Two things, neither of which warrant a thread each:

When you get on a bus with a pass the driver presses a button on his
ticket machine. Does this actually register anywhere - i.e. in monetary
benefits for the bus company or in passenger statistics?
I ask because whenever I get on at a busy bus stop the driver just
presses it randomly as passengers get on, especially when he has to
pause while taking some cash. There is no way they are accurate.


Secondly, closed Bus Stops. There are quite a few in my patch at the
moment as there is major gas work going on. The number of people who
stand there next to a large yellow sign saying 'BUS STOP CLOSED' and a
cover over the 'flag' saying 'BUS STOP CLOSED' and then get annoyed when
the bus goes straight past them. Very entertaining, but I have to
wonder... are these people very stupid?

"Stuart" wrote in message
.uk...

Very entertaining, but I have to
wonder... are these people very stupid?

Bus passengers aren't as stupid as car drivers. No matter how many times my
car shoots down a bus lane to undertake a huge line of slow or stopped
traffic, during the 95% of the time that the bus lane is not in operation,
they never seem to learn.

--
John Rowland - Spamtrapped
Transport Plans for the London Area, updated 2001
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acro...69/tpftla.html
A man's vehicle is a symbol of his manhood.
That's why my vehicle's the Piccadilly Line -
It's the size of a county and it comes every two and a half minutes

Stuart wrote:
Two things, neither of which warrant a thread each:

When you get on a bus with a pass the driver presses a button on his
ticket machine. Does this actually register anywhere - i.e. in
monetary benefits for the bus company or in passenger statistics?
I ask because whenever I get on at a busy bus stop the driver just
presses it randomly as passengers get on, especially when he has to
pause while taking some cash. There is no way they are accurate.

True. And on bendy buses you don't need to show your pass/travelcard to the
driver, so evidently they can do without the information on those routes. I
too wonder what decisions or payments happen as a result of capturing this
"information".

Secondly, closed Bus Stops. There are quite a few in my patch at the
moment as there is major gas work going on. The number of people who
stand there next to a large yellow sign saying 'BUS STOP CLOSED' and a
cover over the 'flag' saying 'BUS STOP CLOSED' and then get annoyed
when the bus goes straight past them. Very entertaining, but I have to
wonder... are these people very stupid?

Not necessarily. They may realise that TfL are often lazy about removing
the Closed signs when the bus stop returns to use.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

In message , Stuart
writes

Secondly, closed Bus Stops. There are quite a few in my patch at the
moment as there is major gas work going on. The number of people who
stand there next to a large yellow sign saying 'BUS STOP CLOSED' and a
cover over the 'flag' saying 'BUS STOP CLOSED' and then get annoyed
when the bus goes straight past them. Very entertaining, but I have to
wonder... are these people very stupid?

In this area they moved the bus stop up the road about 50feet on the
other side of some traffic lights. They took down the actual bus stops.
And put massive posters on the bus shelter to say the bus stop had
moved. The bus often stopped near the bus shelter because it had stopped
at a red light on the traffic light. It was highly amusing to see people
running into the road and banging on the door. And then see them running
up the road following the bus to the new bus stop.
I don't think people are stupid. I just think some people get so use to
something that change doesn't register. Personally Im glad Im not going
to be driving a bus when they change the 70p fare to £1. The number of
people who will be dropping their pound coins and expecting change and
not getting it despite all the publicity that will probably going to
come with the fare change is going to be high. And then the arguments
when they don't get their change....

--
CJG

On Tue, 26 Aug 2003 18:13:41 +0100, CJG
wrote:

I don't think people are stupid. I just think some people get so use to
something that change doesn't register. Personally Im glad Im not going
to be driving a bus when they change the 70p fare to £1. The number of
people who will be dropping their pound coins and expecting change and
not getting it despite all the publicity that will probably going to
come with the fare change is going to be high. And then the arguments
when they don't get their change....


Funnily enough, the bus service has coped with fares changes in the
past. Mainly every 12 months before Ken was elected.

Stickets will go up in buses from mid-December saying "New fares apply
from X January" - and I'm sure there'll be the usual advertising
campaign.


Rob.
--
rob at robertwoolley dot co dot uk

On Tue, 26 Aug 2003 19:45:42 +0100 Robert Woolley wrote:
}
} ii) For further illustration see Oxford Stree New Years Eve/Day. The
} stops have signs up saying closed - please use X. Do people read them?
}
} Do they hell.

Selfishly I'm rather pleased they don't. A couple of New Years ago I
was making my way home and noted the 300 or so people crowding the
pavement and road around the 8 & 25 stops eastbound near TCR. Not being
willing to play that game I walked east and happened to catch an _empty_
bus at the foot of Bloomsbury Street.

One of the nicest night-bus journeys home I've had! :-)

But note *I* hadn't seen any posters! It was just luck that I did the
advantageous thing. In fact I'm reasonably sure that the stops were not
marked as being closed.

Mind you there were a number of police monitoring the crowd at the buss
stops. None of _them_ bothered telling people that the busses weren't
running on that bit of road that night.

Matthew
--
Záhid sharáb píné dé, masjid mein baith kar
ya woh jagah batá dé jahán Khudá na ho.
http://www.calmeilles.co.uk/

On Tue, 26 Aug 2003 19:47:23 +0100 Robert Woolley
said...

Funnily enough, the bus service has coped with fares changes in the
past. Mainly every 12 months before Ken was elected.

Yes but a rise of 30p on a 70p fare (almost 43%) is you have to admit it
quite huge. Let's hope the advertising is geared towards encouraging the
use of pre-paid tickets in their various formats...

--
Phil Richards
London, N4

On Tue, 26 Aug 2003 22:21:48 +0100, Phil Richards
wrote:

On Tue, 26 Aug 2003 19:47:23 +0100 Robert Woolley
said...

Funnily enough, the bus service has coped with fares changes in the
past. Mainly every 12 months before Ken was elected.

Yes but a rise of 30p on a 70p fare (almost 43%) is you have to admit it
quite huge. Let's hope the advertising is geared towards encouraging the
use of pre-paid tickets in their various formats...

It _is_ enormous.

I'd expect that the pre-paid tickets to be the key marketing products
for bus travel, both Savers and Oyster.

Rob.
--
rob at robertwoolley dot co dot uk

On Tue, 26 Aug 2003 21:27:34 GMT, Neil Williams wrote:

Indeed. I was most surprised by this - I expected 70p to become 80,
then 90, then a quid over a number of years. Going for a quid all
round now is going to make the next fare change pretty messy as you
lose the single coin thing - unless you wait a good number years then
go to 2 quid...

Anyone know whats happening to the out to zone A £1 fares, do they go up?

Steve

On Wed, 27 Aug 2003 07:39:28 +0100 Steve Peake
said...

Anyone know whats happening to the out to zone A £1 fares, do they go up?

Zone 1 I think you mean? Cash fares for buses won't change, they remain
at £1 as at present. When Oyster pre-pay comes in then single journeys
will go down to 70p.

See:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/press-744.shtml - for TfL's press statement

http://www.london.gov.uk/news/2003/fare-struc04.pdf - for details of
proposed fares

--
Phil Richards
London, N4