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Park-and-ride discount for cyclists scrapped because of abuse by drivers Norwich Castle (image by Flickr user Vinylspider)

Park-and-ride discount for cyclists scrapped because of abuse by drivers

Dodgy Norwich motorists pretend to be riders to get cheap fares
by John Stevenson
Wed, Jul 03, 2013 10:37
6

Norfolk County Council is considering ending a park and ride bus discount scheme for cyclists because motorists are falsely claiming to be cyclists to get cheaper fares.

The Norwich park and ride scheme offers heavily discounted tickets for cyclists, with a return ticket costing  £1.10, instead of the usual £2.10 or £2.40.

But the council plans to scrap the discount as part of raft of changes including the introduction of an Oyster-style smart card system, the BBC reports.

Abuse of the scheme by motorists is also a factor. In a letter to cyclists, the council said: “Sadly we’ve found a small but consistent abuse of this ticket with more people claiming the reduced fare than cycles left on the site.”

The council hopes to implement some sort of “technical solution” to overcome the problem and re-introduce the cyclists’ discount.

Cyclist Helen Carolan, 34, who uses the Sprowston site every weekday, said: “It’s extremely unfair.

“We’re getting penalised for other people’s dishonesty.”

Tracy Jessop, the council’s assistant director for travel and transport services, said: “Sadly, some persistent fare dodgers have caused us to take the action to remove the cycle fare temporarily but we are confident that we will be able to link the new smart cards with cycle racks to provide a solution.”

We would like to be able to support genuine cyclists to continue to travel sustainably but need them to work with us to achieve this.”

Park and ride
Norwich
John Stevenson

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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6 comments

Avatar
Pierre | 11 years ago
0 likes
Quote:

“Sadly we’ve found a small but consistent abuse of this ticket..."

So the _small_ amount of abuse is enough to penalise all cyclists? Sounds a bit like "we thought we could get away with this nod to cycling, but we didn't realise there would be so many cyclists and we want to make more money."

Avatar
Al__S | 11 years ago
0 likes

There's a lot of people that'll happily cycle three to five miles that won't consider 7-10 for a commute- especially if the addtional distance is down hostile roads. Cycling from somewhere with no bus service to a P&R site makes a lot of sense for them.

Avatar
a.jumper | 11 years ago
0 likes

Norwich isn't Cambridge and its park and ride is miles away from the centre along undulating roads with parts not having cycle lanes. Given that the local buses are dominated by First Eastern Counties, I wouldn't be sure the drivers notice anything.

Avatar
nivagh | 11 years ago
0 likes

"...what's the point? If you have a bike, why not use it, instead of getting a bus?"

This.

Avatar
mad_scot_rider | 11 years ago
0 likes

Seriously? This ...

Quote:

with more people claiming the reduced fare than cycles left on the site.

... is the sum total of their evidence about fare abuse?

Have they never heard of folding bikes?

Avatar
armb replied to mad_scot_rider | 11 years ago
0 likes

I think it's fair to assume the bus drivers would notice if passengers were bringing significant numbers of folding bikes on. But if it's like Cambridge P&R, what's the point? If you have a bike, why not use it, instead of getting a bus?

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