Online ANZAC bus bookings, rise of internet an issue for the computerless

ACTION Buses are simply trying to meet demand this year.

While I didn’t personally attend the dawn service last year (completely forgot to set an alarm) my sister stated that there were hundreds of people waiting at the Belconnen bus station at 330am and then after the service ACTION staff were notifying the thousands waiting of an estimated 90mins before they would get on a free bus. They just didn’t have the drivers on shift to keep up with demand to get extra buses there.

They ended up choosing to walk (with several hundred other people) to the City to jump on a paid Blue Rapid bus back to Belconnen where they had parked the car.

Charlotte Harper said :

I don’t know about the elderly being without computers connected to the internet. In 2005 my grandfather had a computer and his retirement village all had it.
In Canberra all the senior citizens centres run free IT courses and many retirees have been using computers for a good chunk of their working lives and raised children with computers.

Australia and Canberra in particular has a high penetration of computers, tablets and smart phones. People will generally have at least one and if they don’t they find ways around it.

All the elderly in my family have smartphones, some have tablets, some have laptops, and all of them have access to their local public library in case they would rather live the life of a luddite.

As for poor people – a poor member of my extended family was moaning about how his daughter needed a computer to do her homework and he didn’t have $1000 to buy one. I went online to the auction site, bought an ex-gov PC for about $30, a 19inch flatscreen for another $25, then pilfered a keyboard and mouse from somewhere.
I guess I could have hit him up for $55, but basically he’s poor and he got a working computer for free.

Kali said :

rommeldog56 said :

gazket said :

Not all elderly people *want* to learn to use the internet. My mother, for example (she’s in her mid-80s). .

My folks are the same, never used a computer in their lives, no desire to learn now and they haven’t needed to. They stopped working nearly 30 years ago, so haven’t been exposed to them at all. With my mothers rheumatoid arthritis, I don’t know that even a tablet would be feasible for her to use.

My parents had never used a computer in their lives either until into their eighties and nineties. They didn’t have too much trouble learning the basics. My mother had never used a computer, and I don’t think considered to use one, until a couple of years ago when she was given a tablet as a present. I wondered how she would manage to learn to use it, as she had no experience of such things, but she picked up quickly how to use it, and now loves it. My father has very bad vision, but that hasn’t stopped him using the computer with the screen magnified and an extra magnifier if necessary. Although, because of his visual problems, there are some things he can’t read.

rosscoact said :

2620watcher said :

rubaiyat said :

dungfungus said :

It is a public holiday. What will you be doing?

ACTION is just trying to assess demand. Last year was a big year and there is no real way of determining demand, even with the online registration, people have a way of not showing up, just ask restaurants.

Let’s hope that the eternally selfish don’t roll up in their cars, again, and park all over the vegetation, again, “because…”

But they will!

Every year, I travel down Parkes Way to ADFA to attend the dawn service held there. The amount of cars parked anywhere they can near the War Memorial is staggering, but they will ‘because’ of what ever reason they justify it with.

A car parked on the edge of a corner, what does it matter, its 4am, its ANZAC day, I need to park and bugger safety or courtesy.

However, lets be realistic, parking in Canberra is always what is ever best for some motorists. Go to any major shopping precinct on any weekend and just look around at the way some people will park to suits them.

For me the walk to the Dawn Service in the pre dawn gloom is part of the experience.

Driving around and around looking for an unsurprisingly non-existent parking spot would be a “Just another day” spoiler.

You could always wait for a tram…

Ah another vote to build it out to Russell. Commonsense is finally starting to show.

rommeldog56 said :

gazket said :

Not all elderly people *want* to learn to use the internet. My mother, for example (she’s in her mid-80s). .

