On Mar 21, 1:22�pm, wrote:
"Barry Salter" wrote in message

... peter wrote:
Well, what is the current rule regarding compulsory (white) bus stops?

Good question. There was a proposal floated that ALL bus stops would be
treated as a hybrid of the two types, based on observation of "normal"
practice. Namely:

�1) All buses SHOULD stop at a bus stop if it looks like someone wishes to
board.

�2) If a passenger wishes to alight, they SHOULD ring the bell.

One time, I can remember that a woman rang the bell only just as ths bus was
passing the stop where she wanted to alight. Nobody else had rung the bell.

When she asked the bus driver why she didn't stop, he told her that it was
because she did not ring it in time. This was, apparently, not an acceptable
response to the woman, who started calling the driver names.

Sorry to sound a discorant note amongst the overwhelming trend in this
discussion, but why on Earth should buses not stop at compulosory
stops, even if there are no passengers there? The object of the
exercise is to provide a SERVICE, not just to run a bus from one
terminating point to the next, as quickly as possible, hopefully with
as few passengers to inconvenience the speedy passage, so that the
driver can have as long a break as possible at each end.

I am sick and tired of the generally lazy dumbing down of everything
connected with public transport. In theory (if not in practice) are
buses not meant to run to a timetable? Surely that timetable is
predicated on at least a few stops along the route? If the buses were
to stick a little closer to this (for which stopping at even "empty"
bus stops would be an aide), we would not perhaps then have the
ridiculous saga of buses stopping for up to 6 or 7 minutes "to
regulate the flow", or dawdling at traffic lights, or stopping just
before an inspector's location - all of which regularly happen on the
routes I use in Fulham, the 28 and 295.

Being many times bitten as it were, I now treat ALL stops as if they
were "Request", and always ring the bell or hold my hand out. But I
have occasionally been on a 28 bus in Wandsworth Bridge Road that has
not stopped even when I have rung the bell - because the bus driver
did not like the look of the gang of schoochildren waiting at the
Compulsory stop. On one occasion, because the bus was so crowded and
driving so violently, I couldn't get to the door in time and was taken
to the next stop, despite a hail of ringing! The driver's attitude,
when I eventually got to him was one of "couldn't care less". Sums it
all up really.

Marc.