transmanche
Established Member
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- 27 Feb 2011
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It's not 'controversial'. It's reprehensible.My view is controversial
It's not 'controversial'. It's reprehensible.My view is controversial
"Don't fix what isn't broken" - but for many people our public transport system IS broken. Your justification is very few disabled people use public transport, however 1) I disagree and 2) how many disabled people would use public transport if it were more accesible?My view is controversial, I admit but it is my view. You all have your opinion and that is mine. Those with impairments do use buses currently and those who do, are generally happy with asking the driver where to alight or they just know where to get off presumably due to using the bus frequently.
I can see the point in announcements on routes which serve a lot of tourist attractions. Express buses it makes sense and also I can see the appeal if a route does generally have a fair few impaired people using it. However, if the route is a standard 30 minute local route with very few impaired people using such service, the announcements are unnecessary. I am not fully against announcements as I know they can be useful for some points. I do however believe that they need to be kept to few routes if possible or if you insist on them being on all buses, only major stops are announced.
If you live in London, you have had announcements for a while and have known nothing else for many years. To myself who lives in a city where the majority of buses don't have announcements and those which do, I avoid, I see it from the opposite side of the story. Don't fix what isn't broken sort of thing. It's just more and more cost which ends up with the fare payer in my opinion and that isn't on. Thousands have fare increases for that 1 visually impaired person who gets on once per year.
This is the kind of viewpoint one would expect from a column in the Daily Mail.My view is controversial, I admit but it is my view. You all have your opinion and that is mine. Those with impairments do use buses currently and those who do, are generally happy with asking the driver where to alight or they just know where to get off presumably due to using the bus frequently.
Many would probably be quite happy with the announcements… they can act as a reassurance. And, as you rightfully say, it's something that is easy to block out with headphones.If audio announcements bother you then wear headphones. As for autistic people, the bus is already a noisy environment so I reckon they already would wear ear defenders, or not take the bus.
I wanted to touch on this as an additional reason against announcements but I was unsure how to write it. We are more accessible to one some but less accessible to other.There is another disability angle to this though. There are now things like autism-friendly shopping events where shops have a 'quiet hour' with background noise, announcements and bleeps reduced or eliminated altogether, to reduce anxiety and create a calmer environment. I'm not sure that particular circle can be squared.
Oh yes, lets all be like Londoners where we never interact because we are too busy listening to whatever through headphones. Those who don't like announcements shouldn't have to suffer because of those very few who very rarely use the bus.If audio announcements bother you then wear headphones. As for autistic people, the bus is already a noisy environment so I reckon they already would wear ear defenders, or not take the bus.
My view is controversial, I admit but it is my view. You all have your opinion and that is mine. Those with impairments do use buses currently and those who do, are generally happy with asking the driver where to alight or they just know where to get off presumably due to using the bus frequently.
I can see the point in announcements on routes which serve a lot of tourist attractions. Express buses it makes sense and also I can see the appeal if a route does generally have a fair few impaired people using it. However, if the route is a standard 30 minute local route with very few impaired people using such service, the announcements are unnecessary. I am not fully against announcements as I know they can be useful for some points. I do however believe that they need to be kept to few routes if possible or if you insist on them being on all buses, only major stops are announced.
If you live in London, you have had announcements for a while and have known nothing else for many years. To myself who lives in a city where the majority of buses don't have announcements and those which do, I avoid, I see it from the opposite side of the story. Don't fix what isn't broken sort of thing. It's just more and more cost which ends up with the fare payer in my opinion and that isn't on. Thousands have fare increases for that 1 visually impaired person who gets on once per year.
If you live in London, you have had announcements for a while and have known nothing else for many years.
I wanted to touch on this as an additional reason against announcements but I was unsure how to write it. We are more accessible to one some but less accessible to other.
It's a difficult mix to be fair. Physically impaired can get on the bus with low floor and DDA etc so they can use the bus. All that stops them using the bus is not knowing where to get off. Not knowing where to get off can be solved on local routes (I have provided info above about some services which are exempt from this generalisation) by simply asking the driver. The vast majority of passengers on routes will also help you know where to get off (Impaired or not) though this can not be relied on of course.
