[Gaz]

When a full bus arrives at a busy stop (Brixton in the rush hour for
example) the driver opens the back doors to let people off. If you're not
right at the front of the queue is it better to stand square on to the front
doors two or three people deep or to sneak on from the sides from further
away?

The shape of the bus 'queue', a huge flattened semi-circle of people seems
to suggest that people board from the sides faster than from the front but
whatever position I take I'm always one of the last people on the bus unless
I'm right at the front to begin with.

Gaz.

[Troy Steadman]

"Gaz" wrote in message ...
When a full bus arrives at a busy stop (Brixton in the rush hour for
example) the driver opens the back doors to let people off. If you're not
right at the front of the queue is it better to stand square on to the front
doors two or three people deep or to sneak on from the sides from further
away?

The shape of the bus 'queue', a huge flattened semi-circle of people seems
to suggest that people board from the sides faster than from the front but
whatever position I take I'm always one of the last people on the bus unless
I'm right at the front to begin with.

Gaz.

I'm sure you must have better things to worry about, but haven't you
anwered your own question? The flattened semi-circle is a age-old
pattern adopted by Londoners to access narrow doors, and - as you say
- wherever you tack on its perimiter you will get to the door last.

[SteveTBM]

"Gaz" wrote in message
...
When a full bus arrives at a busy stop (Brixton in the rush hour for
example) the driver opens the back doors to let people off. If you're not
right at the front of the queue is it better to stand square on to the
front doors two or three people deep or to sneak on from the sides from
further away?


This type of scenario was demonstrated a few years back on the Christmas
lectures. The outcome was that people queuing along the side of the bus
would get on faster than those square on to the door.


Steve TBM

[Martin Underwood]

"SteveTBM" wrote in message
...

"Gaz" wrote in message
...
When a full bus arrives at a busy stop (Brixton in the rush hour for
example) the driver opens the back doors to let people off. If you're
not
right at the front of the queue is it better to stand square on to the
front doors two or three people deep or to sneak on from the sides from
further away?


This type of scenario was demonstrated a few years back on the Christmas
lectures. The outcome was that people queuing along the side of the bus
would get on faster than those square on to the door.

Let's add a new complication: suppose it's an underground train, or a bus
with no exit door - where people are getting off through the same door as
the one where they are trying to get on? Assuming that people are behaving
with their usual impatience and aren't waiting for people to finish getting
off before trying to get on.

If there are only a few people getting off, I usually aim to be level with
the left-hand door (*), on the grounds that people getting off will tend to
aim for the other door and maybe we'll achieve two single-file streams of
people: one stream getting off and the other getting on. Sometimes it works,
sometimes it doesn't!


(*) Since we drive on the left, that seems a reasonable convention for
walking as well!

[Mait001]

London Transport used to have a by-l;aw requirement that an orderly queue was
required for boarding a bus.

I know it might be irrelevant for all intents and purposes, but I can't help
feeling that abolishing the by-law was a retrograde step and sent out all the
wrong messages about what is, and what is not, civilised behaviour, at a time
when many people haven't the foggiest idea of how to behave.

Marc.

[Nick Cooper]

On 10 Oct 2004 10:57:27 GMT, (Mait001) wrote:

London Transport used to have a by-l;aw requirement that an orderly queue was
required for boarding a bus.

I know it might be irrelevant for all intents and purposes, but I can't help
feeling that abolishing the by-law was a retrograde step and sent out all the
wrong messages about what is, and what is not, civilised behaviour, at a time
when many people haven't the foggiest idea of how to behave.

It seems that the vast majority of people in London are simply
incapable of queuing for buses. The moment one turns up, everyone who
was standing scattered around within ten metres of the stop rushes for
it, blatently bypassing any poor innocents who had the temerity to
form anything like an orderly line next to the stop/under the shelter.

--
Nick Cooper

[Carefully remove the detonators from my e-mail address to reply!]

The London Underground at War:
http://www.cwgcuser.org.uk/personal/...ra/lu/tuaw.htm
625-Online - classic British television:
http://www.625.org.uk
'Things to Come' - An Incomplete Classic:
http://www.thingstocome.org.uk

[Richard J.]

Nick Cooper wrote:
On 10 Oct 2004 10:57:27 GMT, (Mait001) wrote:

London Transport used to have a by-l;aw requirement that an
orderly queue was required for boarding a bus.

I know it might be irrelevant for all intents and purposes, but I
can't help feeling that abolishing the by-law was a retrograde
step and sent out all the wrong messages about what is, and what
is not, civilised behaviour, at a time when many people haven't
the foggiest idea of how to behave.

It seems that the vast majority of people in London are simply
incapable of queuing for buses. The moment one turns up, everyone
who was standing scattered around within ten metres of the stop
rushes for it, blatently bypassing any poor innocents who had the
temerity to form anything like an orderly line next to the
stop/under the shelter.

Why should it be any different to a tube station? My local bus stop is
served by 7 routes, has a shelter with maps, and timetables on the stop
itself. It's not an environment that lends itself to an orderly queue.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

[Robin May]

(Nick Cooper) wrote the
following in:

On 10 Oct 2004 10:57:27 GMT, (Mait001) wrote:

London Transport used to have a by-l;aw requirement that an
orderly queue was required for boarding a bus.

I know it might be irrelevant for all intents and purposes, but I
can't help feeling that abolishing the by-law was a retrograde
step and sent out all the wrong messages about what is, and what
is not, civilised behaviour, at a time when many people haven't
the foggiest idea of how to behave.

It seems that the vast majority of people in London are simply
incapable of queuing for buses. The moment one turns up, everyone
who was standing scattered around within ten metres of the stop
rushes for it, blatently bypassing any poor innocents who had the
temerity to form anything like an orderly line next to the
stop/under the shelter.

I'd like it if there were still bus queues. The problem is that there
aren't, and you can't form a queue on your own. It's hard to see how to
solve this problem. I wonder why it is that bus queues used to form and
now don't?

--
message by the incredible Robin May.
"The British don't like successful people" - said by British failures

Who is Abi Titmuss? What is she? Why is she famous?
http://robinmay.fotopic.net

[Mait001]

It seems that the vast majority of people in London are simply
incapable of queuing for buses. The moment one turns up, everyone who
was standing scattered around within ten metres of the stop rushes for
it, blatently bypassing any poor innocents who had the temerity to
form anything like an orderly line next to the stop/under the shelter.

--
Nick Cooper

I couldn't agree more.

I spent a year of my youth (in 1974-5) in a Caribbean country (a former
colonial territory) where we compared unfavourably the inability of people to
queue for buses, despite everything else that was "British" about their
behaviour.

I suspect that their behaviour there now is far more orderly than it now is in
London, such as been the degeneration of behaviour in the Mother Country.

Incidentally, I suspect the standard of their spoken and written English is,
nowadays, far superior too!

Marc.

[congokid]

In message , Robin May
writes

I'd like it if there were still bus queues. The problem is that there
aren't, and you can't form a queue on your own. It's hard to see how to
solve this problem. I wonder why it is that bus queues used to form and
now don't?

At the bus stop at the west-most extremity of the Strand, outside South
Africa House, the morning queues appear to me, as I cycle past them, to
be very orderly. That said, I don't know if the people queuing revert to
scrum behaviour once a bus stops and opens its doors.

--
congokid
Good restaurants in London? Number one on Google
http://congokid.com