(14 Jul 2019, 10:46 pm)Jamie M wrote What if they have a condition that affects how old they look? What if they just generally look older than they are?
It's a can of worms, and the end of the day, why would drivers run the risk of publically embarrassing a passenger over a ticket they've said they're entitled to -- which is all that's required?
Once more, fake ID isn't exactly hard to come by. Young people on a night out in town find it easy enough to grab something that says they're entitled to be overage - the opposite is definitely possible. Why ask questions which you won't get the truth from in these situations anyway?
All of this is time consuming and neither beneficial for driver nor passengers to deal with, which is why there's revenue protection officers performing checks on random trips. They're there to wiggle out the passengers who are evading full fares, and I hope that we can see more of them on our buses at stranger times, not just peak times.
Ideally from a business side of things a pass would help cut down the number of people, however, having up until last year being able to buy valid U19 fares, can vouch for the convenience and lack of worry with not needing ID. It brought away the anxiety and downbeat "show your ID and prove who you are" situation, which can easily cast a bad image of buses to a young mind.
It's a tough one, and always will be.
I just couldn't bring myself to pretend to be under 19. When I was at college, I was given an 18 and Under day ticket instead of a Student day ticket so when I got to the interchange I asked to get it swapped for the right ticket