Paul Corfield wrote:

The real issue is that New York's bus system is a fair bit simpler than
London's. I have used it and "studied" it from bus maps. Your use of
and familiarity with your grid street pattern must also assist in
comprehending the bus network. The use of "uptown", "midtown" and
"downtown" as commonly understood descriptions of areas of Manhatten is
also a further help. IIRC many services are described in this way as
they run N-S or E-W (Crosstown?) - this must also help people know which
way a bus is going. We really only have West End and City plus some
district names which are very familiar like "Victoria".

True. It seems like London is very much organized around specific
points of interest, while New York is organized around streets and
overall directions.

I know the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn are more involved in terms of
service provision but your overall number of regular NYCTA routes is
still relatively small. I know there are commuter express services as
well but I believe they are advertised separately.

I'm impressed with your knowledge of our bus system!

You tend to have only one route on many main corridors which assists
with map clarity hugely - in Central London that is pretty rare. We
often have 3 as a minimum and up to 10 or so on the very busiest
streets.

Especially in Manhattan, we often have more than one -- three isn't
terribly uncommon. But I don't think we ever have more than six, not
counting the express routes that, as you point out, are advertised
separately (so they don't clutter the main Manhattan map).

I will say that your spider maps are much easier to read and much more
useful than the maps we have posted at bus stops.

They are fine if there is a direct bus from the stop you are standing
at. They are hopeless if your journey requires interchange to another
service at some point. There is no sense of there being a network with
spider maps which I believe is counterproductive when you have a network
which is as dense as London's and where the move to shorter routes over
the last 4 decades means changing services is much more of a necessity.
There is little to guide people as to how to accomplish such journeys if
they are relatively unfamiliar with the bus network.

But the same goes for our bus stop maps. We don't have systemwide (or
borough) maps at the bus stops; we just have individual route maps.
Except that yours are easier to read. (Yours are also customized for
the bus stop, while ours cover the entire route.)

Each bus stop in the city has a four-sided Guide-a-Ride box. If only
one route stops there, one panel has the map, one panel has the
timetable, one panel covers general information, and one panel has a NO
STANDING sign. If two routes stop there, both maps and both timetables
are posted. If three routes stop there, typically only one timetable is
posted -- invariably /not/ the timetable for the least frequent route
(i.e., the one whose timetable would be most useful). If four routes
stop there, forget about timetables. I can't think of any single bus
stops shared by five or more routes (typically they'd have staggered
stops in such a situation).

And anything is better than what NJTransit provides:
http://www.njtransit.com/pdf/bus/T0001.pdf

Actually as a pocket guide I think that is not too bad. It should be in
24 hour clock format but at least it is an attempt to show every trip
with journey time. Oh how I wish we could have that in London - it is
only courtesy of a non TfL website that I have something approximating
to the real timetable for my local route. I consider that to be a huge
failing on the part of TfL - it's not as if we didn't used to have such
info. The half hearted local transport guides have been scrapped. Even
our quadrant bus maps are threatened which is another insane piece of
nonsense.

Sorry if I wasn't clear. The schedules themselves are fine (although
Americans, for some reason, seem to be allergic to the 24-hour clock, or
at least the schedule designers think we are). It's the route map that
I object to. Strenuously.

The guide also has an approximate geographic representation of the route
the bus takes, transfer points, services to transfer to and some fare /
zone information. It even tells you when there is a holiday schedule
operating. Try finding any of that in London in a leaflet!

Keep in mind that NJT does not publish an overall bus map. For most
routes, the "approximate geographic representation" is all there is.
And, in my experience, it's completely useless.

For instance, look at the map for the 319:
http://www.njtransit.com/pdf/bus/T0319.pdf

It certainly looks to me like there is a simple transfer between the
train and the bus in Atlantic City. Nope! The train station and the
bus station are several blocks apart, not signposted. Although the bus
passes closer to the train station, the only stop it makes in Atlantic
City is at the bus station itself.

I will say, most transit agencies in the U.S. do post detailed
timetables. If anything, New York City Transit is the exception; on
many of the more frequent routes, notations like "Then every 6-8 minutes
until" are common.

If you like highly detailed timetables, please send me an email.
--
David of Broadway
New York, NY, USA