If people were physically unable to get on the bus because of the gap between bus and pavement, step entrance or lack of wheelchair space then that would be unacceptable. The actual issue we have here is solely to do with not knowing where to get off which drivers and passengers will help with 99% of the time.
Oh yes, lets all be like Londoners where we never interact because we are too busy listening to whatever through headphones. Those who don't like announcements shouldn't have to suffer because of those very few who very rarely use the bus.
Audio announcements on buses to encourage partially sighted people to use them would be like installing lifts at in a Tesco Warehouse to encourage them to get jobs there. It is just a waste of money.
They have also been kept for Mango and Robin Hood cardsTrent Barton have recently introduced Ticketer machines but have also kept their old Init machines, partly for people to use their Mango smartcard but someone also posted on here that the old machines are still needed for the next stop announcements and display screens. That may be a temporary measure though.
They have also been kept for Mango and Robin Hood cards
In case you hadn't noticed, there is a group here of people who haven't said they actively like the announcements, but are prepared to listen to them given that they help others. Possibly you are in fact a member of the few, and not the many, as you seem to assume.Oh yes, lets all be like Londoners where we never interact because we are too busy listening to whatever through headphones. Those who don't like announcements shouldn't have to suffer because of those very few who very rarely use the bus.
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No, it's like installing lifts in your warehouse to allow people with disabilities to get jobs there, as well as to reduce time spent carrying heavy objects up an down stairs, and reduce safety hazards caused by carrying heavy objects, and to allow large groups of workers to get from floor to floor quicker. It solves multiple problems.Audio announcements on buses to encourage partially sighted people to use them would be like installing lifts at in a Tesco Warehouse to encourage them to get jobs there. It is just a waste of money
In all honesty, you're entitled to your opinion. But to this day it perplexes me just how much announcements can annoy people.Those who don't like announcements shouldn't have to suffer because of those very few who very rarely use the bus
I hate to break it to you, but strangers don't talk to each other on the buses in Aberdeen, either.I wanted to touch on this as an additional reason against announcements but I was unsure how to write it. We are more accessible to one some but less accessible to other.
It's a difficult mix to be fair. Physically impaired can get on the bus with low floor and DDA etc so they can use the bus. All that stops them using the bus is not knowing where to get off. Not knowing where to get off can be solved on local routes (I have provided info above about some services which are exempt from this generalisation) by simply asking the driver. The vast majority of passengers on routes will also help you know where to get off (Impaired or not) though this can not be relied on of course.
If people were physically unable to get on the bus because of the gap between bus and pavement, step entrance or lack of wheelchair space then that would be unacceptable. The actual issue we have here is solely to do with not knowing where to get off which drivers and passengers will help with 99% of the time.
Oh yes, lets all be like Londoners where we never interact because we are too busy listening to whatever through headphones. Those who don't like announcements shouldn't have to suffer because of those very few who very rarely use the bus.
Audio announcements on buses to encourage partially sighted people to use them would be like installing lifts at in a Tesco Warehouse to encourage them to get jobs there. It is just a waste of money.
I'm beginning to wonder whether you have a general indifference to anybody who has a need for accessibility aid on transport or anything else for that matter, after all, these people expect tactile pavement areas at crossings, noisy cross now bleeps, grab handles and more clearance in toilets and in buildings. It's just so inconvenient for us poor normally sighted/hearing and mobile tax/fare paying citizens. When I was young, there were certain kinds of citizens who expected blind people to cover their eyes with dark glasses lest they offended the normally sighted with their stare or lack of eye control. There were others who expected prosthetics to be disguised to look like real limbs so that they didn't offend the eye, even if they didn't function as well. I could go on but I expect that you might see the significance of those expectations. Luckily most people's behaviour has improved somewhat since those days, unfortunately it has taken several changes to UK law to convince some.I wanted to touch on this as an additional reason against announcements but I was unsure how to write it. We are more accessible to one some but less accessible to other.
