I'm not surprised bus drivers occasionally get irate.

[GrahamG]

I'm still in plaster (less than three weeks to go now!), and hobbling up the road on my crutches to get the bus to work.

The drivers vary here in Bristol between pleasant and maniacal - they must all be under a great deal of pressure as some have really stinking attitudes which you get the impression comes from being under stress. However they could be sooo much worse. I've been amazed at the amount of numpties going up the inside of the bus both when stationary and when it's moving.

However, the most unbelievable thing to me is the amount of time the drivers have to spend just picking up passengers! Why? They have to give change and the majority of people pay cash fares rather than have passes. On my three mile journey home in rush hour, the bus spends more time at bus stops than it does in genuine traffic. Crazy.

If they would make fares simpler, stop giving change so that cash collection can just drop into a huge box (like in the west mids), and then make their passes cheaper so that a return ticket five days a week isn't cheaper than buying a bloody pass!

First bus had a new chief exec about 6 months ago - he's got his work cut out.

 

[Johnny Thin]

I don't think they really get 'irate' though, they're just plebs so they rather get 'narked' or 'cheesed off', only posh people get 'irate'.

Surely it should only be the longer routes that give change, someone can be reasonably expected to provide £1.20 in exact change but not £4.70.

 

[summerdays]

Years ago they used to have a pre-payment card ... stuck it in the machine and it deducted the fare... (and you got 10% extra free £11 fare for £10), it used to be brilliant... no more having to get the right change... you could buy one on the bus .... it was a big step backwards when they got rid of that ... mind you £10 wouldn't go very far on Bristol buses now... that wouldn't even get me to the centre 3 times now... whereas it was 60p when I first used to do that journey.

I never understood why if companys gave employees free parking at work .. why they couldn't buy the others a bus pass...

 

[goo_mason]

LRT in Edinburgh uses an 'exact fare' system to speed up paying to get on a bus. They also sell books of single-journey tickets, as well as having smart-card bus passes (weekly, monthly and annual). Recently, they've installed on-street ticket machines (running at 10p cheaper than paying on the bus for a single fare) so you can get one before you get on.

Yet still you have people who will stand and wait for 15 - 20 minutes at a bus stop, then get on the bus and spend 3 or 4 minutes fishing about in bags / pockets / wallets and purses to try to find their money to pay their fare.

Why can't these people use their common sense to spend their waiting time getting their fare ready so they can simply drop it in the hopper as soon as they get on the bus ?

 

[hackbike 6]

I used a bus yesterday which is so rare for me...the next time I use a bus will be when I go away again (hopefully) so I didnt even know the fare and little did I really care on the way outward...It seems to be £2 minimum.

While I have had a go at bus drivers in the past I know I shouldn't have really as most are ok and it's a job I have never particularly wanted to do myself.I think it's the same with us as with them..If you have had a bad day week or whatever it makes you less tolerant to the crap out there.

 

[mr_cellophane]

Yet still you have people who will stand and wait for 15 - 20 minutes at a bus stop, then get on the bus and spend 3 or 4 minutes fishing about in bags / pockets / wallets and purses to try to find their money to pay their fare.

Why can't these people use their common sense to spend their waiting time getting their fare ready so they can simply drop it in the hopper as soon as they get on the bus ?

Probably the same people who bag all there stuff up in supermarkets and then don't look for their purses until the cashier has finished. Why can't they get their CCs out while they queue.


You should move to London and get an Oyster. Hardly anyone uses cash down here.

 

[hackbike 6]

I didnt find it easy yesterday using a bus and tube with a two ton suitcase and a rucksack and then finding my change of which I had already prepared for.People dont really tend to get out of the way or use their brains when you are lugging this crap around the London Transport System and so tend to get in the way or dont think of giving up their space near the doors on the tube which means im in everyone elses way as there isn't a lot of space.Still it was only the Circle Line which was the nightmare and the Victoria line was like a breath of fresh air for once.Oh yeah the bus on the last bit was a bundle of laughs.Remember I had been traveling since since 10pm our time and got home at 6pm.

