"Dr Ivan D. Reid" wrote in message . ..
On 16 Feb 2004 09:20:51 -0800,
CJG Now Thankfully Living In The North
wrote in :
Im sure they have them in other places.
But in Yorkshire some of Arriva's buses announce the name of the next
stop in an audio annoucement and a visual supply. I think this is such
a good idea. Especially if travelling to somewhere your not sure where
your go.

Some of the buses in Geneva do this; I'm not sure how many, but the
Number 9 out to Meyrin/CERN/etc certainly does.

The buses in Prague also have at least the audio announcement.

Noticable about at least both Prague and the Geneva 9 out to CERN
though is that the bus stops are much further apart than those in
London - I suspect the bus can easily know the next stop just from the
odometer. I guess this also means the locals have a bit more
motivation to get such systems working as it's not just a hundred-yard
walk if they miss the stop.

More to the point, though, I suspect it's a lot more obvious to
everybody what the name of the bus stop should be. I've no idea what
the offical names for most of the stops I use are, beyond it's often
not the "landmark" I'd have chosen. Automated announcements only help
if the person giving you directions knew the name of the bus stop...

There's also the small matter of being driven round the bend by the
steady stream of announcements, which in London will no doubt be
supplemented by a host of "for the comfort and convenience of
customers" messages reminding us not to smoke, take all our bags, yap,
yap, yap, aargh!

Henry