I believe some new arrangements were made regarding bus stops
recently, although there seems to be all sorts of confusion about what
exactly these arrangements are.

The problem of buses not stopping when they should (mainly a Central
London problem) seems to be worse than ever, I was in Central London
on Sunday and without particularly looking for such instances I saw
three examples of buses not stopping at compulsory stops despite the
fact that passengers were at the stop and clearly wished to board the
bus in question.

Unless anybody know otherwise the worst stop for this appears to be
the n/b stop in Park Lane near Speakers Corner, buses towards Oxford
Street need to move out into the outside lane and some drivers clearly
think this is a good reason to miss out that stop.

Oh well that's another e mail winging its way to
TfL..................you never know I might actually get a reply
before the month is out!

In message
,
George writes

I believe some new arrangements were made regarding bus stops
recently, although there seems to be all sorts of confusion about what
exactly these arrangements are.

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/reques..._at_compulsory

I can hardly believe I've read it correctly, but it seems to say that
TfL are standardizing on the "compulsory" flag, at which passengers must
always request the bus to stop.

"We did not publicise the change as research indicated that very few
passengers would be changing their normal practice of hailing and
ringing the bell."

Presumably the research didn't include those I see on almost every bus
journey who signal the bus too late (either with a V sign or an angry
fist) as it sails straight pass compulsory bus stops where people
obviously *were* waiting to board.

--
Paul Terry

"We did not publicise the change as research indicated that very few
passengers would be changing their normal practice of hailing and
ringing the bell."

Thank you for explaining why the bus I was on yesterday did not stop
where I wished to alight. It never occurred to me that the advice I
recall being given on buses as a child in East London in the 1950s not
to ring the bell [1] for a compulsory stop had changed.

[1] The language of the clippies was rather more colourful and
compelling.
--
Robin
PM may be sent to rbw0{at}hotmail{dot}com

In message , at 14:45:12 on Tue, 8
Mar 2011, Paul Terry remarked:

I believe some new arrangements were made regarding bus stops
recently, although there seems to be all sorts of confusion about what
exactly these arrangements are.

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/reques..._at_compulsory

I can hardly believe I've read it correctly, but it seems to say that
TfL are standardizing on the "compulsory" flag, at which passengers
must always request the bus to stop.

No, it seems to be saying the driver must treat every stop as
compulsory, unless convinced otherwise.

In Geneva, all stops appear to be compulsory (and the bus does stop)
even if there's no-one stood at it and the bus clearly has no passengers
either standing or making their way to the door. This gets a bit tedious
when the route is lightly loaded!
--
Roland Perry

"Roland Perry" wrote:

In message , at 14:45:12 on Tue, 8
Mar 2011, Paul Terry remarked:

I believe some new arrangements were made regarding bus stops
recently, although there seems to be all sorts of confusion about what
exactly these arrangements are.

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/reques..._at_compulsory

I can hardly believe I've read it correctly, but it seems to say that TfL
are standardizing on the "compulsory" flag, at which passengers must
always request the bus to stop.

No, it seems to be saying the driver must treat every stop as compulsory,
unless convinced otherwise.

In Geneva, all stops appear to be compulsory (and the bus does stop) even
if there's no-one stood at it and the bus clearly has no passengers either
standing or making their way to the door. This gets a bit tedious when the
route is lightly loaded!

What a muddle.

The one thing I'm definitely very much against is the bus having to stop at
each and every stop regardless, i.e. like the Geneva situation you outline
above - that'd just be utterly daft.

My practice these days is to generally always hail the bus or ring the bell,
though that said I don't think I ring the bell when the bus is approaching a
major bus stop as I know it'll stop (though someone else will prob ring the
bell anyway) - though if it was late (or v early) or the bus wasn't at all
busy then I probably would ring the bell just to be sure (the old rule for
night buses was that every stop was to be treated as a request stop).
Likewise if I'm at a relatively busy bus stop and it's self evident that
people want to get on the bus then I quite likely wouldn't hail it, though
again it's quite likely someone would (albeit perhaps a 'half-hearted' hail,
IYSWIM).

Some clarity and passenger instruction / communication is needed, me thinks.

In message , at 15:33:30 on
Tue, 8 Mar 2011, Mizter T remarked:

Some clarity and passenger instruction / communication is needed, me
thinks.

Nottingham buses have an illuminated sign near the driver which says
"Stopping" if anyone has rung the bell. That way you can tell if anyone
else has rung it before you.
--
Roland Perry

"Roland Perry" wrote:

In message , at 15:33:30 on Tue,
8 Mar 2011, Mizter T remarked:

Some clarity and passenger instruction / communication is needed, me
thinks.

Nottingham buses have an illuminated sign near the driver which says
"Stopping" if anyone has rung the bell. That way you can tell if anyone
else has rung it before you.


London buses have this too - it's now incorporated into the iBus information
display.

My comment was more just about how the present situation is a bit of an
unclear muddle. (Though TBH I'd rather have this vague muddle than buses
having to stop at each and every stop regardless.)

In message , at 20:18:31 on
Tue, 8 Mar 2011, Paul Corfield remarked:

I have no idea how a driver can possibly tell that a passenger wishes
to alight in they remain sit in their seat and provide no other
indication of their intent.

The buses I use have a bell-push within easy reach of just about every
passenger's seat (OK you might have to get up, but you'd be making your
way out anyway).
--
Roland Perry

On Tue, 8 Mar 2011 16:58:53 -0000, "Mizter T"
wrote:

London buses have this too - it's now incorporated into the iBus information
display.

People seem to think that it's an invitation to press the button
again...

My comment was more just about how the present situation is a bit of an
unclear muddle. (Though TBH I'd rather have this vague muddle than buses
having to stop at each and every stop regardless.)

It seems to work quite well at the moment. Perhaps the answer *is* to
quietly change the bus stop flags and let people get on with what
they'd do anyway. Everywhere else I have travelled, a ding of the
bell to get off is expected, at any stop. In London, it no longer
does any harm.

When getting on the bus, it's not so clear-cut. A Berlin bus driver
once got quite irate at my wave. Nobody else minds. Perhaps a
theatrical extraction of change or ticket, or lunge towards the bus
stop pole is a compromise. Eye contact with the driver can work as
well, and ensure a suitable position for the front doors, where that's
the done thing.

I wonder whether Roland's experience of Geneva was more about
timetable adherence than any rules about stopping, at least that's
what it seemed like to me when I was in Zurich.

Richard.

Roland Perry wrote

In Geneva, all stops appear to be compulsory (and the bus does stop)
even if there's no-one stood at it and the bus clearly has no
passengers
either standing or making their way to the door. This gets a bit
tedious
when the route is lightly loaded!

One reason to ring the bell on country bus routes is that standing up
or moving before the bus actually stops can be unsafe, especially if
one is not very secure on ones feet.

So expecting the driver to notice only works when the passenger feels
it safe to move when the bus isn't stationary.

--
Mike D