On 18 May, 11:32, David Cantrell wrote:
On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 09:23:30AM -0700, Mizter T wrote:
(I think it was Tom Barry - well it must have been - who attempted to
work out the total road space that would be used by the double-deckers
that replaced the bendies on route 38 - IIRC his calculation was that
they would actually occupy *more* road space.)

Total road space doesn't matter as much as the space taken up by an
individual bus. *It's the latter that determines how much the other
traffic is held up as they block junctions etc.

This is obvious if you consider an artic versus a handful of cars, or a
car vs a handful of motorbikes.

If however one or both of the other doors are to be used, then the
whole rear open platform concept starts to look like a right gimmick -
some of the benefits attributed to the Routemasters of old, i.e. that
the open platform provided flexibility at bus stops ...

No, it provided flexibiilty when *not* at bus stops. *It was common for
people to get on and off when the bus was stopped at traffic lights, for
example. This was Not Allowed, of course, and there was even a little
sticker near the entrance to tell you that, but in practice it's how a
lot of people got on and off, staff never stopped us from doing it, and
it went a long way to mitigate the problem of having everyone funnel
through a single entrance.

* * *I've never got very excited over the concept of re-introducing
conductors - sure, they might be a kind of 'nice to have', but most
pax these days already have a ticket of some sort before boarding a
bus, which rather removes the raison d'etre for conductors.

They're useful for helping passengers by telling them where to get off,
helping the infirm on and off, and so on.

Supposedly, having uniformed staff makes some people feel safer too.

And I had in mind things like selling tickets or Oyster cards to
confused visitors and those who supposedly travel for free at the
moment.

The security guard aspect was less in my mind than the helpfulness
possibilities.