Dublin bus driver here, ask questions.

Terrontress

I think that the RTPI makes a massive difference. There is nothing worse than standing at a bus stop, seeing that they leave the terminus every 10 minutes, knowing you have been waiting 30 and wondering how long the next one will be.

At least now if you know it is going to be a further 15 minutes you can make a decision as to whether to find another method to work or not.

In cities with individual timetables for stops, the buses will stop if they get ahead of schedule. Maybe this could be a good solution for Dublin Bus.

LXFlyer

It's a twin edged sword terrontress.

On the one hand people want the bus to turn up at the same time each day and be reliable. On the other hand they want to get there as fast as possible. To deliver the first, the schedule needs to be reasonably conservative, but this may lead to the bus having to wait along the route for its time at that point. Marrying the two is next to near impossible given the vagaries of Dublin traffic.

Reading posts here, waiting at points along the route seems to annoy people even more. That is generally the reason for the bus waiting at handover points - not that the second driver is late as everyone seems to assume, but rather that the bus is early.

This becomes particularly obvious when traffic volumes are lower than usual.

It's a tough one. Personally I would prefer reliability - a set timetable all along the route where people know when it will arrive at each stop and plan their journey on that basis, but that does not appeal to many people.

For the record, once the bus is stopped the AVLC unit in the cab will tell the driver how many minutes he is ahead of schedule or simply if he is running late (but does not tell him by how much).

ITV2

Qualitymark wrote: »

Why?



In relation to cyclists and buses, by the way, I'm a cyclist, a passenger and a driver, and don't see any difficulty with mutual courtesy and care for safety on the road. On the turn from St Stephen's Green to Leeson Street yesterday, for instance, I was on my bike waiting for the lights to change when a bus came up behind me wanting to turn left. He gave a tiny 'bip' on the horn and I hopped off and pulled up the bike against the pavement so he could safely turn. (Then the lights changed to a pedestrian green and I walked the bike across, remounted and rode off.)

I think if you look at the signage on the St.Stephen's Green bus lane that lane is for Buses only not taxis Or Cyclists. (and yes I do cycle).

regards T.

schemingbohemia

ITV2 wrote: »

I think if you look at the signage on the St.Stephen's Green bus lane that lane is for Buses only not taxis Or Cyclists. (and yes I do cycle).

regards T.

And if you bothered reading the rest of the thread it would have become clear to you that since October 1st it is now legal for cyclists to use these lanes, the signage hasn't been changed but the law has.

Qualitymark

ITV2 wrote: »

I think if you look at the signage on the St.Stephen's Green bus lane that lane is for Buses only not taxis Or Cyclists. (and yes I do cycle).

regards T.

The laws were amended this year so that cyclists can use contraflow lanes:

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2012/en/si/0332.html

(3) A person shall not enter a contra-flow bus lane with a vehicle
other than a large public service vehicle or a pedal cycle.

ITV2

Ah thanks for the info Q. wasn't aware of the changes, not my side of the city anymore.. T :-)

Alun

lxflyer wrote: »

On the one hand people want the bus to turn up at the same time each day and be reliable. On the other hand they want to get there as fast as possible.

WRONG. I want the bus to a) turn up on time and b) get there when it's damn well supposed to.

I gain nothing by it racing along overtaking all the other buses and getting to it's destination 10 minutes early, and I'm guessing the people who get on further along the route don't appreciate seeing the bus they've timed their arrival at the stop for flying past in a convoy with 2 others, and have to wait ages for the next one.

LXFlyer

Eh I did say that i would prefer reliability if you read the whole of my post.

However, there have been large numbers of people who have complained about buses being regulated or driven slowly, or are waiting for a driver change where the bus arrives early at a handover point.

To reiterate, I would be in favour of reliability over speed.

This becomes more of an issue during the summer and at other holiday periods when traffic and passenger levels drop significantly.

Alun

lxflyer wrote: »

Eh I did say that i would prefer reliability if you read the whole of my post.

However, there have been large numbers of people who have complained about buses being regulated or driven slowly, or are waiting for a driver change where the bus arrives early at a handover point.

To reiterate, I would be in favour of reliability over speed.

Sorry about that, I didn't read past the first bit, as the red mist descended when I read that

I've been on buses in other countries where the bus driver has either slowed down or waited an extra minute or two at a stop to keep to his schedule and it doesn't bother me at all personally.

james142

I understand why the times on the RTPI can sometimes be wrong and I don't mind that. But what really annoys me is when the bus disappears off the board without any reason and the bus never shows up. The least they could do is send a message instead of the annoying info message they have at the bottom explaining why a bus is not showing up.

For example, yesterday evening I was waiting for a 14 towards Dundrum at the St.Stephens green stop for over an hour. The 14 bus disappeared twice on the RTPI board leaving about six of us scratching our heads for over an hour. Eventually when a 14 finally came, the fecker drove past all of us waiting at the stop leaving me having to take the luas home instead (which is at least hour walk from where i needed to be resulting in me being late.)

