To think this restriction should end earlier?

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My council has introduced a rule that means if you have a bus pass, either for being over 60 or being disabled (like me - visually impaired) you can't use your pass before 9.30, you have to pay (£2 for a single fare here).

Now, this I've come to accept, councils will do these things etc.

BUT, AIBU to think that the restriction should end at maybe 8.30? People with disabilities, for example, need to get to work. I for one, can't drive. If they're going to issue the passes at all, shouldn't they be useable at a normal commute time? Some disabled people have a lot of extra things to pay for and a £2 daily bus fare can really add extra onto the month's outgoings.

Where I live they have the same 9.30 restriction, but you can buy a cheap top-up season ticket if you want to travel before 9.30.

Extra childcare costs
Extra food costs
Extra equipment costs
Extra transport costs when even the bus is too difficult to catch
Extra electricity for my mobility scooter (which costs a couple of grand, plus upkeep)
Extra heating costs
Extra care costs, if I need any assistance over the 20hrs per week I am allocated
Extra costs for supplements, like cranberry capsules and probiotics etc
Extra costs for over the counter medical supplies, tube bandages and wrist splints for example, or paracetamol
All the extras for your carer, like entrance fees if you go anywhere, petrol allowance if they do anything for you, or bus fares if they come anywhere with you.

For example

The other reason disabled people have a bus pass is they may not be able to drive. Blind people have higher rate mobility allowance because of this. So actually it costs disabled people more to use public transport than others as they may not have a choice iyswim

They get called twirlys round here for tryin to get on the bus 'too early'

Personally I don't think we should have 60 yo bus pass, just a consession ticket for all day for £1 or something

Loads of people work past 60

(I'm talking about 60+ bus pass - I can't imagine why you would restrict a disabled person, that's wrong)

Reading Buses (run by Reading Borough Council) restricts their own residents to a bus pass start of 9.30am. West Berkshire residents are allowed to catch any bus from 9.00am to go into Reading. I was not allowed to use my bus pass to go home in WB from Reading at 9.20am because my pass was not valid until 9.30am that becaise I was catching a bus in Reading.

I had to go into town early so paid a fare.

I do agree with the restrictions in principle. The passes are a 'privilige' and as such it should be expected that they are not free of conditions.

I think I agree with the argument that if a user with disabilities centres their complaint around the fact that they are having to pay to get to work, then they really have no valid complaint as they should pay for their travel from their wages. I'm not sure though, as I sort of liken this to the mobility element of DLA.

I drive now, but having spent several years getting public transport and having it crowded constantly during rush hour, I support methods designed to reduce the crowding.

It's not as if the bus companies are saying pass holders can't use buses at all before 9:30, just that they should be paying like everyone else does at peak times.

Generally, I think that's fair.

OK, OK, I'm being unreasonable!

But just to give some insight, I'm currently not working as the industry I trained in is very hard to get into without driving, so I'm having to retrain and also look at other career options. I live in an area where a lot of work is fork lift driving, LGV/HGV or welding, so not exactly things I can do.

As an example, when I did a simple 4 day freelance job last year, the extra expenses I incurred were as follows:

Train fare: Roughly £15 each way
Extra nights in hotels at my own expense as I couldn't get a train that would get me to work on time, and finished after the last train: £30
Taxi to get me to work on the first day before meeting up with others and staying in the same hotel - £10

Add in having to do a recce journey so I knew the train stations etc, and taking a friend to help me do this because otherwise I'd have got lost - that's my month's DLA gone on one freelance job.

saggarmakersbottomknocker - I think we're in the same area :)

Obviously, once I get a job, I'll be budgeting my travel into my monthly income/outgoings etc.

Ah well, falling back on the MN mantra of "this too shall pass" (not the paying for buses thing, the me being unemployed thing! :))

YANBU. My DS2 is a whhelchair user and will be entitled to a disabled bus pass in April when he is 5. However because he will only be able to use his pass after 9:00am I will have to pay for him to get on the bus in the morning. Single child's fare x5 at peak time is more than a child weekly ticket so him having a disabled pass won't save us any money at all during term time. The buses round here are always deserted during peak time as it's mainly elderly people who use them.

I don't know if you know or if it even helps, but the Disabled Person's Railcard can be used all day, even though that's only for trains. I thought I'd read somewhere that visual impairment was an exception for this rule on the bus pass, but I don't remember where.