Laurent Makowski wrote:
Hi,

first of all, sorry for my bad English.
I've been living in London for 2 years, and I'm still really surprised
sometimes by bus drivers.

They don't stop, they look at you as annoying people, driving like crazy
guy, not polite at all... I don't say they're all like that, but I've
often had bad experiences by taking the bus.

This weekend for example, he didn't want to sell us tickets maybe, and
talked to us in a rude way like if he was getting nervous.
He looked at us straight in the eyes, all the journey, and when we get
off the bus he gave us the finger...

Strange attitude isn't it ?

Three quick points to make.

(1) Bus drivers are not permitted to sell passengers tickets in the pay
before you board' area in the West End. This is denoted by the bus stop
displaying 'Pay before you board' and all the route numbers in yellow,
and you buy your tickets from the roadside machine. This is in my
opinion a good idea, but I've seen it cause arguments with bus drivers
- I don't know if that might have been the reason for him not selling
you tickets. Also, when boarding a bendy bus anywhere on it's route you
must have a ticket before you board.

(2) Driving buses in London must be hard work, and I'm willing to allow
for a bit of an aggressive driving style. Otherwise the bus might not
ever get anywhere!

(3) If the bus doesn't stop for you, perhaps you're at a request stop
and you haven't requested the bus to stop, or perhaps the bus is full.
I've seen people get very annoyed for both these reasons, when they
shouldn't.


That said, I've seen a fair bit of bad bus driving and bad attitude of
the drivers, including buses not stopping at stops (often when there's
another bus at that stop already, so the driver just races past), very
heavy braking rather than smooth braking (understandable if it avoids
an accident, but often it just causes the bus passengers to fall
about), and a somewhat moody manner of some drivers (despite the fact I
always smile on boarding the bus).

Perhaps the reason is that London buses, unlike their provincial
counterparts, have seperate exit doors which means passengers never get
to say 'thank you' on leaving the bus, as they do elsewhere. Perhaps
not.