On Sun, 16 Nov 2008 10:45:26 GMT, Neil Williams wrote:

Announcements like "This train is ready to depart, stand clear of the
doors, mind the doors, mind the doors" are pointless and irritating,

Yes, very pointless. Particulary since the spiel is so long that
anyone with more than a couple of days' rush hour experience knows
that "This train is now ready to depart, stand clear of the doors..."
really means "There is plenty of time until the doors close, continue
boarding."

On Nov 16, 2:02*pm, asdf wrote:
On Sun, 16 Nov 2008 10:45:26 GMT, Neil Williams wrote:
Announcements like "This train is ready to depart, stand clear of the
doors, mind the doors, mind the doors" are pointless and irritating,

Yes, very pointless. Particulary since the spiel is so long that
anyone with more than a couple of days' rush hour experience knows
that "This train is now ready to depart, stand clear of the doors..."
really means "There is plenty of time until the doors close, continue
boarding."

Particularly when it starts happening while people are still queuing
to get off and the people on the platform are politely standing back.

I've noticed that on the Central Line, the doors generally don't close
at this point, while on the Northern Line they do, leaving people on
the platform (both based on experience at Bank), so the interpretation
may depend on the circumstances.

I wonder if there is a different regime for penalising drivers on the
Northern from on the Central with its ATO?

Edward Cowling London UK wrote:

Plus of course so many councils seem to have put speed bumps on bus
routes. Now that really does help my back !!

The emergency-vehicles-only slip from Westbourne Terrace Rd to Westbourne
Terrace has a speed bump on it... I presume it's only used by ambulances
without patients, but still...

On Sun, 16 Nov 2008 06:19:01 -0800 (PST), MIG wrote:

Announcements like "This train is ready to depart, stand clear of the
doors, mind the doors, mind the doors" are pointless and irritating,

Yes, very pointless. Particulary since the spiel is so long that
anyone with more than a couple of days' rush hour experience knows
that "This train is now ready to depart, stand clear of the doors..."
really means "There is plenty of time until the doors close, continue
boarding."

Particularly when it starts happening while people are still queuing
to get off and the people on the platform are politely standing back.

I've noticed that on the Central Line, the doors generally don't close
at this point, while on the Northern Line they do, leaving people on
the platform (both based on experience at Bank), so the interpretation
may depend on the circumstances.

I've had similar experiences at Waterloo on the eastbound Jubilee in
the a.m. peak. The doors close as soon as everyone has finished
getting off, meaning you only get a chance to board if few enough
people get off from the door you're waiting at. However, people don't
tend to stand back to allow people off the train (possibly because
they can't due to the density of the crowd around each platform edge
door) - the first person off has to practically push and shove their
way through the crowd, opening up a narrow route for the rest to
squeeze through.

The result is that each train departs with a fair share of fresh air
on board. Meanwhile, upstairs in the Jubilee ticket hall, the ticket
gates are closed and the entrance from the NR concourse is shut,
because the platform is overcrowded...

wrote ...
I have noticed on several occasions that drivers seem to slam the brakes
way too hard, particularly on double deckers as people are coming down the
stairs.

I doubt the two are connected.

There are (of course), some bad drivers, but most of the excessive breaking
is due to other road users not seeing a large moving object. Cyclists and
pedestrians do their share, but I never fail to be amazed at the sheer bad
manners of car drivers coming out of side roads - or changing lanes -
knowing that the bus driver has good brakes - and has to use them.

I either read a book on a bus - or sit at the front upstairs and pretend to
be a tourist; I see idiots in front of the bus on a daily basis.
--

Andrew

"She plays the tuba.
It is the only instrument capable
of imitating a distress call."

On Nov 16, 3:41*pm, asdf wrote:
On Sun, 16 Nov 2008 06:19:01 -0800 (PST), MIG wrote:
Announcements like "This train is ready to depart, stand clear of the
doors, mind the doors, mind the doors" are pointless and irritating,

Yes, very pointless. Particulary since the spiel is so long that
anyone with more than a couple of days' rush hour experience knows
that "This train is now ready to depart, stand clear of the doors..."
really means "There is plenty of time until the doors close, continue
boarding."

Particularly when it starts happening while people are still queuing
to get off and the people on the platform are politely standing back.

I've noticed that on the Central Line, the doors generally don't close
at this point, while on the Northern Line they do, leaving people on
the platform (both based on experience at Bank), so the interpretation
may depend on the circumstances.

I've had similar experiences at Waterloo on the eastbound Jubilee in
the a.m. peak. The doors close as soon as everyone has finished
getting off, meaning you only get a chance to board if few enough
people get off from the door you're waiting at. However, people don't
tend to stand back to allow people off the train (possibly because
they can't due to the density of the crowd around each platform edge
door) - the first person off has to practically push and shove their
way through the crowd, opening up a narrow route for the rest to
squeeze through.

The result is that each train departs with a fair share of fresh air
on board. Meanwhile, upstairs in the Jubilee ticket hall, the ticket
gates are closed and the entrance from the NR concourse is shut,
because the platform is overcrowded...-

But the empty trains probably run on time, so that's good performance
and reliability.

On Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 01:58:03PM +0000, Richard wrote:

German announcements are more verbose, yes. But I still say stick
with just the stop name, for me extra words don't add anything.

They add "hey, listen up, there's some important words coming along in a
sec". That why I prefer "the next train to Brighton will leave from
platform 94 at 12:34 ..." to "platform 94 for the 12:34 to Brighton
...." - because by the time I've heard the magic word "Brighton" and
realised that maybe I should be listening, the important information has
been and gone with the latter.

--
David Cantrell | Reality Engineer, Ministry of Information

You don't need to spam good porn

On Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 03:42:07PM +0000, James Farrar wrote:
On Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:19:17 +0000, David Cantrell
wrote:
The number of residents it would **** off would far outnumber the number
of blind people in the entire country, never mind the fraction of them
who would use the bus. In this case, I'm inclined to say "**** the
blind".
Sadly, the DDA gets in the way of that attitude.

I'm rather deaf (a disability), and deafness is exacerbated by background
noise - it makes it much harder to pick useful noises (like the person
sitting next to you trying to have a conversation) out of the background
noise. Given all the Yoof who seem to delight in blowing their ears
apart with doof-doof "music", I'm sure we could make a case that more
poor victimised disabled people would be disadvantaged than advantaged.

--
David Cantrell | Godless Liberal Elitist

Fashion label: n: a liferaft for personalities
which lack intrinsic buoyancy

On 16 Nov, 15:42, "Andrew Heenan" wrote:
I either read a book on a bus

Can't do that for more than 5 minutes

- or sit at the front upstairs and pretend to
be a tourist; I see idiots in front of the bus on a daily basis.

I see idiot bus drivers every day -- the ones that go to full throttle
to edge past a cyclist before slamming the brakes on to the stop,
often cutting the cyclist up in the process. Their lack of driving
skills, coupled with the dangerous size of their vehicles, by far
outweighs the next-worst class of road users (taxis)

On 16 Nov, 13:56, (Neil Williams)
wrote:

On Sun, 16 Nov 2008 12:38:49 -0000, wrote:
I have noticed on several occasions that drivers seem to slam the brakes way
too hard, particularly on double deckers as people are coming down the
stairs.

The classic London binary throttle - only two settings, those being
full acceleration and emergency braking.

It is understandable, though, given the atrocious state of bus
infrastructure in Central London.


Would you care to expand on that point Neil?