On Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:30:40 +0000, David Cantrell
wrote:

On Sun, Nov 09, 2008 at 05:15:08PM +0000, Neil Williams wrote:

Yes. It's very useful to those who don't use buses frequently, aren't
familiar with the route or aren't paying attention to where they are
and reading the paper. Or, for that matter, those who are blind.

The only thing I'd change about it is to have the route announcement
either removed or only announced every few stops, as it's that (not
the stop announcements) that does grate a bit.

I'd make several changes.

1) instead of saying "Foo Street" say "the next stop is Foo Street"

I would agree, except that you know it would go "the next stop is big
pause Foo Street"...

2) instead of saying "the destination of this bus has changed" say "the
destination of this bus has changed to Foo"

Absolutely. The one time that happened to me I had to ask the driver
because we were stuck in traffic and hence weren't going to reach a
stop for a while.

3) instead of saying "Denmark Street" say "Denmark Street, Charing Cross
Road" (and similar for other stops which aren't actually on the
street they're named after, or which are named for a nearby
building).

The announcements match the name of the stop as displayed on the flag.
There are some two-part stop names; if you have suggestions for
renaming of particular stops to avoid confusion in those cases, I'm
sure TfL would consider them.

and get rid of the ones telling you what route you're on and where it's
going entirely. You already know that before you get on the bus.

True. What I would do is add an external speaker to announce the route
umber and destination to passengers waiting to board. That would help
blind passengers, and possibly others. OTOH, it might **** off
residents...

Someone I mentioned number 3 to a few weeks ago said it would be
confusing. Well, if it is, then I suppose that Dean St, Chinatown and
Green Park, Constitution Hill need changing. No doubt there are others.

I have to say, I love iBus. When I travel somewhere for the first
time, I get the stop name I need to get off at, and just wait for it
to be announced. What it is doesn't necessarily matter.