My folks are the same, never used a computer in their lives, no desire to learn now and they haven’t needed to. They stopped working nearly 30 years ago, so haven’t been exposed to them at all. With my mothers rheumatoid arthritis, I don’t know that even a tablet would be feasible for her to use.

gazket said :

Public libraries have computers available. My father is in his nineties and taught himself to use a computer in his eighties. He has very poor vision, so his computer has been modified, but he still uses it. My mother, in her eighties was recently given a tablet and had no problems using it. Both use the internet everyday. Too often it is presumed that elderly people don’t have the ability to use a computer. Not being able to afford a computer might be a problem, but as I mentioned, public libraries have them available. Hopefully after a little bit of instruction the user will quickly get the idea.

Not all elderly people *want* to learn to use the internet. My mother, for example (she’s in her mid-80s). There’s no reason she couldn’t learn if she wanted to, she could certainly afford a computer, and she has sent the occasional email from our accounts (so knows how convenient email is), but she just isn’t interested in getting an internet connection or learning to use a computer. It’s true that if she really needed to do something online (like book one of these bus tickets) one of us would sort it out for her, and if she didn’t have us to do it she might have to bite the bullet and learn herself – but I agree with the OP that it shouldn’t be assumed that everyone is online.

2620watcher said :

rubaiyat said :

dungfungus said :

It is a public holiday. What will you be doing?

ACTION is just trying to assess demand. Last year was a big year and there is no real way of determining demand, even with the online registration, people have a way of not showing up, just ask restaurants.

Let’s hope that the eternally selfish don’t roll up in their cars, again, and park all over the vegetation, again, “because…”

But they will!

Every year, I travel down Parkes Way to ADFA to attend the dawn service held there. The amount of cars parked anywhere they can near the War Memorial is staggering, but they will ‘because’ of what ever reason they justify it with.

A car parked on the edge of a corner, what does it matter, its 4am, its ANZAC day, I need to park and bugger safety or courtesy.

However, lets be realistic, parking in Canberra is always what is ever best for some motorists. Go to any major shopping precinct on any weekend and just look around at the way some people will park to suits them.

For me the walk to the Dawn Service in the pre dawn gloom is part of the experience.

Driving around and around looking for an unsurprisingly non-existent parking spot would be a “Just another day” spoiler.

You could always wait for a tram…

Charlotte Harper said :

I don’t know about the elderly being without computers connected to the internet. In 2005 my grandfather had a computer and his retirement village all had it.
In Canberra all the senior citizens centres run free IT courses and many retirees have been using computers for a good chunk of their working lives and raised children with computers.

Australia and Canberra in particular has a high penetration of computers, tablets and smart phones. People will generally have at least one and if they don’t they find ways around it.

The first time I ever used the internet (when it wasn’t the internet as we know it today, this was back in the 90’s) it was at my grandparents house. They were the first people I knew who had the internet connected and my Nanna went on to do a course in how to type and email writing. It people are willing they can easily learn.

rubaiyat said :

dungfungus said :

It is a public holiday. What will you be doing?

ACTION is just trying to assess demand. Last year was a big year and there is no real way of determining demand, even with the online registration, people have a way of not showing up, just ask restaurants.

Let’s hope that the eternally selfish don’t roll up in their cars, again, and park all over the vegetation, again, “because…”

But they will!

Every year, I travel down Parkes Way to ADFA to attend the dawn service held there. The amount of cars parked anywhere they can near the War Memorial is staggering, but they will ‘because’ of what ever reason they justify it with.

A car parked on the edge of a corner, what does it matter, its 4am, its ANZAC day, I need to park and bugger safety or courtesy.

However, lets be realistic, parking in Canberra is always what is ever best for some motorists. Go to any major shopping precinct on any weekend and just look around at the way some people will park to suits them.

For me the walk to the Dawn Service in the pre dawn gloom is part of the experience.

Driving around and around looking for an unsurprisingly non-existent parking spot would be a “Just another day” spoiler.

Really not sure what your points are? I don’t know the background but surely ACTION is just trying to assess the correct number of buses to supply?