pottery in motion…

Hefty New Zealand Railways cups, manufactured by Crown Lynn Potteries, are now collectors’ items but were once tossed from the train windows. According to an old joke, only three things would survive a nuclear holocaust: ants, cockroaches and New Zealand Railways cups. And the…

In those wonderfully durable cups! :-)

My Mum claims that in the old days the standard line was,
“Do you take sugar?”, and if the answer was, “No”,
the response was, “Well don’t stir it, then.”

Never underestimate the power of stupidity.

Name one aspect in which they're less environmentally beneficial? Or economically, for that matter. I'm describing THE system that has the buses idling on the roadside for the least amount of time. Which economically means it's the system utilizing…

The…

At a system-wide level, they are related. Your Melbourne experience shows that the human touch of a conductor may feel better for individual passengers.

However,…

If outlets are required to report EFTPOS details against transactions, that means any non-cash topup will potentially hook it to a name. So a large percentage of cards will become personally identified eventually.

You've then got a system…

Again, adding new buses at peak time requires purchasing additional buses. It means putting on more staff. It's expensive to add peak-hour services, and they're also an inefficient use of resources because they're not utilised for all but about…

Well OK, I guess it had an element of "well, if you're really serious about the wait times, then lets actually approach this from top down", which perhaps has a hint of sarcasm. The point being that the most…

Pfft, n00b ;-)

I registered mine to John Doe.

Had to or chose to? I used my card for months before I registered, and the only reason I did was so I could check the balance online. The card's useful…

Even if everyone paid with Hop and that took only one second per person

Ideally, and this is where Snapper fails, it’s so quick that you wave your card past the reader on the way through the door (except…

"Sir, sir, HOP Card number 9010 0660 0400 0226 has been tagged on and off in the vicinity of multiple demonstrations."
"Excellent work, constable, but do we know who uses that card?"…

I wasn't being sarcastic. You really did convince me, with your numbers argument, that time spent paying at the door (by…

I guess if you want to find a (smart) murderer, they'll probably pay cash on the bus, or cycle to the scene of the crime.

If you want to see who travelled to the venue of various demonstrations, you'd probably have more luck.

What Tamara said. If I want to take public transport for the experience, I'll jump on a long-distance train. Around town I want the trip to be as quick as possible because I have places to…

Until there's a compulsion to register your card and/or a prohibition on topping it up with cash, the cards aren't tied to a particular person. Online topup will, obviously, tie the card to a particular person, as…

Matthew, while I broadly agree with the overall thrust of your argument I think you're getting a little too intense about…

Yeah, mine too, but nothing to do with buses...
West Auckland might have something to do with it.

Nobodies mentioned yet the ability to use the system to track people's movements, which is widely used with Oyster.

I don't think this has been rolled out in NZ,…

Yeah yeah, break out the sarcasm. Each individual passenger, it's irrelevant. Multiplied by thousands of passengers over hundreds of buses every day, it's an enormous amount of time wasted.

You clearly don't…

That must be why the rest of the world is changing or has done. You're flogging a dead horse, sir.

I'll grant you old, sure.

So, BTW, does London's Oyster. I had to take my Snapper out of my wallet for Oyster to work reliably.

As a wellingtonian who relies on public transport, here's what I see with snapper (after using it for a couple…

Yup, that's a whole 'nother issue, and no arguments from me there. My point is that delivering that as paper tickets is piss easy by comparison to the alternatives. But aren't the barriers non-technological anyway? The networks don't…

That's what we have now. It's balls. I have a train ticket, a HOP-Snapper…

If you have double-width doors, certainly. If, however, you've got a single-width rear door and you have people trying to alight it's…

Still not fast enough for rush-hour commuting on a crowded system, I think – the driver has to take it, look…

Pursuant to that, in Melbourne, on trams, there's no one, in general, checking your tickets at all. They simply have random inspections…

I insinuated nothing of the sort but now you mention it...

doesn’t sit well with the reputation of our judiciary for being uncorrupted and impartial.
No, it doesn't, does it?.

He has had the most serious charge…

Not yet he doesn't. He hasn't had all the charges dismissed. I'm very curious how the judge reached this particular conclusion, but your insinuation that this is some kind of old boys' network at play doesn't sit well with the reputation of our judiciary…

Indeed it does, the attitude is “My “Hard Earned Money” no longer makes me special now those plebs can travel for free”. Hard earned my arse,. When the greedheads get to own our assets and…

Mix well a fragmented bunch of providers who have no contractual obligation to make it easy, combing with one owned by a company that has a competing product (and didn't…

You mean the real HOP, not the bastard Snapper hybrid?

