There is an outbreak of confusion in Dunedin and our regional council is worried.
In its blueprint for Dunedin bus services, it aims to ''simplify the Dunedin bus fare-zone system and break down barriers'' to bus travel.
Yet, one way it proposes to do this is to raise the fares of the great bulk of bus users.
Everyone in Musselburgh, St Kilda, South Dunedin, Kew, Caversham, Mornington, Kaikorai, Wakari, Woodhaugh, Liberton, Dalmore, Northeast Valley and most of Opoho would have their fares to the city centre increased.
The increase would raise a daily commuter's annual costs by about $100. A family in these suburbs sending two children to school downtown would pay an extra $90 a year.
Setting fares for public transport always involves a political or philosophical decision, as it is always difficult to establish a market price or ''going rate'' for a product with wildly fluctuating uptake.
The cost of a bus service runs to about 10c a seat-kilometre, but the unpredictable way passengers turn up to use the bus makes this per-seat figure meaningless. Charging the exact cost is not feasible.
Instead, passengers are charged an average cost.
The equitable way to levy this is to charge passengers according to distance travelled, much as a pub charges patrons according to how many pints of beer they order.
The trouble is, the Otago Regional Council's ''pub'' wants to start charging only by the jug. By proposing to reduce the number of zones from seven to just three, it would certainly achieve the simplicity it believes commuters crave.
But it would create points where the fare hike to travel just a few blocks over a zone boundary bears no relation to anyone's idea of a fair price.
The regional council's draft does not explain from where they got the idea that passengers desire a simpler fare zone structure.
There have been no news reports about an angry mob of inner suburban commuters gathering outside the Stafford St headquarters demanding a fare increase.
The draft plan describes the proposal as ''council's preferred option as it provides lower bus fares for some users and the least fare increases for the remainder of users''.
This ''remainder of users'' sounds like the leftovers after doing a bit of long division but, as explained above, it is a swathe through all Dunedin's inner suburbs.
It includes everyone in Fairfield, Waldronville, Macandrew Bay and Sawyers Bay.
The ''some users'' who would get a fare reduction are those at the extremities of routes, like Normanby, Portobello and Mosgiel; a nice surprise for them, as they would probably assume that living further from town would entail paying slightly more for travel.
Reducing the number of zones (to any number more than one mega-zone) would still mean people need to know what zone they are in and to which zone they are travelling.
The call for simplicity ignores the fact the present zone structure has existed since the early 1980s and regular users understand it.
The regional council plans to introduce an upgraded electronic ticketing system, known as ''tag-on, tag-off'' where passengers' fares are calculated automatically as they board and alight.
This system, already introduced in Wellington and Auckland, removes all need for simplicity: passengers do not not need to know what zone they are in, or even where they are going.
They can change their minds mid-journey, get off early and alter their route, all with no fare penalty.
A modern electronic ticketing system does not need to be simple, it just needs to be fair.
Passengers who desire increased fares in the name of ''simplicity'' - or who disagree - have one day left to make their feelings known.
Submissions to the regional council's draft plan can be made by emailing publictransport@orc.govt.nz by 5pm tomorrow.