Bus driver on the 97...thanks for looking out for me...Cheers.

Heathrow Express was good as well.

 

[Maz]

I used to live in brum and hated the 'exact change' machines on the buses. I try to always have the exact fare, but much prefer being able to get change from the driver when need be.

Speaking of exact change, I was on a bus in Dublin and tendered the exact FARE (5.20 Euro), but he would only accept the exact CHANGE, so I had to ask passengers on the bus to change the 5Euro note to coins to pay the driver!

 

[Trillian]

i've used a bus in the west midlands three times in seven years because of the exact change system,

when cash machines start giving out pound coins then there might be a difference!

 

[domd1979]

Giving change where buses aren't carrying massive loads is fine, but in bigger urban areas or on routes with high passenger flows, it really starts to slow things down. The exact change system that Travel West Midlands operate in Brum, whilst a pain at times, undoubtedly makes a fantastic difference to boarding times. You only have to look at the speed a bus-load of passengers board a TWM bus compared to a bus operated by one of the change-giving companies like Arriva.

Ultimately what's needed is a big investment in smart cards, preferably on a national basis so once you have a smart card it works anywhere. I suppose it would be much like an electronic version of the Dutch strippenkaart.

 

[Freewheeler]

the Dutch strippenkaart.

They have mobile strip clubs over there now??!?

 

[Amanda P]

I wonder whether different cultures exist in different bus companies? (Perhaps Nethalus or someone like that will answer that).

I mention this because the rural bus route that I occasionally use to get to and from work regularly changes hands from one operator to another.

The last company to run it was awful. I only use it once or twice a year (I normally cycle, of course, and it only runs at inconvenient times), so I don't know what the fare will be. Last time under that operator, I got on, told the driver where I wanted to go, and he asked me the fare. I didn't know - I told him I thought it was either £1.70 or £1.90 about a year before. With much dramatic eye-rolling and teeth-sucking, he got out his fare table and looked it up. Then spent the rest of the journey making snide comments at my expense to the next passengers he picked up - he'd have been on time if all his passengers had known what they were doing.

Trouble is, my old mum got the same treatment when she came up to visit. She not only didn't know the fare - why should she? It's not published anywhere! - she wasn't sure which was the best stop to get off at. She made the mistake of asking and he spent the rest of the journey being "funny", i.e. rude, about her. She was really upset by it.

I don't think I've ever made a bus journey with that company without the driver being at least surly, and sometimes downright rude.

In contrast, a few years back, that route was done by Yorkshire Coastliner. Their drivers are unfailingly polite and helpful (courteous to cyclists on the road as a rule, too). When a friend of Mrs Uncle Phil used it to come and stay with us, she asked the driver where she should get off, and he wasn't sure. So he used his own mobile phone to call us and ask us, then got off the bus with her to walk her to our front gate (this was in a pitch-dark, rainy village in December).

I just wonder whether having a break-room full of moaning, bitching, stressy drivers engenders an atmosphere of moaning and customer-hating. If they're all cheerful and relaxed, maybe that rubs off too...

 

[nethalus]

I don't think they really get 'irate' though, they're just plebs so they rather get 'narked' or 'cheesed off', only posh people get 'irate'.

Surely it should only be the longer routes that give change, someone can be reasonably expected to provide £1.20 in exact change but not £4.70.

Oi I'm not a pleb thank you very much!

 

[Joe]

I imagine not being let out slows down and annoys bus drivers a lot. I nearly always let them out and usually get the customary thumbs up out of the window. It doesn't slow me down much and hopefuly ensures I get a bit more room/respect off them. What annoys me is when I stop to let them out and a stream of cars carries on around the outside. Meaning I get held up for doing the right thing, and the bus gets delayed further.

 

[Keith Oates]

If I was driving a bus around all day with the selfish attitude of a lot of car and other road users I would also get bad tempered at times!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!