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How to flag a bus when the bus stop is full?

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I've experienced this problem quite a lot. On West St the 30 is perhaps the worst affected because it is so infrequent (and unreliable). So when you wait for it you continually have to jump in the road in front of dozens of 52s/95s etc to see if the next bus is finally the 30 and if you then need to flag it down.

 

Then you run the gauntlet of old biddies saying 'Eh, there's a queue here you know!'. The concept of people waiting for different buses at the same stop seems to have passed them by.

 

An underlying problem is it often doesn't seem to be in the interests of some bus drivers to pick up any passenges at all. Pesky passengers must seem like an inconvenience - always making you stop when you've got up a good head of steam, then they've never got the right change, sometimes they even have the cheek to not already know exactly where they're going etc.

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Not so sure as looking at the new timetable the 3 buses that run past my bus stop are now timed to all turn up within 3 minutes of each other then leaving a half an hour gap until the next 3 turn up! This just seems stupid :rant:

 

Even so but that's still nothing to do with drivers not understanding timetables. It would only take a little traffic to bunch the buses together, that's down to whoever decided on the times. At the moment on the tramlink to Stockbridge buses are running together because of roadworks at Stockbridge, I had a passenger having a go at me about it until she got up there to see the reason why.

As for the op o don't think there's a set way, it depends on the stop and number of buses, only thong I'd suggest is standing near the back of the last bus at the stop, sometimes though it can be a nightmare with the number of buses

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Even so but that's still nothing to do with drivers not understanding timetables. It would only take a little traffic to bunch the buses together, that's down to whoever decided on the times. At the moment on the tramlink to Stockbridge buses are running together because of roadworks at Stockbridge, I had a passenger having a go at me about it until she got up there to see the reason why.

As for the op o don't think there's a set way, it depends on the stop and number of buses, only thong I'd suggest is standing near the back of the last bus at the stop, sometimes though it can be a nightmare with the number of buses

 

With the number of bus services that use West Street, there's always going to be bunching, nothing the drivers can do about this.

 

Your suggestion would probably have worked for me the first time, but I judged (wrongly) that both of the busses occupying the pull-in area would move on before my bus got there, and I didn't want to end up half way down the street with no-one back at the bus stop to flag it down.

 

The second time, the bus stop was empty, but three busses came along in a convoy and I couldn't get the last one to see me, even by running down towards the end of the layby and waving like an idiot. I was successfull however in stopping the first two, neither of which I wanted, whilst mine sailed past. :)

Edited by Olive

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Why is it that a service that is supposed to run every 10 minutes has no busses for 50 minutes and then 4 turn up at the same time travelling in convoy? Are they afraid of submarines or are the drivers incapable of understanding a timetable :rant:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_bunching

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Clearly they don't plan to do that. Have you heard of traffic? Delays, etc?

 

Yes I have heard of traffic and delays. But I have also seen buses, on the same route; depart from the centre of town at the same time when the time table indicates a 10 minute gap. I have also been on one of these 'convoys' from town and it has nothing to do with any traffic or delays. In fact the drivers appear to be waiting for each other :loopy:

 

Regularly happens between 19:50 and 20:40 on a Friday night when there is little traffic about.

 

There used to be inspectors to ensure buses ran to the time table but these do not seem to exist now.

 

Public transport, what a joke :!:

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:rolleyes:

 

How does the situation you describe point to bus drivers not understanding timetables? Please explain? (Show your working out).

 

 

There is no ‘working out’ required, it is fact. The timetable indicates that there should be a bus at 19:50, then one at 20:00, then one at 20:10, then one at 20:20, then one at 20:30 and then one at 20:40.

 

However there is regularly no bus at 19:50, 20:00, 20:10, 20:20 or 20:30. However 4 buses then turn up at 20:40.

 

Is that ‘worked out’ satisfactorily for you?

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Yes I have heard of traffic and delays. But I have also seen buses, on the same route; depart from the centre of town at the same time when the time table indicates a 10 minute gap.

 

Quite rare that a service begins in the city centre - so it's quite likely the same 'bunching' effect is in action, you just happen to witness it in the city centre instead of on a high street out of town. The first bus is probably running behind, the second on time. But the second bus is hardly going to wait and get behind the timetable itself, is it?

 

 

I have also been on one of these 'convoys' from town and it has nothing to do with any traffic or delays. In fact the drivers appear to be waiting for each other :loopy:

 

Never seen this myself, ever. Why? Why on earth would they do that? You're right, it is loopy. That's why it probably doesn't happen.

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There is no ‘working out’ required, it is fact. The timetable indicates that there should be a bus at 19:50, then one at 20:00, then one at 20:10, then one at 20:20, then one at 20:30 and then one at 20:40.

 

However there is regularly no bus at 19:50, 20:00, 20:10, 20:20 or 20:30. However 4 buses then turn up at 20:40.

 

Is that ‘worked out’ satisfactorily for you?

 

Satisfactory to work out you're a moron with zero idea of driving in a big city, yes :)

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Satisfactory to work out you're a moron with zero idea of driving in a big city, yes :)

 

 

Takes one to know one:loopy:

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Takes one to know one:loopy:

 

That's exactly the type of thing I'd expect a moron to say...

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