Neil Williams writes:
... New Stagecoach buses have
been flipdot since the mid 1990s. That said, flipdot is a poor
technology, IMO - too many moving parts, and capable of wrong-side
failure (i.e. stuck showing wrong information). LED is far superior
in both these respects.

Agreed -- and on top of all that, the dots are just too large, so it's
often necessary to cycle between 2, 3, or 4 displays to show all the
text they need to.

Here in Toronto, most of the TTC bus fleet now has flip-dots, which
generally replaced roller blinds in the 1980s; I sympathize with
the desire to cut costs, but I've always found the result highly
unsatisfactory. New buses in the last few years have LEDs, and
these are way better.

I saw a surprising failure mode the other day, by the way, on a bus
on the 320 Yonge night route. Its flip-dot front sign was showing the
correct route; I forget the exact wording, but it might have been
cycling between "ROUTE 320", "YONGE BLUE NIGHT", and "TO STEELES".
But the side sign on the same bus, which is controlled from the same
panel, was showing 32 Eglinton West. And it wasn't a case of the
flip-dots being frozen, either -- it was cycling between "32 EGLINTON
WEST" and "TO EGLINTON STN"!

Our subway [underground] and streetcar systems do still have roller
blinds, as their routes are a lot more stable; so did our trolleybuses
until they were withdrawn. The Scarborough RT, a light railway with
only one route, has no destination signs on the vehicles at all.
--
Mark Brader "'You wanted it to WORK? That costs EXTRA!'
Toronto is probably the second-place security hole
after simple carelessness." -- John Woods

My text in this article is in the public domain.