I've noticed by the "bay" of 4 seats near the front of the bus on
Mercedes Articulated buses there is a button which reminds me of the
door open buttons on mainline trains. They only seem to light up when
the bell has been pressed.

Does anyone know what they do?

On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:06:26 GMT, Mojo
wrote:

I've noticed by the "bay" of 4 seats near the front of the bus on
Mercedes Articulated buses there is a button which reminds me of the
door open buttons on mainline trains. They only seem to light up when
the bell has been pressed.

Does anyone know what they do?

Aren't they simply a bell push? This saves people having to stand up or
stretch to a push mounted on a vertical stanchion. I'm guessing but I
assume they illuminate to show that the bell has been pushed elsewhere
and there's no need to bother. One of the nicer design features on the
Citaros and better than the location of bell pushes on a number of UK
manufactured buses. The location of bell pushes should be one of those
things that is standardised on every bus [1] and yet bizarrely TfL seem
to leave to the bus companies to decide.

[1] try sitting on certain seats at the back of the lower deck on a
double decker and then finding a bell push!

--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 21:19:14 +0100, Paul Corfield
wrote:

[1] try sitting on certain seats at the back of the lower deck on a
double decker and then finding a bell push!

There should at the very minimum be one on every pole and probably
more, preferably such that one can be reached from every seat without
standing, especially on the upper deck on rough roads! They're a
ridiculously cheap thing to skimp on.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

On Jul 16, 9:19 pm, Paul Corfield wrote:
On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:06:26 GMT, Mojo
wrote:

I've noticed by the "bay" of 4 seats near the front of the bus on
Mercedes Articulated buses there is a button which reminds me of the
door open buttons on mainline trains. They only seem to light up when
the bell has been pressed.

Does anyone know what they do?

Aren't they simply a bell push? This saves people having to stand up or
stretch to a push mounted on a vertical stanchion. I'm guessing but I
assume they illuminate to show that the bell has been pushed elsewhere
and there's no need to bother. One of the nicer design features on the
Citaros and better than the location of bell pushes on a number of UK
manufactured buses. The location of bell pushes should be one of those
things that is standardised on every bus [1] and yet bizarrely TfL seem
to leave to the bus companies to decide.

[1] try sitting on certain seats at the back of the lower deck on a
double decker and then finding a bell push!

--
Paul C

Admits to working for London Underground!



On the top deck of double deckers there used to only be one bell push,
at the top of the stairs.

I assumed that this was to stop people finding one by their seat and
being tempted to stay there, ie force them to already be on their way
out rather than delay the bus at the stop.

Maybe the different accessibility of upstairs is the reason for the
different approach, but there are often extra buttons upstairs now.

On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 13:35:01 -0700, MIG
wrote:

On the top deck of double deckers there used to only be one bell push,
at the top of the stairs.

Some buses used to have a strip on each side reachable from every
seat. In that regard we've gone backwards...

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

"MIG" wrote:

On the top deck of double deckers there used to only be one bell push,
at the top of the stairs.

I assumed that this was to stop people finding one by their seat and
being tempted to stay there, ie force them to already be on their way
out rather than delay the bus at the stop.

In RM days, this was often inconvenient for conductors, stuck issuing
tickets at the front of the top deck. They sometimes resorted to two loud
taps, with metal clippers, on a suitable surface above the driver, as an
improvised 'ding ding'.

How much of a view they had of the platform from that position is a matter
of conjecture........

Chris

On Jul 16, 10:27 pm, "Chris Read" wrote:
"MIG" wrote:
On the top deck of double deckers there used to only be one bell push,
at the top of the stairs.

I assumed that this was to stop people finding one by their seat and
being tempted to stay there, ie force them to already be on their way
out rather than delay the bus at the stop.

In RM days, this was often inconvenient for conductors, stuck issuing
tickets at the front of the top deck. They sometimes resorted to two loud
taps, with metal clippers, on a suitable surface above the driver, as an
improvised 'ding ding'.

How much of a view they had of the platform from that position is a matter
of conjecture........

Chris


Yes, I remember a female conductor doing something with her heels that
I thought was some kind of Spanish dance step, till I realised what
was going on.

On Jul 16, 9:41 pm, (Neil Williams)
wrote:
On Mon, 16 Jul 2007 13:35:01 -0700, MIG
wrote:

On the top deck of double deckers there used to only be one bell push,
at the top of the stairs.

Some buses used to have a strip on each side reachable from every
seat. In that regard we've gone backwards...

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

I have seen those, but I don't remember seeing one on an upstairs.

"Chris Read" wrote in message
...

"MIG" wrote:

On the top deck of double deckers there used to only be one bell push,
at the top of the stairs.

I assumed that this was to stop people finding one by their seat and
being tempted to stay there, ie force them to already be on their way
out rather than delay the bus at the stop.

In RM days, this was often inconvenient for conductors, stuck issuing
tickets at the front of the top deck. They sometimes resorted to two loud
taps, with metal clippers, on a suitable surface above the driver, as an
improvised 'ding ding'.

How much of a view they had of the platform from that position is a matter
of conjecture........

Chris



Well in RT days if the conductor was upstairs at the front, he would just
stamp twice on the floor. That seemed to do the trick.

MaxB

M.I.G.:
On the top deck of double deckers there used to only be one bell push,
at the top of the stairs.

Neil Williams:
Some buses used to have a strip on each side reachable from every
seat. In that regard we've gone backwards...

In most North American city buses that I've used, there's been a cord
running the length of the bus on each side, typically through metal
loops at (or below) the upper corners of the main windows. So only two
electrical switches at the front of the bus are required. Depending on
the layout around the back doors, there may be a separate cord behind
the doors on that side, requiring just one more switch.

It seems a very good method to me: cheap, simple, and effective.
The only downside is that passengers seated by the aisle have to lean
across one person to reach the cord. (And if there is a section where
the cord can't be reached easily for some reason, pushbuttons can still
be provided there. Or short sections of vertical cord anchored at the
bottom can be attached to the horizontal cord.) In Toronto these days
the cord is plastic-covered metal for durability; at one time it was an
ordinary cord.

Is this method used in Britain to any extent?

In both of these shots -- one a Toronto bus previously used in Montreal,
the other from Livermore, California -- you can clearly see the cord on
the right-hand side of the image, in front of the bars between the main
and upper windows:

http://transit.toronto.on.ca/images/bus-8502-03.jpg
http://www.lavta.org/about/img/avlpic14.jpg
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "We don't use clubs; they weren't invented here.
| We use rocks." -- David Keldsen

My text in this article is in the public domain.