To be fair, this is a perfect fit for mobile apps.
generally Travel West Midlands are a hopeless bunch of wastrels (don't get me started on the "Swift" card abomination) however their app does indeed not only show timetables but also give you a pretty good estimate (within 30s) of when the next bus is due. And while you are waiting you amuse yourself by getting it to plan "routes" for you using buses which tend to remind you why you really, really hate buses.
There are people around, otherwise quite normal looking people who will only drink tea without any milk or sugar. They will ask you why anyone would want to mask the delicate taste of the tea with cow juice and sickly sugar or sweetener.
You take a sip and it doesn't taste any better than it did the last time; and you're immediately looking around for a convenient pot plant.
As I said, it's all a matter of taste.
As it happens I mainly use milk in tea - Tesco Red Label teabags.
Whether there's any delicate taste there to mask,is maybe another question.
Years ago, like most other people I was quite happy to drink bright orange tea straight out of an urn in cafes, with "normal" milk and maybe four spoons of sugar.
Nowadays it's all skimmed milk and sweeteners and the former cafe most likely only sells artisan crafted llapsong souchong at a tenner a cup
Tastes also evolve.
michael adams
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I think there's almost always a need to provide disabled parking. And round here people can get the council to designate space outside their home. Whether that's enough is another matter.
And how many estates like that originally had frequent bus services 7 days a week until late at night and now either have none or a much slimmed down service which stops ay 6pm and doesn't run on Sundays?
How would a shift worker be expected to cope - or anyone else required to work overtime?
I've seldom encountered people "shouting" on their phones but people talking on their phones is a quite common experience. Whether it suits anyone else, doing this at least suits two people the caller and the called.
As presumably you yourself, like everyone else don't forget what bus you've just got on, it remains to be seen what possible purpose is served by these announcements.
The answer is none. Like many other things these annoying abnnouncekments come under the category - "if we can do something which will impact on the customer experience which can be implemented fairly cheaply, then we should do it regardless of whether it will actually improve anything" There are plenty of other examples of this around.
You expect people on phones to be annoying as they don't know any better. The clowns who implement these "improvements" are actual being paid to do so and will put them on their CV's.
michael adams
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No in any new build I have ever seen. In fact most of the show homes were inaccessible - in one case the sales agent had to call four builders over to carry SWMBO wheelchair over the gravel car park.
Quite aside from the question of having enough road space to do so, such a move is not a guarantee to the householder involved. It merely becomes an allocated on-street disabled bay which can be used by *anyone* with a BB being used legitimately.
Still, off street parking is the least of our worries. We can easily fit
5 cars on our drives and garage, despite only being 2 people. Meanwhile the family across the road of 5 have 6 cars between them and 3 spaces ....
On this estate the houses were built without garages but a long drive at the side of the house, sufficient for 3-4 cars. Most houses have since built an attached garage and kitchen extension (of course modern cars don't fit into the garage, so many have converted subsequently been converted into a habitable room) reducing the drive to the length of one car (those with 4x4s leave bumpers sticking into the path) but of course they now have two or three cars ... hence the road is like an obstacle course.
They'd know once they'd got on the bus. They'd confirm the route when they told the driver their stop.
The only reason for asking somebody on the queuse is to save the blind person the trouble of boarding the wrong bus only to be told by the driver that they've got on the wrong one.
Your idea that they'd board a succession of buses of different routes all serving the same stop, and then wait to listen to the on board announcement before decideing whether they needed to get off or not is, quite frankly, one of the most ludicrous suggestions its ever been my pleasuse to read on UseNet.
And that's even leaving out the likelihood of people deliberately lying to blind people.
That will presumably depend on how much confidence they have in what you told them; which sad to say will mainly be based on your appearance, accent, confident manner or not, abscence of facial tics etc. Basically even nowadyas if you were dressed in a pin strip suit, with a crisp white shirt, matching tie and handerkerchief, and spoke with a public school accent then people would be far more inclined to believe you first time than if you had long hair, a beard, were wearing jeans and spoke with say a cockney accent .And this goes for all classes of enquirers.
michael adams
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- Yes, ~8:15am this morning, twice a day weekdays, sometimes more.
Then you have my sympathies.
You're faced with the same announcements on the tube but usually the ride is so smooth that you can blot them out by reading a book or the paper. Maybe it depends on the model of bus and knowing the best place to sit, never mind drivers slamming on the brakes but I've always found it impossible to read on buses; another reason for avoiding them as much as possible.
michael adams
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Yes, that's the difference between people like Fred Goodwin and Philip Green and, say, Richard Branson (although he's an Old Stoic and probably doesn't have a cockney accent).
Owain
snip
Yes, good point. I think it's down the local authority to specify matters of parking as a planning condition. But while there may be a need, and there is a way - it's not often used perhaps.
