Tonight on my travels on the Wirral i have come across three buses one on the 87 (Avon ) , and two one on the 41 (First) and 1 (First) where the destination has only decipherable at the last minute , the only bus i could see properly was a 119 (Arriva) which happened to be a Pulsar ) where you could see the display up to 200 yds away.
First are especially bad with this on their grey/non-orange LED displays.
I had this problem with Avon on the 40A a few weeks ago. I actually let the bus pass
You couldn't tell it was a bus until it was too late.
Never mind, they'll be banned soon when Equality Act kicks in proper (and when Stagecoach hopefully get a grip of the Wirral).
I always found Laird Streets Myllennium DAFs the worst - the lights worked, but the blinds wernt fitted correctly in the box so the light just made the destination unreadable rather than lit up.
Hanover flipdot displays tend to be awful - some glow better than others. Firsts X-USH/XBU L94UBs are very readable whereas most others arnt, i think its more to do with the fact theyre poorly designed rather than first not knowing what theyre doing!
All operators seem to be as bad as eachother when it comes to destinations as there isnt really an opportunity to test the lights work properly as you cant see the lights during the day, and thats when they tend to do the vehicles checks!
On the rollerblinds/powerblinds that dont glow - often the operators change the bulbs when in actual fact the inverter has stopped working, they think its job done when it isnt, and they seem to lack the effort to get a new one..
looks like its just something to put up with until LEDs takeover!
Luke