• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Passengers remaining on the bus even though it would be much quicker to walk

Status
Not open for further replies.

py_megapixel

Established Member
Joined
5 Nov 2018
Messages
6,645
Location
Northern England
Seems to happen quite often in situations where
- Passenger wants stop P
- Stop P is a couple of hundred metres down the road from stop Q
- Stop Q is a timed stop
that the bus will pull in at stop Q and wait for several minutes for its scheduled departure time - then as soon as the bus starts moving again, the passenger rings the bell and alights. Whereas, if they had got off that Q and simply walked the last few seconds down the road to P, they would have saved themselves a substantial amount of time

Has anyone else seen this, and why do people do it? Often the passenger will be able to actually see the stop they want out of the window, and yet won't get out and walk to it despite it being apparent the bus isn't going anywhere!
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

Ianno87

Veteran Member
Joined
3 May 2015
Messages
15,215
Seems to happen quite often in situations where
- Passenger wants stop P
- Stop P is a couple of hundred metres down the road from stop Q
- Stop Q is a timed stop
that the bus will pull in at stop Q and wait for several minutes for its scheduled departure time - then as soon as the bus starts moving again, the passenger rings the bell and alights. Whereas, if they had got off that Q and simply walked the last few seconds down the road to P, they would have saved themselves a substantial amount of time

Has anyone else seen this, and why do people do it? Often the passenger will be able to actually see the stop they want out of the window, and yet won't get out and walk to it despite it being apparent the bus isn't going anywhere!

In that situation, I might ask the driver "are you going to be here long?"

If you're not in a rush, you might as well.save the walk...
 

HST274

Member
Joined
3 Mar 2020
Messages
710
Location
Worcestershire
Surely it is partly down to not wanting to walk. Any seat is preferred to a walk that would still add one or two minutes to your short walk home. Also knowing British weather, if it is raining, staying on the bus a further few metres might be preferred to any walk.
 

py_megapixel

Established Member
Joined
5 Nov 2018
Messages
6,645
Location
Northern England
In that situation, I might ask the driver "are you going to be here long?"

If you're not in a rush, you might as well.save the walk...
Surely it is partly down to not wanting to walk. Any seat is preferred to a walk that would still add one or two minutes to your short walk home. Also knowing British weather, if it is raining, staying on the bus a further few metres might be preferred to any walk.
Fair enough. Walking doesn't usually bother me personally so maybe I just obsess too much about the exact efficiency of my journey!
Frankly I find it infuriating to be in a vehicle but not moving, but that might just be me.

I'm not complaining about passengers doing this - it is after all their decision and evidently they've paid the fare to be on the bus to that stop - I just find it a little bit of an unnatural decision to take personally.
 
Joined
14 Dec 2018
Messages
1,145
I tend to find that drivers will stop, leave the engine running and then just not say anything as to why they've stopped, so passengers have no idea if/that the bus is running early and how long it is going to be stopped for.
And Sod's Law says that as soon as you get up to ask, the bus will start moving again :rolleyes::D
 

lxfe_mxtterz

Member
Joined
3 Mar 2018
Messages
817
Location
Sarahdale (West of Emmerdale)
I'm guilty of this. :)

I used to commute on a route where, on the outbound journey, the stop before my stop was a timing point. This outbound morning journey had a ridiculously lenient timetable, allowing for up to 40 minutes* for what is otherwise timetabled as a 25 minute journey during the daytime. Unsurprisingly, the timing point was made very good use of, with the bus sitting there for long periods of time, all whilst I could see my stop just ahead of us.

I expect I did have a bit of an excuse, though, as the commute did involve a 30 minute walk uphill along a country road, often through wet leaves and mud, after the bus journey! Really not fun, and I was already knackered by the time I got there having not even started the day, so a few more minutes sitting down was welcomed before the torturous trek.

*The morning timetable on this route has since been rectified and is now timed for a much more reasonable 30 minutes.
 

PaulMc7

Established Member
Joined
9 Jul 2019
Messages
4,029
It happens a lot in Glasgow where the drivers change at Scotstoun for First Glasgow's 1C/1D, 2 and 3. Sometimes the bus sits for 3/4 mins and it would definitely be enough time to get at least 2 stops along in each direction.

Another case where I've noticed that you can walk quicker than the bus takes to get places is in Glasgow City Centre if it's a bus that stops on Argyle Street at the bottom of Buchanan Street or the bus stop after the traffic lights there. If you are going to Trongate or Stockwell Street at St Enoch's it's very often quicker to walk directly along Argyle Street by the shops than it is to stay on the bus up Queen Street, along Ingram Street and down Glassford Street. A lot of this is due to traffic lights more than anything though.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top