Bendy Buses: Classic or Dud?

If we've got 'em over here now (where does the 207 route run? It's all 1xx and 3xx up my way I think) I have no reason to go to Germany again. Ever! Hurrah! (Unless I can find an excuse to start a war and go and kick some Bosch butt!)

in iowa city, they have a BIONIC BUS (it sez so on the front). it looks kinda like the car homer designs.

Cause they brought the goddamn horrible ugly inconvenient awful bendy busses back... ON MY ROUTE!!!

I changed from the 205 to the 18 because it was more regular and more reliable. But now they've replaced the beautiful, nice, convenient double deckers with bendy busses! And seemingly now they run half as frequently!

They're a nuisance - I mean, they take up twice as much room as a standard bus, yet they don't carry twice as many people. This morning, the bendy bus I was on stopped ALL THE TRAFFIC ON EUSTON ROAD because it was splayed diagonally across 3 lanes while letting on people.

They're dangerous because the bus driver can't see the rear doors to ascertain whether people are still getting off, and I nearly had my nose taken off.

BENDY BUSSES FUCKING SUCK AND I HATE THEM!!!

WHAT A DAY TO INTRODUCE A CRAP NEW BUS SERVICE THAT DOESN'T WORK PROPERLY!!! Did I mention the driver had no idea how to drive his bendy bus and kept getting stuck going round corners?

(PLus, I can't sulk on the upper level when I am feeling moody.)

Last night I waited 50 mins at tottenham high road, for a bloody 123. I phoned up the transport info line, and the bloke was telling me to write a nasty letter, he said they were always getting people ringing up about it. So why doesn't anything change then?!!!!

grrrr

AND THEY MOVED THE 205 STOP SO I CAN'T EVEN GO BACK TO TAKING THAT BUS WITHOUT WALKING FURTHER.

I completely understand why they are a stupid idea in London though.

< /inner Rik >

i used to pretend i couldn't speak english. my then-flatmate used to bat her eyelashes and/or cry. both worked all times we got caught! (i usually pay now.)

Fare dodged on the 12 a few weeks ago. Although I was caught, because I was on crutches and had a very obvious injury (and the inspector was presumably afraid of turfing me off the bus, only for to stack it and sue tfl) he reluctantly tapped my oyster for me. A small victory but a proud one.

if you fare dodge but have a valid PAYG is there anything to stop you just standing next to the oyster reader the whole time on the bus and then only tap it when you see inspectors are about to get on?

cos it's pretty easy to see usually when inspectors are about to get on, them being accompanied by 25 community support officers.

The one time I was caught the Oyster readers had been malfunctioning while we were parked at Victoria; I then sat down and fell asleep as far as Piccadilly. I had £1.20 on my card too. I had so many possible excuses I was stuck for which one to pick (the cancellation of 07:53 London Bridge, forcing me to travel to Victoria, was the weakest option).

No fine but the scare obviously worked on a feeble suburbanite like me. I even let buses go on Shaftesbury Ave now if I know I've got under a quid on my card, and keep walking to Charing X. When I do catch it, I even pay as soon as I get on which I vowed never to do again on a southbound 38, cos they're notorious for terminating early.

The Bendy free rides are our generation's hanging-off-the-back-of-a-Routemaster

I think I only once didn't pay (or twice?) when I wasn't able to go to the front of the bus to pay for a ticket. I had the buggy with me and I wasn't ready to let Ophelia topple over or something.

Bendy bus? Uh, great cause who the fuck likes to be with a gazillion others in a reg bus.

if you fare dodge but have a valid PAYG is there anything to stop you just standing next to the oyster reader the whole time on the bus and then only tap it when you see inspectors are about to get on?

well, indeed

most of the time in the rush hour it's nigh-impossible to reach the readers anyway, not that it matters b/c the bus is too crowded for any inspector check to be remotely possible

Bendy bus? Uh, great cause who the fuck likes to be with a gazillion others in a reg bus.

something about standing on a bendy is worse than standing on a double decker - probably just because more people can stand and surround you. conversely the increased sense of space when they're not packed was a plus.

they did random survey things when they first started the bendy buses - i took part and they asked like a couple of questions like this

Q: what do you like most about the bendy buses?
A: well I think it's great that there's a lot more standing room so more people can be on the bus.

Q: what do you like least about the bendy buses?
A: well I think it's rubbish that there's less seating room so more people have to stand.

I felt like Andy Gray that morning I think.

Tell you what I won't miss in Boris's Inflexible London - the smell of diesel fumes or engine oil or whatever the hell it was that you'd get in the seats closest to the bendy bit.

I'll miss the Teletubbies-esque braking sound of the bendies

Are they getting rid of all of these? I don't really mind them too much, depending on the route. Trying to cram Tokyo-style onto a 25 in Stepney or be late for work is some bullshit, but getting a 12 from East Dulwich is a piece of piss and I always get a seat

As noted, if it's bullshit crowded you basically get to not pay, if you're on prepay; the one time I ever got caught the reader had been turned off at New Cross for a few minutes so I got away with it

Always thought the braking sound was like the death cry of a tragic dog

double-deckers can get equally intolerably crowded if you don't have a seat, and at rush hour this applies to most people not near the start of the route. bendy buses, at least you're psychologically prepared for the sardine crush.

god i'm glad i don't commute any more.

other than the crush aspect i really didn't think bendy buses were any better or worse than double deckers.

yeah f'real, at least with a bendy bus you don't get some huddle of morons standing too near the front of the bus and inexplicably lining the stairs, obvlivious to the fact that there are 20 empty seats on the top deck

I'm fine with them replacing the 38 with bog standard double deckers (which probably should have replaced the Routemasters in the first place) but replacing the 521 with twice as many tiny single-deckers has pretty much ruined my life.

