This posting is dedicated to all chickens who have just laid their first egg.A perfect long weekend: camping (well, soft camping in Dot’s garden), friends, turbo-nerf-ball-throwing, G&T’s, fantastic trip to an organic cafe, lager, craft fare, takeaway…
..and the City Car Club alowed us to do this.
And what a day Thursday was: getting our Car Club membership through( the smart card opens the car) and then the Annual (smart card) Bus Pass (courtesy of my employerl!).
Shame these cards are not on one lovely card though, which could do lots of things and provide lots of incentives and rewards for its use. Just like the egg laying wool milk sow card (or should I say eierlegendewollmilchsau) that they have in Bremen which on one card delivers: car club, bus pass, electronic purse, tourist offers….(see link)
Brodie and Dot are our friends. Brodie is from Fife. Lovely rural Fife. She is studying art in Edinburgh. Her Mum, Dot, comes to visit often but still worries about how her daughter is getting on. Very artistic Dot and Brodie. Look at Dot’s jewellery link opposite: Dot Sim
Brodie’s transport-life is typical of many students. In Edinburgh she catches buses and walks a lot. Brodie also cycles quite a bit.
She also likes to go home to Fife to see friends and Dot and Flick the dog. She does have an old car, which she had when she lived in rural Fife and needed to get around as a 19 year old. She has it with her in Edinburgh but if anything its a bit of a nuisance – she only really uses it when she goes home on a weekend. Even then she sometimes uses the train to get home.
Brodie qualifies for a range of discounts – if she took out a monthly contract with Lothian Buses she would get cheap travel by buses and also reduced price travel on night buses. With Scotrail she can get some student discounts. She can also get a National Young Person’s Railcard to get discounted rail travel. I am not sure, but with her Young Scot Card she can get certain discounts…..Oh, and when she gets to Fife can she get a discount with Stagecoach buses from Leuchars?
A bit messy all these different offers. And some require a commitment up front: eg with a monthly bus pass she would have to predict how much bus travel she would make – but she also likes to cycle so maybe wouldn’t get her money’s worth. Same with Railcards – a great deal – but a commitment up front.
Would be nice to get the discounts – and incentives to travel – in more real-time. Hard to do in some ways, but technology is making this easier.
It would be also nice if lovely Dot could top-up Brodie’s travel account every now and then – just to help out a bit. Brodie would like it. Dot wants to: what a nice Mum.
(UPDATE 2014 – Lothian now have a mobile app which can carry single tickets. This could be topped up by Dot. Also there are a range of other ticket types available on the app.)