Baneblade

delad wrote: »

thanks for tip, must get myself some

thats about €1.50 not a great saving, you should get a few 10 baht coins, about 25c
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:10_baht_obverse_(2008).png

dfx-

james142 wrote: »

For example, yesterday evening I was waiting for a 14 towards Dundrum at the St.Stephens green stop for over an hour. The 14 bus disappeared twice on the RTPI board leaving about six of us scratching our heads for over an hour. Eventually when a 14 finally came, the fecker drove past all of us waiting at the stop leaving me having to take the luas home instead (which is at least hour walk from where i needed to be resulting in me being late.)

14s it seems have a habit of ghosting by unnoticed by RTPI. Last night I was on AV112 on the 14 and not one RTPI on-street unit recognised it to Rathmines at least.

starviewadams

Why don't more drivers sing?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vzhk0LUhVeA

A child was crying non stop for about 15 minutes until the bus driver sang to him through his mic!

Qualitymark

In Los Angeles, there's a union for bus passengers: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/10/does-your-city-need-transit-riders-union/3722/

And in Tallinn, they're going to eliminate bus fares http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/04/estonias-capital-pursues-free-public-transit/1883/

In re which: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_public_transport#France

CrabRevolution

That article about Tallinn clearly states that they don't know how they are going to pay for it. That sounds like disastrous planning, I'm glad DB wont be following that idea.

Qualitymark

One of the reasons for eliminating fares is that it makes for better bus drivers; you're no longer a dual personality, constantly turning your attention from driving to checking fares - instead, you are only a driver, whose only responsibility is the safe and efficient transport of your passengers around your city.

CrabRevolution wrote: »

That article about Tallinn clearly states that they don't know how they are going to pay for it. That sounds like disastrous planning, I'm glad DB wont be following that idea.

A lot of Dublin Bus's subvention already comes from free travel for pensioners and disabled people.

Free buses aren't disastrous at all - they take a lot of cars off the road as drivers sensibly take to the buses, and then public transport becomes more efficient - it's a virtuous circle.

Interesting comments on this short blog about free public transport:

http://coreecon.blogspot.ie/2006/03/free-riding.html

including:

Hasselt in Belgium not only made public transport free, it tripled the size of its public transport fleet, increased service frequencies three to sixfold and had an increase of 800% in 18 months. This was done without a levy or increased taxes. It didn't cost money either. In fact they city saved so much money it was able to pay off its entire debt and REDUCE taxes.

There were some unforseen and interesting side effects in European cities which introduced free public or very low cost transport. The amount of commercial activity around transport hubs grew much more than expected, in particular the number of street cafes. In some cases the number of cafes in the city doubled within 3 years. They also saw a significant increase in sales of the major daily newspaper. (What would The Age think of that?)

Not one single European city has had to increase taxes ot impose a levy to introduce free public transport. Even with the initial capital outlay to increase fleet size and frequency, it saved money overall. Granted that none of them are on the scale of Melbourne, but papers by the Industry Commission (1995) and Prof Peter Newman (1998) have concluded that the economics are scalable.

Here's a piece from The Economist blog, by the way, about an interesting Singapore idea to increase off-peak journeys by running a lottery, by the way http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2011/07/public-transport

Losty Dublin

Qualitymark wrote: »

A lot of Dublin Bus's subvention already comes from free travel for pensioners and disabled people.

It's actually more accurate to say that Dublin Bus receive a token amount of a subvention for this. As the public service obligation payment isn't broken down in the annual report, it's impossible to assign it with a more exact figure without some investigative research of same. The PSO includes capitation for fleet renewal, business costs, corporate restructuring, pensions, running unprofitable services, etc etc. The PSO figure fell by about 10% PA from 2009 to 2010. This is in spite of additional costs on the company and increasing amounts of DSP passes issued that Dublin Bus has to honour.

Even without more precise figures to hand, it's crystal clear that the subvention monies paid to cover the travel and use of DSP passes doesn't come close to covering both the expense of offering the services.

Iwannahurl

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum/thread, but here goes anyway.

A local authority I know has steadfastly refused to implement traffic calming and pedestrian crossing facilities on a 50 km/h residential road that has two large schools situated on it, with a combined student population of over a thousand.

Apparently one of the main excuses given is that traffic calming -- specifically of the speed bump variety -- cannot be installed because it would adversely affect buses.

Is there any truth in this assertion?

I travelled by bus through Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo, recently, and the BE bus seemed to have no trouble passing over the likes of this.

Maybe it's different for older buses, including those crates from the 1970s that are often used to ferry schoolchildren?

Qualitymark

If you look at the roads around Rathmines, Ranelagh and Rathgar, there are many bus routes with traffic bumps.

Mind you, some of these bumps are badly built, and are actually dangerous when some speed freak young bus driver rockets over them.

Have you thought of asking for different traffic calming measures; in Holland recently I was driven on a road that had bays at the side where you could pull in to be passed; it effectively worked as traffic calming.

