Dementia

I had a passenger today who seemed to have the early stages of dementia.

When he got on the bus he was well dressed and friendly. He asked where I was going and I told him the final destination (Five Dock). He said “That’s where I live”. He spent about a minute looking though his wallet. He asked, “What do I need to give you”? I saw a pensioner card in his wallet so I said he could either pay $1.90 for a single fare or $2.50 for the pensioner day ticket if he was planning to travel more today. He continued to fumble with his wallet. By now I had another bus waiting behind me so I suggested he sit down so I could move away from the stop.

Shortly after that he handed me 2 $5 notes and a current pension day ticket. Obviously he had purchased the day ticket earlier and had forgotten about it. More to the point this suggested to me that he didn’t understand what the ticket or the 2 $5 dollar notes were for.

This matched my understanding of how dementia works. A few years ago a prominent person was diagnosed with dementia. In the reporting of this, the newspaper article said that forgetting where you put your keys is not a sign of dementia, it’s when you can’t remember what keys are for.

I became a bit concerned that the passenger decided to go to Five Dock simply because that was where I said I was going. However, when he got off the bus at Five Dock he seemed comfortable where he was.

10 Cents

At the beginning of January most bus fares went up. Now the most common cash fares are $1.70 (unchanged), $2.90 (up from $2.80) and $3.90 ($3.80).

These fares have resulted in drivers using more 10 cent coins for change. During the day this isn’t usually a problem as most regular passengers either use prepaid tickets or have exact change. It can become a problem on Friday and Saturday nights as many of the passengers are not regular bus users and don’t know what the fare will be so simply offer, say, a $5 bill.

Whenever a passenger gives me some 10 cent coins in payment I thank them for the change and encourage them to do so again next time. One lady paid a $1.70 fare entirely with 10 cent coins (well, I assumed it was $1.70, I didn’t count it).