Richard J.:
I was amused to note last month that buses in Paris ...
have a long horizontal board slotted into brackets on the
left side of the bus ...

Doh! I meant to say the right side of the bus (in Paris).

Good thing they keep the boards in the same city as the buses. :-)
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "Mark is probably right about something,
| but I forget what" -- Rayan Zachariassen

On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 14:53:47 +0000, Ian Jelf
wrote:

I also find electronic displays, even the newer, better ones, *much*
less easy to read than traditional ones. I also dislike the
"scrolling" effect (quite widely used in the West Midlands) as if you're
looking at a moving vehicle and have only a short time to read its
display it might be showing the less helpful bit of information for your
point of view (ie the destination).

Leeds maintains the ridiculous conceit of defining certain key routes
as branching "lines" by colour, but this means you can have a bus
trundling towards you showing "PURPLE LINE" until it's almost at the
stop, when it scrolls to show what number it is!
--
Nick Cooper

[Carefully remove the detonators from my e-mail address to reply!]

The London Underground at War, and in Films & TV:
http://www.nickcooper.org.uk/

In article , (Nick Cooper) wrote:

On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 14:53:47 +0000, Ian Jelf
wrote:

I also find electronic displays, even the newer, better ones, *much*
less easy to read than traditional ones. I also dislike the
"scrolling" effect (quite widely used in the West Midlands) as if
you're looking at a moving vehicle and have only a short time to
read its display it might be showing the less helpful bit of
information for your point of view (ie the destination).

Leeds maintains the ridiculous conceit of defining certain key routes
as branching "lines" by colour, but this means you can have a bus
trundling towards you showing "PURPLE LINE" until it's almost at the
stop, when it scrolls to show what number it is!

Is that a Yorkshire habit? York's buses are all colours and few actual destinations.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Nick Cooper wrote:

Leeds maintains the ridiculous conceit of defining certain key routes
as branching "lines" by colour, but this means you can have a bus
trundling towards you showing "PURPLE LINE" until it's almost at the
stop, when it scrolls to show what number it is!

Which is rather silly, and is just an example of how not to use
electronic displays, not a reason not to use them at all!

AFAIAC, the most sensible and useful way to use these displays is to
have a full-height number on the left, and a two-line display on the
right, with the destination on the top (in bold if it will fit) and up
to 2 different sets of via points (no more) alternating approximately
every 5-7 seconds on the bottom.

Neil