On Jan 5, 6:10*pm, Paul Corfield wrote:
On Wed, 5 Jan 2011 05:39:38 -0800 (PST), Paul
wrote:

That video was taken at Stratford Broadway if I am not mistaken. You
could have walked for a few stops in the opposite direction towards
Forest Gate in order to stand more of a chance of being able to
board..

You are not mistaken - it's exactly where it is. You are also completely
correct that walking back a couple of stops might have afforded more
opportunity to board. However I repeat my earlier comment about herd
mentality. * The vast majority of people can only cope with one or
possibly two travel scenarios. As soon as something goes wrong with
their preferred option they are unable to function. *Whenever there is a
Victoria Line problem that knocks out the Walthamstow end you can
guarantee that almost everyone will just stand at the station for the
bus. Only very few people walk back one stop before the station to board
the 123 to Seven Sisters.

However, it was interesting that a 425 drew up behind the bendy bus.

You could have got on the 425 to go to Bow Church to

(a) pick up the DLR or
(b) pick up the the no. 8 or 205 buses, both of which start from Bow
Church

This is exactly what I thought when I saw the 425 behind. *I instantly
computed the 205 option but had assumed a change at Mile End as my brain
has not adjusted to it starting from Bow garage. *All of your options
are perfectly valid though.

In London, it does pay to have alternative routes up your sleeve in
case the tube is disrupted.

Absolutely - I have a load of them which I can switch between in order
to keep moving when the usual options fail for whatever reason.
Maintaining momentum is the thing that ensures you don't get cross when
the tube or the buses conk out.
--
Paul C

I can remember a couple of years ago when I was working in Docklands
and had to get to an office near South Quay. I arrived at Stratford at
8:10am to find that both the DLR and the Jubilee Line were suspended.
I got on the Central Line one stop to Mile End, and then the D6 bus.
This took 25 minutes, which is not much more than the end to end
journey on the DLR. Meanwhile colleagues at work were arriving at 10am
complaining that they were stuck at Stratford for an hour.

Returning to the original topic, I do think that the bendy bus was
dangerously overcrowded. I don't know that there is an easy answer -
the bus driver could have asked people to get off, but how many would
have complied?