I use the Opal card to travel around Sydney. Quite infrequently, but I do.
My problem is that I've been wired my whole life to simply jump off the bus when it's my stop and sometimes I forget that now I have to tap off too. I've used the equivalent of Opal cards in other countries (e.g. UK) but that just helped to reinforce my semi-hard-wired bus exiting behaviour. In the UK all bus fares were the same price regardless of distance so implementing a system for tapping off wasn't necessary, while in other countries as a tourist I only ever used rechargeable cards on trains where barriers were often in place.
Sundays are easy though (for now). Even if you forget to tap off, the $2.50 cap is kept in place.
However, with my unfit for social capacity, head-in-the-clouds, knee-jerk personality I fear over the next few years I could potentially lose hundreds of dollars forgetting to tap off. Especially since at the moment I might be punished more than once. Say you want to catch 4 consecutive buses and forget to tap off on any of them your successive bus trip is started from scratch and you'll be charged afresh. Then come all the ineligibility for certain caps as a third tier of punishment.
Amazingly, even if you catch the bus for the last 1-2 stops you'll still be charged the maximum rate for the journey if you forget to tap off (apparently, haven't confirmed).
So this got me wondering, is it just me? Should I lodge a disability with the NSW State Transit Authority or is this happening on a frequent basis to other people. I haven't seen any statistics (but then the few people who travel the full bus route a handful of times a week may not tap off intentionally and skew the statistics). Assuming this is a form of discrimination against people with a particular illness what do you consider to be a useful system that will help remind people to tap off. RFID phone trigger? A huge scary yet funny-looking poster to remind you to tap off. An annoying, audible reminder to tap off ("time to tap" rather than London's "mind the gap"?).
I wish there was an on-street solution to tap off at every bus stop. This will help people get off the bus quicker and give you a second chance to tap off. But I'm sure there are big issues in getting this rolled out.
I wrote them a letter months ago and never got a reply so I assume a petition is in order. Or maybe the issue only affects me and a few others 60 years my senior?
I live in SA, and the system here only requires you to tap once when you get on, and that's it (At least for buses anyway).
I travel to Sydney quite often, and so far I've only forgotten to tap off once. Luckily, I was travelling a fair distance, so regardless if I had tap off or not, the maximum would be charged anyway.