Bus Driver Rage!!

[jaig]

A video showing the frustration of your average bus driver when passengers overuse the bell

https://youtu.be/1ui-Ftkqo5s

Transcript:

"Right, listen carefully, I know this sounds really stupid, but if the bus is parked at the stop and you keep ringing the bell, the doors are going to open and I'm going to be thinking that you want to get off! (shouting): Wait for the bus to pull away!"

 

[sciisfun]

He does have a point mind, it is common sense!

 

[jaig]

He does have a point mind, it is common sense!

Yeah, you're right, I get annoyed too!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[BestWestern]

One of the, regretfully few, redeeming features of a Scania Omnicity was that the bell would sound only once! And, IIRC, wouldn't operate again until the doors had closed!

 

[theking]

I don't know why bells don't only ring once as on buses they're a muppets magnet.

But no now on the MMC's they ring twice for one bell push.

 

[zuriblue]

In Europe that's quite normal. Pushing the bell pulls in a relay that locks further presses of the bell out until the doors have been opened (or released)

 

[90019]

He does have a point mind, it is common sense!

He does, and I totally agree with him.

However, there are lots of stupid people out there for whom common sense is a totally alien concept.

 

[Bletchleyite]

In Europe that's quite normal. Pushing the bell pulls in a relay that locks further presses of the bell out until the doors have been opened (or released)

If all UK bus drivers were paying attention enough not to go flying past stops when the bell was pressed a long way back, there would be no reason not to allow multiple rings.

On one route I use often, this has happened loads of times, so I always press the bell well in advance (on leaving the previous stop) and again just before the stop (as a reminder, as there is a distraction just before it in the form of a busy roundabout) to ensure the stop is not missed. I would not like this ability removed.

 

[Ian Hardy]

He does, and I totally agree with him.

However, there are lots of stupid people out there for whom common sense is a totally alien concept.

Don't forget that common sense is not that common

 

[AB93]

If all UK bus drivers were paying attention enough not to go flying past stops when the bell was pressed a long way back, there would be no reason not to allow multiple rings.

On one route I use often, this has happened loads of times, so I always press the bell well in advance (on leaving the previous stop) and again just before the stop (as a reminder, as there is a distraction just before it in the form of a busy roundabout) to ensure the stop is not missed. I would not like this ability removed.

Why ring it the first time then, out of interest?

Unfortunately, passenger habits seem to have changed. Maybe it's just my local area, but I find - go back ten or so years, and people would ring the bell on the approach to (but in good time) the stop. This is much more helpful.

Nowadays though, it seems to be more common to ring the bell immediately after leaving the previous stop, when you're still concentrating on leaving that stop. Unfortunately, the reality of being a human means that, of the hundreds of times you stop in a week, you will be distracted on occasion and miss one.

 

[Strathclyder]

I don't know why bells don't only ring once as on buses they're a muppets magnet.

But no now on the MMC's they ring twice for one bell push.

Indeed. On First Glasgow's E200MMCs/E400MMCs, the bell rings like this ('DING DING-ding ding') when the bell is pressed. If the bell is immediately pressed a second time, only the first loud 'DING DING' sounds.

 

[BestWestern]

If all UK bus drivers were paying attention enough not to go flying past stops when the bell was pressed a long way back, there would be no reason not to allow multiple rings.

On one route I use often, this has happened loads of times, so I always press the bell well in advance (on leaving the previous stop) and again just before the stop (as a reminder, as there is a distraction just before it in the form of a busy roundabout) to ensure the stop is not missed. I would not like this ability removed.

In a lot of cases , the indication on the dashboard which shows the bell has been pressed stops working, and isn't deemed a worthy use of a replacement lightbulb by tightfisted/can't be arsed bus garages, which certainly doesn't help. There is a reason that a reminder is fitted in the first place!

I never used to mind the bell going off a couple of times, but what used to mystify me was when every individual passenger for one stop seemed to feel the need to give their own personal bell press, as if everybody else's might not have done the trick!

 

[mic]

on the streetlite buses once the bell has been pressed it will not do it again till doors have been closed after bus stop

 

[J-2739]

Some buses (Scania Omnicities, Enviro 400s) have the 'stopping' light banner at the front, possibly for the bus driver to see. Another thing I've noticed while sitting at the front of the bus is that a light on the cab control will light up when the bell is alighted, so a broken banner is not much of an excuse.

 

[Lrd]

Some buses (Scania Omnicities, Enviro 400s) have the 'stopping' light banner at the front, possibly for the bus driver to see. Another thing I've noticed while sitting at the front of the bus is that a light on the cab control will light up when the bell is alighted, so a broken banner is not much of an excuse.

The "stopping" banner at the front is not for the drivers use. The light on the dashboard (or cab control as you put it) is the one that is often dead and it takes a lot of pressure from the drivers to get someone to replace it. Lots of nicely worded messages on the defect cards for the fitters to laugh at and throw in the bin read.

 

[MCR247]

One of the, regretfully few, redeeming features of a Scania Omnicity was that the bell would sound only once! And, IIRC, wouldn't operate again until the doors had closed!

Really? On ours they ring multiple times, and I love omnicities personally

 

[RJ]

When I suspect people are messing around, I make an announcement that the bus has an electrical fault and will be taken out of service if the bell keeps going off. As if by magic, this always stops it happening.

I was the driver of this rather slow 607 - it's a limited stop route that runs in West London. The bell goes off 55 seconds in, which was sufficient. Over the course of the next 60 seconds, people spam the bell for reasons unknown to me - worse still, it's a Wright bodied bus which has a loud, irritating bell situated in the panel behind the driver's head. I often made announcements when driving the 607 explaining that the bell need not be mercilessly rapped between stops.

 

[90019]

worse still, it's a Wright bodied bus which has a loud, irritating bell situated in the panel behind the driver's head.

On our ones the bell at the front only rings the first time someone pushes it, with just the one at the back ringing after that until the doors have been opened.
The single decks are better because there's a relay that means there's a few seconds delay before it can be pushed again, and pushing it before the relay clicks resets it.

Our single deck Volvo hybrids are the best though - the bell only rings once until the doors are opened and closed.

 

[Busaholic]

Any experiences of bus driver rage against a fellow bus driver, whether working for the same firm or not? The nearest I've seen was on Westbourne Grove in London back in LT days, and that was only verbal. Closer to where I now live, I believe there was a famous stand-off in Marazion, Cornwall, between two drivers some years ago - neither would give an inch and no traffic moved in the area for an hour until the police arrived.

 

[N228PF]

The busses here in my us college town have a pull cord, which will only make a "bell" once and not until the doors are closed. A lot of people will try to pull the cord before the bus closes the door at the stop prior, which means the system resets it.

However the long announcement after the bell "Stop Requested. When crossing the street please wait until the bus departs, look both ways and use crosswalks, if available." Make it pretty obvious the bus will be stopping!

 

[skyhigh]

I once had the bell on a Caetano Nimbus fail - somehow it got stuck going "Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding...". Nothing the driver tried managed to stop it. I wish they had a mechanism that only lets them ring once!

 

[SCH117X]

I once had the bell on a Caetano Nimbus fail - somehow it got stuck going "Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding...". Nothing the driver tried managed to stop it. I wish they had a mechanism that only lets them ring once!

Same thing happened as far as I could tell on one of Transdev Harrogate refurbished B7RLEs the other week as no one obviously was pressing a bell button (I was sat at the rear) - very annoying.