Good grief. I'd guess 4 of the 30 homes on this terraced street have 3 or more cars. Couple of caravans and trailers. Quite a scramble at coming home time ;-)
I was speaking of people in general not the subset of the terminally gullible who are especially susceptible to tax dodging smiling bullshit merchants such as Richard Branson.
michael adams
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There doesn't seem to be a problem providing a disabled parking space anywhere it's needed. Including one round here right on a junction - where previously there was a yellow line to stop parking and give decent visibility at that junction. They actually had to move the stop line, so buses using the junction can swing out past that parked 'disabled' car.
We also have buses which can lower themselves to allow easier access to wheelchairs, etc. So having speaking signs for the blind etc seems only fair. Also indicator boards for the deaf.
This is London. If anything, the PT service has improved in the last 30 years. Most especially the service from the local overground railway station. Far more trains stop there now.
If you are out in the sticks with poor PT, chances are land is cheap enough to provide off street parking.
Well, what did come in about the same time is indicators at a bus stop telling you when your wanted bus is likely to arrive. And cameras on the buses recording bad behaviour etc. And air con on some buses too.
I do use buses quite a bit out of rush hour as they are a pleasant way to travel with no parking hassles. But then I also get free travel. Can't say the announcements particularly annoy me unless very loud which would be a fault condition. But could see someone not used to them and looking for a reason to convince themselves not to use a bus could get annoyed by them. ;-)
That's all very well for blind and deaf people who can read and speak English. But what of any ethnic minority passengers who can't ?* Is it really fair on them ?
Won't that make them feel even more disadvantaged ?
"They taken these special measures for English speaking passengers, but not for us." (Although obviously they'll be thinking this in their own language)
michael adams
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Most of the buses I use have the entrace and exit on the side or back so you don't need to pass the driver.
I think that is a pretty important reason to ask, especailly if the person happens to be in a wheelchair. Some ask if they don't know whether or not the bus is going to their destination. Sometimes and quite often the bus changes it's final destination. About 1 in every 3 journeys I make the bus stops and the annoucnment says the driver will wait here for 5 mins to better regulate the service.
But it would make a good comedy sketch. be even funny if this system was used on planes.
Not seen that happen but people can get things wrong.
A couple of years ago the Walthamstow Leisure centre was called the Kelmscott Leisure Centre.
Wonder if they'll change the name again.
In fact I was asked is the Kelmscott Leisure Centre near here as I got off the bus 2 stops before. I said yes it's about 2 stops away but it's called something else now, I didn;t know what at the time.
Not always, if I'm looking for a gig/venue I'd ask people that look like they might know.
But if there is no space for the wheelchair user (remember they *have* to go in the provided space) then it's wait until the next bus.
Recent court cases have merely confirmed that while provision for disabled access is required, it's policing isn't.
And if you thing Chelsea tractors are overkill, you clearly haven't seen the baby transport systems now available. Which don't collapse and take up enough space for *2* wheelchairs.
Cheers, I find it worse now I have a mobile and can check on the times.
Less noticable on the tube but then I only go two stops which would be abou t a dozen stops on the bus. But if you're standing near the tubes speaker i t's very annoying more annoying than the bus. Aother annoucment when arrivi ng at stratford "the doors will open on both sides of the train" Theere the service ones that tell you we've stoped in the tunnel waiting fo r the train in fronmt o the red light or passnger action.
Me too and actually any moving vehical, I think I get a seat on the tube pe rhaps twice a month, on buses I almost always get a seat in the morning an d evenings provided there;s no delays or problems.
According to posters on uk.transport.london these often malfunction and have actually been removed from some stops.
On the tube I sometimes use the District Line. Look at old photos from the 1910's 1920's and you'll see train indicator boards on the platforms. Blue glass panels with the destinations lit from behind with a bulb.
One hundred years later they installed digital (or whatever) indicator boards. Go into any Distict line station and you will see a notice "Please check the destination on the front of the train as the indicator board may not be correct" And they've not been correct whenever I've travelled. This has been going on for months. But if it "may" not be correct what's the point of having it at all ? Why not just switch it off until its fixed ?
This is the mentality you're dealing with. On the one hand its a miracle they've kept trains running continuously on the London Underground (in one form or another) for over 150 years now through two world wars. On the other hand its even more of a miracle when plonkers like this are in charge.
They're not just recording bad behaviour. Potentially they're recording all behaviour.
Do you find you can read on buses ? Otherwise what do you do just look out the window ?
Indeed.Just think of the poor sods who are having to pay to have loudspeakers blaring at them proffering this totally superfluous information. At every single stop !
The volume is solely at the discretion of the driver. As with tubes the maximium appears to be such as to overcome the noise of a revving engine or a tube in a tunnel.
But could see someone not used to them and looking for a
If somebody could produce a genuine reason for their use - if you insist they could be switched on and off as blind people boarded and alighteed from the bus - then I wouldn't find them annoying at all. As it is they're simply unnecessary noise pollution being inflicted on a captive audience; many of whom are paying for the privilige.
michael adams
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