leaf wrote:"Buses are difficult to take off with a jerk since they are deliberately made to take off smoothly through the gears and as for braking sharply maybe this was necessary to avoid an accident"
It would be nice if the driver could wait 30 seconds until you are seated with your baby and pram etc,same goes for the old people you see flung down the aisle as drivers pull away..........
Any sensible driver would wait while the elderly are seated unless of course they walk straight past vacant seats..... common sense really, as for mothers with babies I'm sure folding a pram/buggy takes longer than 30 secs, so to expect a driver to wait whilst the pram is folded is expecting the bus to run late, a bus running late means unhappy passengers waiting at bus stops, can't win really!
I think you'll find with all walks of life there are polite people and there are rude people, no matter who that person is or what their profession is. If you need the bus to wait whilst you get seated be polite and ask the driver if he can hang on whilst you get seated, don't assume the driver will wait and that way you won't get disappointed, I'm sure he would be happy to wait if you have a valid reason.
I have met some lovely bus drivers who are polite and helpful......however,there are some who are simply A-holes,im sure the nice friendly ones are subject to the same levels of abuse as the horrible ones,just maybe they dont take it out on the people that are just trying to get from a-b on their bus.
It is common sense to allow someone with their arms full of baby/pram/shopping to be seated before you pull away isnt it?
When my children were in prams i avoided buses as much as i could,i walked most places,buses are not baby friendly in the main.
When my child was in a pushchair, I hated buses as the drivers refused to take on more than 1 pushchair even if they had space and I was left in the rain by bus after bus. I'm glad to hear they have started to take on more buggies. It's really not that difficult for an adult with no disabilities to move around them, stop whining unnecessarily. Have a baby and you'll see how welcome you are on public transport.
My mum sprained her wrist on a bus when driver took off suddenly and bus was jerky.
I can't remember the last bus I took which slowed down and stopped and then set off again smoothly. Have you ever taken the night bus back from town? I think you need travel insurance to use it!!!
Is there really a limit as to how many buggies can be on a bus?
I know they can be an inconvenience but so can so many things on the buses. The point is they are public transport for the public to use. I don't see the harm in asking buggies to be folded and stored where possible although as most buses have done away with storage places it is probably why buggies stay open and occupied!
KCS wrote:
Buses are difficult to take off with a jerk since they are deliberately made to take off smoothly through the gears and as for braking sharply maybe this was necessary to avoid an accident.
This was the case with the routemasters, but not the new buses whose brakes 'grab' a lot (they are air brakes and this seems to be common). You do get thrown around a lot on these buses (especially the bendy ones) and the drivers are not what they once were. I saw a bus driver smoking a spliff in New Cross Gate once...while he was driving!
The problem isn't air brakes. Air brakes have been used on heavy vehicles (almost without exception) for the past 30 years.
The problem is driving style,.....or the lack of it.