There is an assumption everyone has or wants a phone, also an assumption that people can afford a phone, or data (even with data gifting) so as a result more services are using phones,
At the same time, as you said we can't use cash on buses (we can where I am) however all these require smartphones, which we want to ban for under 16s, so they are going to find them selves in that precise situation.
We also assume people have phones running Apple or Google so what about people using other things like postmarketOS, graphine, which as far as I understand are open sourcee, mobile systems, unless they are compatible with google android.
I agree people need to wake up or we are going to just be excluded.
@zleap Contactless payment cards are a thing - no phone needed - and accepted on most public transport in the UK. Even available for bank accounts owned by teenagers. If the teenager is lucky, they get subsidised or free public transport (bit of a postcode lottery there) but would have a (regional) transport pass to get that, again, no phone needed.
But you have a very valid point. It's an assumption of a lot of 'mobile-first' systems that all have a Google-sanctioned or Apple-sanctioned phone.
Agreed
On contactless, this worked fine, local bus company charged £3 for a one way journey. I can buy a ticket for 12 journey for £30 so basically buy 10 get 2 free. This was a paper ticket, was as itis being withdrawn.
I can get why paper tickets are being with drawn, drivers have to mark each journey in the list 1-12, which is fine, as we can see when a new ticket is needed.
A week rider is no good for me, as that would be 7 days and I only use it Monday to Friday when working.
I can however buy a ticket via their App, that does something similar ( I think ), so that goes back to having a smartphone.
I will probably end up going back to single day tickets, will just cost me more to get to / from work per month. And the government argue we are better off working.
Anyone who works in a school will know about phone policies. I don't need one for my job, so would rather not have one on site at all, even if stowed in my bag.
@zleap Transport for London manage daily / weekly automatic capping of fares via contactless payments, if the same payment method is used, and it requires no additional setup by the customer. If TfL can do it, other transport providers could do it. Of course many are commercial companies and would rather get more money from people not realising that the bulk buy week rider was even an option.
https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/find-fares/capping