In pre-quake days the Chch city shuttles (looping around the CBD) were free, and a great convenience for shoppers, tourists, and anybody else who wished to use them. They were electric (battery powered) and stopped often so…

Agency theory sure is.

It's not even anything to do with being trustworthy. The issue isn't vandalism or other abuse, it's a lack of concern about existence or quality. Make public transport fare-free but reduce services…

Anarchy!!

I know a few grey-haired folk who do this, just quietly, during off-peak hours.

On the subject of anarchy.

Make a nice change from neoliberal approaches that regard people as fundamentally untrustworthy…

Now there's a thought. I read years ago ( citation needed) a Russian city did this. They were already subsidizing bus transport that charged and on analysis found the cost of process the money,tickets admin etc was so high they ditched…

Apparently the Link drivers start to get grumpy if one sits on the bus for a few complete circuits. I don't know why they should give a damn (outside peak hour, of course), but people I know who've done the…

lest bored hordes ride the buses all day and night

Nothing, but there still needs to be infrastructure on the buses and train (platforms) to take care of that revenue transfer to the transport provider. EFTPOS takes a very, very long time. Even Snapper takes too long (over a second) to read the card for…

It may not have been the politest of wording, but it's incredibly frustrating when an organisation that's trying to improve provision of services to its largely-working class clientèle gets smacked with the "anti-worker" stick.

What's wrong with that though?

Geez ,that's not very nice. Is it that difficult to allow others opinions? Or am I interpreting IOW incorrectly. Maybe it is a compliment?

But all you've done there is transfer your money from one thing (your bank account) to…

Such a pity, and a loss for all of us. Sick and disabled people aren't the enemy, sickness and disability is the enemy. We should be fighting the problem, not the people who have it.

Works just fine if your vehicle isn't packed to bursting and has more than one entry. Which is to say, it's useless for peak-hour trains in Auckland (where it's often impossible for train staff to collect tickets at present) and since…

Interestingly the solution to the system not being made accessible for blind passengers despite promises has been to do just that in their case. Pathetic.

Absolutely essential. As soon as opponents use that framing, they've lost. Countering it takes organised and sustained comms/campaign activity. Frustratingly absent for some time.

Imagine a world in which beneficiaries had mentoring and pastoral care to help them improve their lives. I think a…

Sometimes, if I catch a bus during the day, I'm the only fare-paying passenger on board! Everybody else has a gold card.

Those conditions are nationwide, with some local variations based on what's available. The Government pays transport operators to provide those services.

Eftpos?

Yes, thanks Richard. I suspected as much.

Is the answer to everything.

Having gone over the:
Reducing Long Term Welfare Dependence
Supporting Vulnerable Chidlren
Boosting Skills and Employment
Reducing Crime (Measured and reported not actuall)

I note that these are all areas that show the…

Was that just before an election – and I ask was a donation drawn into the surrounding ambience or part of the environment, which allowed this?

That is the political process – after…

It's also a side effect of the abolition of regional development. While Auckland is running out of room,…

Cullen dragging his heels on rail electrification springs to mind, as does Joyce's ninnying numptiness over the core…

Because the last time National were in power, they flogged off our council-owned transport services and we ended up with a multi-private-player tendered mess with no way for the Council to…

Beijing too, good for buses, subway, many taxis and even some shops. But I think a realtime GPS bus locater would just serve as yet another reminder of the atrocious traffic here.

So why's Auckland so slow about these things?

"We will review your medical information"
"We will ask you questions relating to your medical condition and its effect on your capacity for work."

This happens in an open plan office. All the glossy mental health awareness campaigns…

On rheumatic fever: While the strategy is not necessarily addressing the underlying causes, there are some really good initiatives.…

Mainly depression. Joy.

You're getting two things mixed up. The govt decided to chip in funding for a nationwide public transport ticketing system so other cities could use it. Complex anywhere in the world and different…

An absence of either clues, or fucks to give.

