2019-05-03 14:36![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
grok_mctanys
grok_mctanysFuck First, fuck Stagecoach, and fuck SYPTE - you're all fucking shit and you should be ashamed of yourselves.
So I wanted to catch a bus earlier. I'd looked up the timetable and made sure to get to the stop I wanted a couple of minutes ahead of schedule. Only as I walked around a corner onto the road with the bus stop on it, the bus I wanted drives by and goes straight past the stop I was headed for, without stopping, 3 goddamn minutes ahead of schedule. 3 minutes. Ahead of schedule. For a bus that runs every 30 minutes.
So, uh, what the fuck am I supposed to do at that point, exactly? Wait for half a fucking hour for the next one? Are you fucking kidding me?
Or what about on Wednesday, where I was going to meet up with some friends in town. I had plenty of time, and thought it might be nice to have a drink with them while I was there, so I decided to take the bus instead of driving. Got to the bus stop 5 minutes ahead of schedule. Waited. And waited. And waited. For 20 minutes. So, 15 minutes after the bus was due, and running out of time to meet friends and have enough time to have a drink before we were due to go off and do something else, I was effectively forced to abandon the wait and get my car and drive into town. Having spent 20 fucking minutes standing around like a bloody lemon for nothing. And then having to pay for parking. And not being able to have a drink, because I was driving.
So yeah, fuck you.
And all of that is on top of years of shitty bus services. Of getting to a bus stop a bit early, and having the next bus be so late that if the bus before it had been as late as it was, I'd have been able to catch that. Except it wasn't, so I couldn't. Or of having to sometimes wait more than 20 minutes for a bus that's supposed to come every 10 minutes.
If buses not being able to keep to schedule wasn't bad enough, even the scheduling makes no goddamn sense half the time. Near me there's a road that runs into the town centre, and there are 4 or 5 different bus routes that run down it into town. 2 or 3 of these buses run somewhat regularly after 6pm - every 20 mins or so. So with anywhere between 6 and 10 buses per hour running, you'd expect the maximum wait to be fairly low. Except the buses seem to be scheduled so that buses on the different routes all arrive within 5 minutes of each other - on purpose - and then there are no buses at all for 15+ minutes. How do you even manage that?
Why don't you just admit defeat, and instead of timetables put up signs on the bus stops saying "Some buses will probably turn up eventually. Probably." That would, at least, lower expectations to be more in line with what reality appears to be, and therefore reduce the levels of stress and anger in the city by significant levels.
So if you're ever wondering why bus use is declining - that's why. You're fucking shit, and you make it impossible to rely on buses to actually get where you want to go at any particular time.
So I wanted to catch a bus earlier. I'd looked up the timetable and made sure to get to the stop I wanted a couple of minutes ahead of schedule. Only as I walked around a corner onto the road with the bus stop on it, the bus I wanted drives by and goes straight past the stop I was headed for, without stopping, 3 goddamn minutes ahead of schedule. 3 minutes. Ahead of schedule. For a bus that runs every 30 minutes.
So, uh, what the fuck am I supposed to do at that point, exactly? Wait for half a fucking hour for the next one? Are you fucking kidding me?
Or what about on Wednesday, where I was going to meet up with some friends in town. I had plenty of time, and thought it might be nice to have a drink with them while I was there, so I decided to take the bus instead of driving. Got to the bus stop 5 minutes ahead of schedule. Waited. And waited. And waited. For 20 minutes. So, 15 minutes after the bus was due, and running out of time to meet friends and have enough time to have a drink before we were due to go off and do something else, I was effectively forced to abandon the wait and get my car and drive into town. Having spent 20 fucking minutes standing around like a bloody lemon for nothing. And then having to pay for parking. And not being able to have a drink, because I was driving.
So yeah, fuck you.
And all of that is on top of years of shitty bus services. Of getting to a bus stop a bit early, and having the next bus be so late that if the bus before it had been as late as it was, I'd have been able to catch that. Except it wasn't, so I couldn't. Or of having to sometimes wait more than 20 minutes for a bus that's supposed to come every 10 minutes.
If buses not being able to keep to schedule wasn't bad enough, even the scheduling makes no goddamn sense half the time. Near me there's a road that runs into the town centre, and there are 4 or 5 different bus routes that run down it into town. 2 or 3 of these buses run somewhat regularly after 6pm - every 20 mins or so. So with anywhere between 6 and 10 buses per hour running, you'd expect the maximum wait to be fairly low. Except the buses seem to be scheduled so that buses on the different routes all arrive within 5 minutes of each other - on purpose - and then there are no buses at all for 15+ minutes. How do you even manage that?
Why don't you just admit defeat, and instead of timetables put up signs on the bus stops saying "Some buses will probably turn up eventually. Probably." That would, at least, lower expectations to be more in line with what reality appears to be, and therefore reduce the levels of stress and anger in the city by significant levels.
So if you're ever wondering why bus use is declining - that's why. You're fucking shit, and you make it impossible to rely on buses to actually get where you want to go at any particular time.
