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On Jul 6, 2:58 am, "John Rowland"
wrote:
How old fashioned, Paul! The disabled are now the master race, and we are
their chattels. If you dare to suggest that non-disabled people matter, LU's
Disability Unit will have you reprogrammed.

What's it got to do with the disabled? It's never very easy to keep
track of where you are on a moving bus, especially if it's after dark
or the bus is crowded or you're in an unfamiliar area without many
landmarks. A lot of my bus experiences have been not fun for exactly
this reason.

It sounds like the new system will let you just listen out for the
name of your stop, rather than peering through the window for clues.

U

--
http://londonconnections.blogspot.com

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Paul Corfield wrote:
On Fri, 06 Jul 2007 07:44:48 -0000, sweek
wrote:


Interesting... and they run near me, too! Wonder if I'll be hearing
and seeing this on the 341 any time soon. The 123 runs near me, too,
but I bet it's only installed on a few of the buses there?


It's being done by garage - the 123 runs from Tottenham so all buses on
the route are using the new system. The 76, 243, 41, W4 are other routes
from Tottenham as well as some 73s (some run from Lea Valley garage).
The 341 is run from Northumberland Park - don't know where that is in
the installation programme.


I've been on a W4 with announcements telling us where we are, they've
also been fitted with dot matrix style 'stopping' signs

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On Fri, 06 Jul 2007 04:21:25 -0700, Mr Thant
wrote:

It sounds like the new system will let you just listen out for the
name of your stop, rather than peering through the window for clues.

On a crowded 73 this evening, it was far easier watching the screens
to see if Euston was coming up rather than watching out of the window
(which I could not see) even though I know full well what Euston looks
like. It's also superb for tourists and others not familar with the
routes. It's taken a while but it's something I think should be a
legal requirement on every bus in the country, and it's one that's
been about in some form in Germany and Austria since at least 1998.

Some suggestions for improvement: include connection details "Change
here for routes 1, 2, 3 and the Bakerloo Line" and relevant network
disruption information on the second line rather than wasting it
saying "Bus Stopping".

But, all-in-all, a bloody good idea - only a pity it took them so long
to get there.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

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On Fri, 06 Jul 2007 12:07:03 GMT, wrote:

But very annoying to have to have in your ears all day long like bus
drivers have a much better system would have been just illuminated
displays without the audio which gets to me even on my infrequent
journeys between Euston and Waterloo and back on the tube. I do find
it useful but would find just the display without the audio equally
so.

Yet the announcements provide a *massive* benefit to blind users,
making a service that must be very difficult to use become a lot
easier.

They aren't that annoying - no silly bing-bongs and no over-verbose
pointless[1] announcements like the "Bus stopping at next bus stop"
nonsense that came before it.

[1] Everybody knows that "ding" means the bus is stopping, and that
standing in the way of the doors is a bit silly.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

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On Thu, 05 Jul 2007 23:46:00 GMT, wrote:

Must agree the announcements on my infrequent tube journeys get to me
but on the other hand if I was a bus driver in London and London being
full of tourists not having a clue of where they are I would get sick
of passengers asking me to tell them where to get of the bus or if the
bus goes by such a street or whatever .

Isn't that part of the bus drivers job? I certainly am happy to help my
passengers get off at the right stop.

--
jhk

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On Fri, 06 Jul 2007 09:18:04 -0000, Matthew Dickinson
wrote:

Departure boards by text are now available by texting 84268 with the
bus stop code.

e.g. 490000152G is stop G at Mornington Crescent Station.

Unfortunately the codes seem to be spider map related, and are not
related to any of the numbers on the stops.

How did you find about this as I can't see anything obvious on the TfL
website?

Any idea where you find the bus stop codes?

--
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Admits to working for London Underground!

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On 6 Jul, 22:52, Paul Corfield wrote:
On Fri, 06 Jul 2007 09:18:04 -0000, Matthew Dickinson

wrote:
Departure boards by text are now available by texting 84268 with the
bus stop code.

e.g. 490000152G is stop G at Mornington Crescent Station.

Unfortunately the codes seem to be spider map related, and are not
related to any of the numbers on the stops.

How did you find about this as I can't see anything obvious on the TfL
website?

Any idea where you find the bus stop codes?

--
Paul C

Admits to working for London Underground!

The codes are available by using mobile.transportdirect.info and
entering likely stop names.
The SMS shortcode is the national one publicised at www.traveline.org.uk/txt.htm.I
have stepped through a few numbers in the 49000xxxx and the seem to be
alphabetical by spider maps (e.g Acton is 490000002A and Aldgate is
4900000003A) where A is the stop letter.

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On Sun, 08 Jul 2007 15:59:47 -0700, Matthew Dickinson
wrote:

On 6 Jul, 22:52, Paul Corfield wrote:
On Fri, 06 Jul 2007 09:18:04 -0000, Matthew Dickinson

wrote:
Departure boards by text are now available by texting 84268 with the
bus stop code.

e.g. 490000152G is stop G at Mornington Crescent Station.

Unfortunately the codes seem to be spider map related, and are not
related to any of the numbers on the stops.

How did you find about this as I can't see anything obvious on the TfL
website?

Any idea where you find the bus stop codes?

The codes are available by using mobile.transportdirect.info and
entering likely stop names.
The SMS shortcode is the national one publicised at www.traveline.org.uk/txt.htm.I
have stepped through a few numbers in the 49000xxxx and the seem to be
alphabetical by spider maps (e.g Acton is 490000002A and Aldgate is
4900000003A) where A is the stop letter.

Thanks for providing the info but none of it is working for me. I've
tried the transport direct look up - that doesn't work. Traveline does
not provide timetables with the stop lists for the London area - you
just get the TfL stop specific timetable. Even texting the codes you
have discovered just gets a default message back from the Traveline text
service. Shame :-(

--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

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On Fri, Jul 06, 2007 at 04:21:25AM -0700, Mr Thant wrote:

What's it got to do with the disabled? It's never very easy to keep
track of where you are on a moving bus, especially if it's after dark
or the bus is crowded

I manage it. Perhaps you're just thick.

or you're in an unfamiliar area without many
landmarks.

You have a point there, but London is replete with landmarks, and even
if you don't recognise them, asking the driver or another passenger to
tell you when to get off always seems to work for the tourist scum that
use my buses.

--
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The Law of Daves: in any gathering of technical people, the
number of Daves will be greater than the number of women.

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On Fri, Jul 06, 2007 at 06:33:05PM +0000, Neil Williams wrote:

Yet the announcements provide a *massive* benefit to blind users,

Of whom there are approximately zero.

--
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I'm definitely not going grey, but I am going vain.