Lots of facilities are designated as usable only by eg people who are disabled, or pregnant or aged. People in these groups may find themselves having to negotiate with young, able-bodied interlopers, who sometimes don’t see the need to make way for less able individuals.
Today’s invention is a simple system that gets around eg misuse of disabled parking badges and a lot of social embarrassment.
All systems and facilities, from disabled seats on trains to parking spaces to wide access toliets to seats for old people, would be, by default, locked closed. They would each have a telephone number prominently marked on them and a phone activated unlocking mechanism.
Anyone in one of the preferential access groups would be allowed to register their mobile phone number (online) and by simply calling or texting the number marked on the facility, it would allow them access (naturally people using a particular facility on a regular basis could have its number stored for one-button speed-dialing).
Phone companies would be encouraged to charge almost nothing for the duration of these ‘comfort calls’ so that the phone would stay activated during occupation of the facility. After use, a single click to end the call would lock the seat or whatever up again.
