Not so easy access - in the everyday matter of getting on a bus

[farnam]

Let’s just say - for fun, that today you can't walk very well. Hey, just to let everyone join in - this is an equal opportunities demonstration, after all, why not just tie your shoelaces tightly together so you have to hop everywhere. Now, with your laces tied, lift weights with both your arms and your legs until your limbs are shaking and painful

Comments

[farnam]

Funny, I used to always top up my oyster card on line, but then they changed the system for doing so, and it became a lot more complicated. I lost one card, got another, and just couldn't register it. You used to be able to register your card on line to start topping it up, but now you have to go to specific train stations to do so, and I can't remember the ins and outs of it, but I do recall trying a few times, and just not managing it as there were too many complications/hurdles. This is all supposedly for added 'security' but I can't really see how making it virtually impossible for people to register thier Oyster cards adds any security. It all struck me as the usual UK love of building in 500 needless regulations and steps for the perverted fun of making people jump through totally unnessisary hoops just to engage in daily life.

My long term solution will be to get a freedom pass, and I've had the forms in my bags for a couple of weeks now, but like everything else its actually hellishly complicated. You initially have to contact your local council, who reluctantly give you the name of the organisation who administer them, who they subcontract to, who very reluctantly give you the name of the company THEY sub contract to for applications, and thats just to get the form. This information is all kept highly classified, and you need to apply at just the right time to the right member of staff who will let you in on the first layer of secrets. (I've done that bit, it almost drove me mental, but I got through those hurdles) Then you need to give a doctors name who they then independantly write to to confirm that you have a mobility difficulty, but having just moved house I have newly registered with a GP who has never seen me ... and to cut a long story short it will likely be at least months before I can claim one. This is the kind of nonsense that drives me mental, and why it is not safe to assume that just because someone has a disability they will have a freedom pass. Most people I know who have one tell me they were somewhere between several months and a year in to having a significant disability before they got thier first one.

[karen2205]

*nods* re unnecessarily complicated security systems. I was living in London when Oystercards were first introduced and don't remember any problems with registering mine. I do have a problem remembering my password because they insist on mixed upper and lower case and with my username. It looks like you can currently top up online without having to register the card. And strangely it looks like you can currently register an existing card online, so maybe they've changed the system again?

And yes definitely Freedom Pass as a longer term solution. If you get DLA at particular rates (I can't remember which off the top of my head) you automatically qualify for a Freedom Pass without having to prove you can't walk very far.

If you end up getting DLA at anything other than the lowest rate for care you will be entitled to a Disabled persons' railcard. This is useful for non-London travel, but also useful in London for trips on National Rail services before 9.30am which aren't free with a Freedom Pass as you can get your railcard discount loaded onto your Oyster card - see here. Err, yes, still confusing and don't ask me how I know all of that.

Everyone in London seems to move house every six - twelve months! It makes getting stuff done with any sort of bureaucracy very hard, particularly anything with the NHS. I remember moving house and having to wait for a month to register with a GP, after having gone in with my passport and either tenancy agreement or lease to prove I was living where I said I was. Fortunately, I am perfectly well and waiting wasn't a problem in practice for me.