Bloody tourists! I did some a favour this afternoon when it was clear
they'd got a bit lost. How did they thank me? By asking a simple
question about London buses that I couldn't even begin to answer: why is
it that where (as often) there are bus stops on the same road, serving
the same route(s), more or less opposite one another, they (a) sometimes
have the same name but (b) sometimes have totally different names.

I thought at first I might bluff it with references to stops named after
different roads on different sides of the route but that just seemed to
beg the follow-up "why in some places but not others?" Ditto for places
of interest on different sides of the road.

My searches have drawn a blank.

Are there rules or conventions on this please?

--
Robin
reply to address is (meant to be) valid

On Tuesday, 19 January 2016 15:21:19 UTC, Robin wrote:
Bloody tourists! I did some a favour this afternoon when it was clear
they'd got a bit lost. How did they thank me? By asking a simple
question about London buses that I couldn't even begin to answer: why is
it that where (as often) there are bus stops on the same road, serving
the same route(s), more or less opposite one another, they (a) sometimes
have the same name but (b) sometimes have totally different names.

I thought at first I might bluff it with references to stops named after
different roads on different sides of the route but that just seemed to
beg the follow-up "why in some places but not others?" Ditto for places
of interest on different sides of the road.

My searches have drawn a blank.

Are there rules or conventions on this please?

--
Robin
reply to address is (meant to be) valid

No definite answer but I can think of cases where a stop has been relocated to a point where the nearest stop opposite is actually the previous stop in that direction.

Just to confuse matters I have also seen the name used as a timing point or fare stage in London Transport days applied to a different stop on the route.

On 2016\01\21 00:22, Paul Corfield wrote:

In very rare cases long standing "popular names" for a stop are
retained but they are pretty rare. No stops called "Crooked Billet"
in E17 at a certain junction with the A406 any more even though it
remains a turning point on several routes (34, 97, W11) and is shown
on blinds!

Is that very recent?
http://content.tfl.gov.uk/bus-route-...-a4-310813.pdf
,
http://content.tfl.gov.uk/bus-route-...-town-hall.pdf
and
http://content.tfl.gov.uk/bus-route-...horse-road.pdf
suggest otherwise, as do

and
.

In article ,
(Paul Corfield) wrote:

On Tue, 19 Jan 2016 15:21:37 -0000, "Robin" wrote:

Bloody tourists! I did some a favour this afternoon when it was clear
they'd got a bit lost. How did they thank me? By asking a simple
question about London buses that I couldn't even begin to answer: why is
it that where (as often) there are bus stops on the same road, serving
the same route(s), more or less opposite one another, they (a) sometimes
have the same name but (b) sometimes have totally different names.

I thought at first I might bluff it with references to stops named after
different roads on different sides of the route but that just seemed to
beg the follow-up "why in some places but not others?" Ditto for places
of interest on different sides of the road.

My searches have drawn a blank.

Are there rules or conventions on this please?

I've never seen a formal explanation as to how TfL name stops. You are
quite correct that the main criteria is to name after the closest
adjacent side road. It varies as to whether stops on each side of the
road will have the same name or will be named after different roads.
In other instances TfL uses the name of a nearby station as the full
name or as a qualifier / add on to the main name. In other cases the
name will be feature a local amenity or attraction - my nearest stops
are so named. However in one case TfL near Ilford TfL changed a stop
name from the nearby park and amenity to just the side road. To this
day I've never understood why they did it.

In very rare cases long standing "popular names" for a stop are
retained but they are pretty rare. No stops called "Crooked Billet"
in E17 at a certain junction with the A406 any more even though it
remains a turning point on several routes (34, 97, W11) and is shown
on blinds!

The "Green Man" still exists in Putney though. I've not kept up with how
many routes turn there these days but there are stops for through buses too.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Paul Corfield wrote:
snip

Thanks for that. I now don't feel quite so guilty if they walked away
thinking "yet another thing we'll have to sort out when we own the rest
of this country".
--
Robin
reply to address is (meant to be) valid