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Bus drivers - do you get complacent with passenger flows?

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GodAtum

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On one bus I get on in the morning, 99% of passengers get on as the bus goes from a residential area to the main train station. However, once in a while someone wants to get off. They do press the button, but the bus driver is so in the zone they don't realise someone wants to get off.

Another route I travel on, there is a bus stop 1 stop before it terminates, probably a few minutes walk. Occasionally, someone wants to get on, god knows why, probably being lazy. But the stop is on a dual carriage way so the bus speeds past.
 
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Bletchleyite

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There's a stop near me I used to use when I lived in my previous flat which is just after a very busy roundabout. Drivers would miss it more often than not if you didn't ring the bell both before the roundabout and after it as a reminder, as the mental effort required to cross the busy roundabout tended to cause them to forget about the stop.
 

Deerfold

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Another route I travel on, there is a bus stop 1 stop before it terminates, probably a few minutes walk. Occasionally, someone wants to get on, god knows why, probably being lazy. But the stop is on a dual carriage way so the bus speeds past.

It's possible they have some difficulty in getting about, rather than being lazy.
 

scotrail158713

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On one bus I get on in the morning, 99% of passengers get on as the bus goes from a residential area to the main train station. However, once in a while someone wants to get off. They do press the button, but the bus driver is so in the zone they don't realise someone wants to get off.

Another route I travel on, there is a bus stop 1 stop before it terminates, probably a few minutes walk. Occasionally, someone wants to get on, god knows why, probably being lazy. But the stop is on a dual carriage way so the bus speeds past.
If I had a bus pass if any sort then I’d do the same - if the bus turned up at the right time. I wouldn’t wait 15 minutes for it though.
 

PeterC

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Might be getting on it , then going back on the route instead of waiting .
Plenty of pass holders do that where I live if the bus is running late rather than stand in the cold waiting for the return trip.
 

90019

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When you're hearing it all day, it can be easy to miss the sound of the bell and it can be equally easy to not notice the light on the dash because you're too busy focusing on driving - the latter is especially true when different buses have different stopping lights and put them in different places.

The Volvos I drive have the stopping light in one of three different places depending what you're on - two are in the gauge cluster, one is off to the side in a different set of warning lights. That last one is also pretty much invisible if the sun is shining on it.


Also, for some reason there's one stop in particular I seem to have a blind spot for, and I have no idea why.
 
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Some of the older Gemini deckers we have , when the bell is rung the stopping light does not stay on in the saloon it also does not show on dash apart from the initial press ,the bell is slightly louder on first press and quiet afterwards till doors are opened and it resets . If the cab window is open and with all rattles and bangs it’s so easy to miss the bell .i drove in Glasgow for over 20 yrs so got used to not having the bell rung on most runs and instead had a system where you look around more and listening for feet shuffling or coming down stairs ,all at the same time trying to watch the stops for any clues if anyone wants the bus . Never had any complaint about missing stops yet and I’m on yr 29 .
 

robk23oxf

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I did this this afternoon. Three minutes and two sets of traffic lights between the bell ringing and the bus stop, I completely forgot by the time I got there and it was only because I looked down at the little bell on the dashboard that I remembered just in time.
 

RJ

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There's a stop near me I used to use when I lived in my previous flat which is just after a very busy roundabout. Drivers would miss it more often than not if you didn't ring the bell both before the roundabout and after it as a reminder, as the mental effort required to cross the busy roundabout tended to cause them to forget about the stop.

I was taught from a very early age to time pressing the bell appropriately. Never too soon after leaving the previous stop, but not too late either.
 

Bletchleyite

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No-one has suggested not pressing the bell.

There are some places where using the bell is, or was, considered rude, you instead went and told the driver where you wished to alight. That was true of the Little White Buses around Ormskirk in the 1990s, I forget which others but I think there were some cities where that was the case.
 
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There are some places where using the bell is, or was, considered rude, you instead went and told the driver where you wished to alight. That was true of the Little White Buses around Ormskirk in the 1990s, I forget which others but I think there were some cities where that was the case.
Yes , Glasgow I suppose from when they went OMO when a passenger rang the bell drivers would shout , stop ringing that bell . ( I’m sure it wasn’t just because of little me :) ) :{
 

TheWalrus

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Yes , Glasgow I suppose from when they went OMO when a passenger rang the bell drivers would shout , stop ringing that bell . ( I’m sure it wasn’t just because of little me :) ) :{
It does often seem that passengers ring the bell 5 or 6 times for the same stop which gets annoying eventually.
 

paddington

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There are some places where using the bell is, or was, considered rude, you instead went and told the driver where you wished to alight. That was true of the Little White Buses around Ormskirk in the 1990s, I forget which others but I think there were some cities where that was the case.


I rode a lot of buses when I lived in Vancouver (Canada) for 3 months. In the more rural bits, the driver chats to people and it feels rude to ring the bell when you had a substantial conversation with the driver 5 minutes previously.

In Hong Kong minibuses, traditionally there were no bells and you have to yell out the name of a building/place, or "next junction" or "after the traffic lights". Or if you don't speak Cantonese you just say "stop please". Now most of them have bells but it still feels rude to use them.

It's a bit like Hail and Ride in London, which I still don't really understand because sometimes the driver doesn't stop until 30 seconds after the bell is rung, even though there were many safe places to stop before, and it doesn't appear that they know where that particular passenger lives because they don't greet them or say goodbye. (And in London everyone presses the bell, nobody tells the driver where to stop verbally)
 

RJ

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In Hong Kong minibuses, traditionally there were no bells and you have to yell out the name of a building/place, or "next junction" or "after the traffic lights". Or if you don't speak Cantonese you just say "stop please". Now most of them have bells but it still feels rude to use them.

You're braver than me - I didn't want to go anywhere near those things. I'm sure there's plenty of legroom for a heavily built 6ft man but I never got on one to find out :lol:
 

darloscott

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You're braver than me - I didn't want to go anywhere near those things. I'm sure there's plenty of legroom for a heavily built 6ft man but I never got on one to find out :lol:
I used one on the route from Kai Tak island to a shopping centre around ten minutes away as that was the only one I could really fathom out to runnto a scheduled route... they did seem to pop up everywhere though, and I did see one of the Solos!
 
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