Iwannahurl

Of course the real danger comes from the "speed freaks" in their rockets and not from the speed bumps that they use as a launch pad!

The traffic calming effect results from the vertical (speed bump) or horizontal (eg chicane) deflection.

Re "bays at the side where you could pull in to be passed", can you point to any specific examples?

Horizontal deflections -- build-outs, islands, chicanes etc -- can be bad for cyclists, effectively making them the meat in the traffic-calming sandwich.

I doubt that in the Netherlands cyclists or pedestrians would be used to calm traffic, as sometimes happens here.

Qualitymark

Iwannahurl wrote: »

Re "bays at the side where you could pull in to be passed", can you point to any specific examples?

I'm afraid not; I saw them in the town of Bussum near Amsterdam; there used to be something similar near Scoil Iosolde in Palmerstown, and also in Mount Merrion - not quite the same, but yokes sticking out into the road so only one car could pass at a time.

Julius Seizure

In Belgium they have the stickey out things bit they alternate sides so (driving on right) you may go straight through one with priority but at the next one your lane is blocked and you must use the wrong side of the road. So you could have little lanes going around these things for cyclists?

Iwannahurl

Here's a Bussum street picked more or less at random.

Very different traffic culture, professional practices and legislative framework in the Netherlands, I would imagine.

There's a long and ignoble history in this country of shoe-horning superficial aspects of Dutch roads engineering into Irish civil engineers' notion of road design.

In the Netherlands things like traffic islands and build-outs would have a bypass for cyclists, and/or 20-30 km/h zones plus strong legal protection for vulnerable road users.

I've seen a few pinch points with cycle bypasses operating here, but the channel for bikes tends to be narrow as well as being a collection point for broken glass and other debris.

SHOVELLER

Fair play to the OP for putting himself forward. I would love to see his nemesis here actually drive a bus for a day and then come back and apologise.

I only use DB once a week and never have a problem with drivers. In fact recently I was running for one and the driver waited. I was astounded as I was a good distance away. After I thanked him profusely he said that he had a few seconds anyway.

Anyway fare evasion is mentioned a lot here. Do I take it this involves people are underpaying or are running/sneaking by the driver in big queues? Or I am missing something?

Regarding nuisance customers drinking or smoking I saw something on a tram in San Francisco aeons ago that has stayed with me. Some tool was abusing the tram driver when the driver simply stopped and announced that unless said tool left he wouldnt be going anywhere. It wasnt long before we were on the way again!

Naturally this is not as simple to translate here but just planting an idea!

For better service overall DB should bring in flat fares and fare machines that count. Also announcements and posters to remind customers of the no smoking rule and to turn down headphones and keep mobile calls brief. Basically think of other people.

The best addition recently have been the Real Time Passenger Information signs and hopefully they will be rolled out to more stops over time.

kincsem

Thanks bobby23. Great thread.

Qualitymark

I went to use my Leap card for the first time in a couple of months yesterday, and was told there was no money on it. As far as I know, there should have been around €6 on it. (Haven't used buses in ages - took to the bike to get around faster.)

Is there anywhere I can track the uses of the card if I put another €20 into it?

Losty Dublin

Qualitymark wrote: »

I went to use my Leap card for the first time in a couple of months yesterday, and was told there was no money on it. As far as I know, there should have been around €6 on it. (Haven't used buses in ages - took to the bike to get around faster.)

Is there anywhere I can track the uses of the card if I put another €20 into it?

If you register your card on the Leap website, you can do just that.

Qualitymark

Losty Dublin wrote: »

If you register your card on the Leap website, you can do just that.

Thanks, that's great.

I see there's a facility to "Top up my Leap card". Is it still the case that after topping up online you have to take your card to a shop to get the top-up to show on the card?

Rabbitt

Qualitymark wrote: »

Thanks, that's great.

I see there's a facility to "Top up my Leap card". Is it still the case that after topping up online you have to take your card to a shop to get the top-up to show on the card?

Question for Bobby.
What is a typical early/ late shift?
If there is an accident and your stuck in Bad traffic and are late for your break are you essentially missing out on a full hour?

I think hats off for your honesty. Too many people here want to pick faults with you but I'm sure of they spent a week in your shoes putting up with so much rubbish they'd soon change their tune.

rx8

Rabbitt wrote: »

Question for Bobby.
What is a typical early/ late shift?
If there is an accident and your stuck in Bad traffic and are late for your break are you essentially missing out on a full hour?

I think hats off for your honesty. Too many people here want to pick faults with you but I'm sure of they spent a week in your shoes putting up with so much rubbish they'd soon change their tune.

A typical early shift would be 06.00 to 14.00, but some can start as early as 04.15, and finish as late as 15.30.
Late shifts typically start about 15.30 and finish about midnight, but again, some can start as late as 19.30, and finish after 1.00 am.

If you are late breaking due to an accident/traffic etc., it would depend how late you are. If it's only a couple of minutes, most drivers would just come back on time, if you are really late they would try to get someone else to cover the journey while you had your break.