Exactly. And while public management academics such as Bill Ryan at VUW are quietly optimistic (PDF) about Better Public Services, the critical part, as…

Just like with incentives to get long term ACC claimants "off claim" or acheive "actuarial release", which targets in large proportion Traumatic Brain Injury and Sensitive Claimants (Sexual abuse/ assault psycholigical injuries) this 30% will come from the invisible…

Not at all, all it required was a “plug-in” for that 500 million SAP system, not a stand alone system. 98 million is a piss take, unless of course, it is being developed by future directors of our utility companies. then we…

Far from it. This is a critical core part of the region's transport system. It enables people to seamlessly use trains, buses and ferries to get around with a single ticket.

It's also at least a decade overdue for a city that aspires to even second-world…

Yup, National, treating the symptoms, ignoring the causes.
National, Spreading the wealth, amongst themselves.

Please don't think of these as 'unobtainable', especially the harmful goals. This govt has been steadily laying the groundwork for the last few years while the opposition wrung its hands.

I thought it was the Maori Party and Tariana Turia who pushed for this in their confidence and supply agreement as noted here and here. That might…

2 + 2 = 5, so get the hell over it.

Combine that with the environmental trashing
and the beneficiary bashing
and the educational slashing
and there's a consistent pattern:

It's all…

They are cutting jobs, impoverishing more & more…

There ya go. Easy. All beneficiaries are hereby in-valid.

Edit add; "Talkbackistan". Noice.

The target is probably achievable BUT the problem depends very much on figuring out why certain areas have high rates of infection. If the underlying cause is too little affordable housing then the only solution is building houses and spreading…

That's up there with children are important because they represent the future in meaningless waffle. Not acceptable from a novice undergraduate, let alone a government department.

Also, there's the implication that after more than 3 and half years of a National…

I'm pretty sure that in Talkbackistan that translates to "70% of sickness beneficiaries are malingerers and workshy layabouts".

Our Father which (sic) art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name...

Truly we are blessed to live in such Orwellian times

However, from what I do know, I don't think the target is completely impossible. Rates in high income countries in general are below 1 per…

Huh?

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure it's still $80 for everything except IB.

Yes, but why not give the same threshold to sickness beneficiaries? Or any beneficiary, for that matter? I would have thought a bigger incentive to part-time work would be a win-win thing.

It's $100 for invalid beneficiaries. Not sure I understand the rationale for that...

The clearout of all-but-yes-[wo]men continues. The 'policy' being excreted on the fly reminds me of working for a very well known NZ business-person in the late 90's... the dot-com era. We were setting up a subsidiary in Australia, and…

You can reduce disease radically even if the underlying conditions remain. Panama is nearing malaria eradication, and it still has the same swamps and forests that felled tens of thousands while they were building the canal. China and Sri…

here

Psychological or psychiatric conditions 41.5
Musculo-skeletal system disorders 15.2
Accidents 7.7
Cardio-vascular disorders 5.3
Pregnancy-related conditions 2.2
Other disorders and conditions 28.2

Obviously not as detailed as you'd like.…

I can’t imagine how this can work out. WINZ spends time and money harassing sick people and solo parents, while there are able-bodied and unencumbered folk who can’t find jobs??

How can this not be an embarrassing and total failure?

**Next…

24m

& "# work across government agencies to address risk factors like housing conditions and hygiene in schools – for example, by ensuring hot water and soap are available."

There y'go. all clean and bright now. Rheumatic fever all gone! aspiration achieved!

As part of Welfare Reform, a new work-focused benefit category called Job Seeker Support (JSS) will be introduced from July 2013. As at April 2012, 78,074 people had been receiving the benefits that will make up JSS for more than…

The way things are going, that would make for a pretty big tent city. Not to worry, Treasury can tell us that each tent can fit maybe 3-4 people to make the most efficient use of space.

Thanks for that. It was your earlier tweet that made me want to explore…

that's what the WWG and Minister have said, yes.

Crucial to recognise it's not just about unemployment benefits, but sickness, invalid and DPB as well. Based on the WWG report and govt's response so far, it's likey to be those groups that show the most reduction in…

Here's a suggestion – they could run a workshop for longterm unemployed where they talk about how jobs are really cool and talk about the benefits of employment, such as money, holidays…

The early leader in the race to identify the most risible government gibberish. Jesus wept.

Which also leads…

As for how to get medical professionals to cooperate with that, I forsee funding cuts for DHBs not meeting the target. With proper incentives in place, the problem solves itself.

(The…