Sunday 31 October 2010

Waiting in the rain.

 

The first part of this post happened a few days ago on the sea front. Imagine you are driving a number 12 towards Newton Abbot. A little way in front of you is an other number 12 also heading for Newton Abbot. The 12 in front indicates it is going to stop at the next bus stop, you on the other hand don't have to stop. You also know the bus in front isn't anywhere near full. So do you, A) stop behind the other bus at the stop and wait until it fills up and then follow it down the road and possibly do the same at the next bus stop or B) go past the other bus and continue down the road there by picking the people waiting at the next bus stop a minute to two sooner. A) is OK but b) is better.

Now change the situation slightly. The bus in front of you isn't a number 12. It isn't even the same bus company. It's a number X80 and it is indicating it's intention to stop at the next stop. There are people waiting at the stop, they could want the X80 but more likely they are waiting for the number 12. The X80 only goes as far as Torquay Harbour but the 12 goes to the top of town and then onto Newton. Also the people at the stop are more likely to have Stagecoach return or day tickets and therefore less likely to wont the X80 than your number 12. So what do you do? A) Stop behind the other bus or B) go past the other bus and continue down the road there by picking the people waiting at the next bus stop a minute to two sooner.

When you are the poor sod stood at the bus stop in the wind and the rain waiting for a bus to Newton Abbot in the first scenario you don't really care but in the second scenario you can get very upset when the bus driver chooses B.

 

The second part of the post happened in the early hours of this morning when

British Summer Time ended, hopefully we will never see it again. Right now we are working on Greenwich Mean Time and will continue with that until the spring. Then we should go onto British Standard Time which is the same as British Summer Time but without the inconvenience of changing back to Greenwich Mean Time next October. There is a move a foot to scrap the changing of the clocks in winter so we get lighter evenings at the expense of darker mornings. As I tend to get up late in the morning I know which I prefer.

6 comments:

Cabbie J said...

Happens to me from time to time (as a passenger). I always flag down the bus I want, even if there is a bus on the stop already. (i.e. I'd have walked to the rear of the FirstBus and flagged the number 12 down).

That said, if I were a driver, I would not expect waiting passengers to do that

David said...

I did try walking to the rear of the X80 but without success on this occassion

retired driver Peter said...

This just shows the error made by Stagecoach in getting rid of you.Surely good publicity for the Company as was practised by you far outweighs this sort of attitude by present day staff.I wonder if Mr Souter or any of his officials read your blogs? then maybe commonsense would offer you a job with them

Dave said...

I used to have this problem while waiting for a bus at Hele Cross between Exeter and Cullompton. I wanted a Southern National 92 to Taunton which invariably turned up at exactly the same time as a then 54 (now 1) Stagecoach. So if the 92 was ahead, the driver usually thought I didn't want his bus (as no-one ever got on the 92 between Exeter and Cullompton!), and if he was behind, the 54 stopped and the 92 sailed past. On some occasions the 92 was even overtaking the 54 when I tried to hail it - what the hell do you do in that situation with 2 buses side by side?!? In the end I wrote a large sign.

Anonymous said...

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David said...

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