we have some human fallibility back in the system. If you catch a driver early enough in the day, it's sometimes possible to pass off an expired ticket, walking confidently onto the bus as the driver blearily waves you by. This is the kind of system that can allow real experimentation.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I have personally managed to get on a bus with an expired ticket.
PPS - I have yet to try a shopping docket or Subway serviette.

3 comments:

Erin Marie said...

Isn't this stealing? Or at least, lying? :P

John said...

Well, a little bit, I suppose. Actually it was my mistake, too - I thought the ticket was still valid. I usually buy a one-way ticket in the morning, then use that to get a discount on a weekly ticket. Since I still bought a weekly ticket that day, and had no one-way ticket to use for a discount, I still ended up paying the fare. So there. Nyah.

Erin Marie said...

That's all right John, I don't have to judge you. God will do that. :P