7 April - This bus might terminate you here
This
morning I attended TfL’s bus
passenger experience seminar or survey or whatever they called it. The venue was Vauxhall bus station and the show was organised by
ARUP.
I don’t think it is a trade secret that TfL is seriously worried about bus
safety and the number of passengers being injured and worse. I understand the
original idea came from my son but it grew legs and was taken over by ARUP. Hence me
getting a tip off and being readily accepted because they were short of people aged over 75.
The day did not start well because I arrived at Waterloo with 55 minutes to
spare and Vauxhall station is only three minutes away, so I thought I would get
in the mood by taking a bus. Not a good idea. The traffic was so horrendous that
I arrived with only 15 minutes to spare.
The trial bus was a new BYD electric operated by Arriva and was of a type we don’t see
in Bexley. Some things were definitely different. A much bigger area for wheel
chair users but the ironmongery around it would make getting to the front to pay quite impossible.
Like all new buses there was no central seat at the back because passengers are
too often catapulted from it to the front during emergency stops.
The TfL guy on board said that wheelchair users who do not have a free travel
card are so few that they can be disregarded and they are not expected to go forward to pay.
Only the smallest of baby buggies would be able to get to the front either
which rather conflicted with the announcement about not leaving a buggy unattended.
The bus was ‘Not in Service’ but followed Route Number 2 towards Norwood. We were
each given a random bus stop name and told we were to fend for ourselves and
ring the bell when appropriate. Not as easy as it sounds on an unfamiliar route
and I think most of us opened a phone App to get an idea of how far we were from
our destination. The alternative would be watching the display board like a
hawk. When appropriate we went through the standard routine of bell ringing, door
opening and walking to the front to get on again.
We turned around a mile of so south of Brixton.
I think the whole object of the exercise was to find a happy medium between
providing a lot of information and making too much noise and driving passengers
and driver alike around the bend. The danger then is that people mentally switch
off. Not good if you are the driver!
The whole gamut of spoken announcements was used; changing driver, regulating
the service interval, closed bus stops and early termination. Plus hold on to
the grips when moving and the essential next stop name. There was a new
low frequency boing noise to announce that the driver had something to say. It confused us all
because no one knew its significance but I suppose we will get used to it if it becomes standard.
The journey was not very typical because on a regular service you will get
couples talking to each other, loudmouths on their mobile phone, mothers trying
to pacify crying babies, dogs yapping and children from a school making
one hell of a racket. On our test bus no one said a word so maybe the announcements
were more easily heard.
Opinions varied widely between those who are fed up with incessant
announcements and those lacking in confidence about where they are going. In
practice there is not much flexibility because most of the announcements are legally required.
My suggestion was to modify the bell software so that after the first bell press
illuminates the ‘Bus Stopping’ notice all further bell presses are suppressed
until the system resets after the following stop. The idea was taken away for
consideration so if it is adopted you know who to blame.
Further tests are being conducted on whether buses can be equipped with
emergency stop systems as found in new cars but in vehicles without seatbelts
that is not the easiest of things to safely implement.