Also the view's much better from double-deckers innit.

xp Ah yes the top deck gamble. Are all the people standing downstairs morons who didn't check upstairs, or will I look like a moron for going to check when everyone else is standing?

Like when there's a queue for a bunch of cash machines, but one of them is free and doesn't look obviously broken.

Ah yes the top deck gamble. Are all the people standing downstairs morons who didn't check upstairs

Some of them are morons who thought "ah I'm only on for 4 stops anyway"/got on when the bus was full and couldn't be bothered to go upstairs when people got off/don't like going upstairs when the bus is moving. And sometimes I am one of them. Not usually in London though.

navigating the staircase on a moving bus is sometimes the highlight of my day.

xp Ah yes the top deck gamble. Are all the people standing downstairs morons who didn't check upstairs, or will I look like a moron for going to check when everyone else is standing?

still wish they'd vary the type of electronic voice - different voices for different routes maybe, or get random members of the public in to do it for cheap

they'd probably just have Z-list celebrities queueing up for that.

'this is BB6 conestant Lesley Ann Sanderson telling you there are seats available on the upper deck'

Pharoah Monch says "get the fuck upstairs"

they'd probably just have Z-list celebrities queueing up for that.

omg i'd actually really like this - atm it feels like the robot voice is constantly shouting rudely at you anyway (cutting through my headphones) so you may as well get some z-lister in for the laughs

(nb not peaches geldof)

Top three celebrity bus announcers - Levi Roots, Brian Blessed, Tim Westwood

would probably start paying for bendy buses if it was Westwood confirming that PECKHAM RYE: EAST DULWICH ROAD

Mr Versatile obviously

could go for some Arshavin as well

Arshavin driving the bus in his shark costume, not knowing the route at all.

I find the idea of Mr V going "TOTTENHAM SWAN" strangely hilarious.

responding to every question with either the "shhh" or the "I'unno" gestures

Arsh

Jose Mourinho "these people, they don't want to drive the bus, they just want to park it".

Ah yes the top deck gamble. Are all the people standing downstairs morons who didn't check upstairs, or will I look like a moron for going to check when everyone else is standing?

And then you think you will check upstairs, so stick your head above the parapet. Only you can't quite see over all the heads to tell if that seat at the back's empty or not and don't want to risk it only have to trudge back downstairs, your back melting under the glares of fifty schadenfreude-laden commuters.

Better to stay downstairs tbh.

people not wanting upstairs is great - once you make it up you just find a heaven of seats like you're in the first class lounge looking down on a bunch of peasants downstairs slugging it again - if there's no seats upstairs you just go back to the bottom of the stairs and stand there where there is also lots of room (and you can sit on the handrail) and when someone walks down you'll be first in line for the throne.

sometimes when i walk down the stairs and see a sea of idiots i do tell them "hey there's about 20 seats upstairs you know" and then nobody moves but i felt i'd done a good deed.

Always go upstairs. Even if there are no seats and you have to hover on the stairs for a bit, at least it means you're out of the crush/stampede when the bus nears its more popular destinations.

(so long as you're aggressive about grabbing the first seat upstairs that becomes available. But then again, I do live second stop from the end on the two major routes through my area, so I feel a slight sense of "I'm going FURTHER than you" entitlement over the people who get off at Brixton.)

Another reason to mourn the passing of the Bendy (or at least, the single-level, capacious bus of whatever description) - it's murder getting a 4-y-o and a 3-y-o up and down the stairs. When trying to get off, at best you miss your stop, at worst the bus lurches in such a way that one of them plunges down the steps. Either way, there's tears.

still it's great that we're spending loads of money to get rid of the buses with better capacity and access innit.

im so glad that i'm soon out of the 29 bus route. the bendy 29 is shit now, but god i remember it in the pre-bendy days.

The Bendy free rides are our generation's hanging-off-the-back-of-a-Routemaster
--Michael Jones

I used to enjoy doing this but there was this one time when I swinging off the back of the No 10 (when it used to go past the British Museum). I had quite a bad hangover and suddenly I got really dizzy, felt my knees buckling and nearly swayed off the bus in a swoon.

Fortunately I recovered myself and in a rather elderly fashion shuffled well into the bus.

I think the main issue I have with bendy buses is as a non-bus user. They can be a bit of a hazard when cycling and also block crossings. Not unheard of for other vehicles to do that of course, but they're so long they can be a bit difficult to negotiate.

if there's no seats upstairs you just go back to the bottom of the stairs and stand there where there is also lots of room (and you can sit on the handrail) and when someone walks down you'll be first in line for the throne.

nooooo! people who stand on that bit at the bottom of the stairs are a total pain. I'm a small person and trying to get by them when they DON'T MOVE and I'm TRYING TO GET UP/DOWN THE STAIRS is incredibly AGGRAVATING and sometimes I wish I were fatter or carried 5 handbags like every other woman on the bus so I could just SQUISH THEM IN THEIR STUPID LITTLE CORNER as I pass.

these kinds of aggravations do not exist on bendy buses.

Yeah. You stand at the TOP of the stairs so you can get out of they way when people are trying to go down. Or rather, you've already grabbed their seat before they even get to the stairs. ;-)

I stopped going upstairs when the playing music on your mobile phones craze was at its peak. Was getting into too many confrontations.

... that'll teach me to play music on my mobile phone I suppose

you and your Wurlitzer Classics