It's a difficult mix to be fair. Physically impaired can get on the bus with low floor and DDA etc so they can use the bus. All that stops them using the bus is not knowing where to get off. Not knowing where to get off can be solved on local routes (I have provided info above about some services which are exempt from this generalisation) by simply asking the driver. The vast majority of passengers on routes will also help you know where to get off (Impaired or not) though this can not be relied on of course.
If people were physically unable to get on the bus because of the gap between bus and pavement, step entrance or lack of wheelchair space then that would be unacceptable. The actual issue we have here is solely to do with not knowing where to get off which drivers and passengers will help with 99% of the time.
Oh yes, lets all be like Londoners where we never interact because we are too busy listening to whatever through headphones. Those who don't like announcements shouldn't have to suffer because of those very few who very rarely use the bus.
Audio announcements on buses to encourage partially sighted people to use them would be like installing lifts at in a Tesco Warehouse to encourage them to get jobs there. It is just a waste of money.
My view is controversial, I admit but it is my view. You all have your opinion and that is mine. Those with impairments do use buses currently and those who do, are generally happy with asking the driver where to alight or they just know where to get off presumably due to using the bus frequently.
I hate to break it to you, however workplaces have had to be accessible for a number of years. I'm not an expert on the subject however I'm not aware that wanting lifts installed was partially high on the agenda for partially sighted people, high visibility/contrast signs and clearly delimited safe areas would appear to be more useful.Audio announcements on buses to encourage partially sighted people to use them would be like installing lifts at in a Tesco Warehouse to encourage them to get jobs there. It is just a waste of money.
I like the new buses Enviro MMC buses Stagecoach have invested in for Hull's 'Simplibus' network, largely because of the fact that they include audio announcements. I'm currently on one of them right now, and the audio announcement feature is being used despite the fact that the bus is doing an out of the city run on the 250 'Humber Flyer' to Humberside Airport.
I would have thought that they would only go to the trouble of enabling this feature only on the routes that run solely within the city?
Well, after I typed my earlier message, it would seem that the data wasn't all there for the route as when the route reached a random stop in Hessle, the audio announcement skipped out the rest of the stops before crossing the Humber Bridge, and the stops in Barton Upon Humber and said that the next stop is Humberside Airport, despite the route definitely serving Barton Upon Humber.If all the data is in there, why not use it?
Does anyone else find the announcements annoying? I have Arriva Sapphire near me and the announcements got so bad that I ended up just trying to avoid the buses where possible and move to routes without announcements.
My view is controversial, I admit but it is my view. You all have your opinion and that is mine. Those with impairments do use buses currently and those who do, are generally happy with asking the driver where to alight or they just know where to get off presumably due to using the bus frequently.
If that is true, it’s an unbelievably dumb reason for not using a fantastic feature. Why go to the expense and effort of installing great technology and not bother training the drivers how to use itPerryman's tried it on 12 Versas bought in 2013 for their Scottish Borders contracts. It didn't last long as not many drivers knew how to set it correctly. The screens are still fitted to the Versas, but not used.
Precisely the view of many commuter passengers, who don't want the bus loudly talking to them repeating the same 50 bus stop names every morning and evening, often for 60-70% of time the bus is underway - often in two languages. When this phenomenon was new, one company found a number of speakers being jammed with chewing gum, paper and even glue. One driver was also investigated for (allegedly) removing a memory stick/card and formatting it to remove the audio, but it was never proven.
Perhaps for occasional travellers, enthusiasts, visually impaired persons or tourists it is useful, but the core financial income model of most bus operators is from commuters paying full rate - they ultimately are the ones the bus companies need most for financial survival.
Using a professional voice aristocrat's can help with this - you need announcements which are clear and easy to understand, ideally, using a relatively neutral accent (to help interpretation).They shouldn't be too loud. Announcements should be concise.
Precisely the view of many commuter passengers, who don't want the bus loudly talking to them repeating the same 50 bus stop names every morning and evening