Would it not be much use to go to the tried and tested formula that is used for a good few years now of having a normal bus stop flag with a seperate case for the timetables of the buses stopping at them locations , dont confuse the passengers any more than they already are at times .
Manchester have all their bus stop work carried out on contract with JCDecaux, an advertisement company. this includes all flags and shelters - it is up to JCDecaux to keep the flags up to date, which they do a fantastic job of, I must say.
It removes confusion at stops such as St. Mary's Way in Oldham, whereby there are multiple bus stops in tandem there that have the route numbers displayed well so that when you look up, you know which one for certain you need to wait at.
As for the 'Buses towards: Holts' as an example, there are some stops which have things like 'Derker', when in actual fact the 81 to Derker only stops there every 20 minutes while the 425 and the 81A to Holts stop there every 12 and 20 minutes respectively, really giving it more use displaying 'Holts' on the flag, or even 'Holts/Derker'. That is just one example of many that I have witnessed.
(14/11/2013 18:39)P528LND Wrote: [ -> ]Manchester have all their bus stop work carried out on contract with JCDecaux, an advertisement company. this includes all flags and shelters - it is up to JCDecaux to keep the flags up to date, which they do a fantastic job of, I must say.
It removes confusion at stops such as St. Mary's Way in Oldham, whereby there are multiple bus stops in tandem there that have the route numbers displayed well so that when you look up, you know which one for certain you need to wait at.
As for the 'Buses towards: Holts' as an example, there are some stops which have things like 'Derker', when in actual fact the 81 to Derker only stops there every 20 minutes while the 425 and the 81A to Holts stop there every 12 and 20 minutes respectively, really giving it more use displaying 'Holts' on the flag, or even 'Holts/Derker'. That is just one example of many that I have witnessed.
JCDecaux only clean and maintain the actual bus shelters, as well as changing the commercial advertisements. TFGM update and maintain the actual flags themselves, as well as the timetables housed in the shelters.
Its the advertisements in the shelters that make the money , you do not find many bus shelters these days without some form of advertising on them.
Its money that makes the world go round these days by the sounds of it .
Including the numbers of buses that stop and the direction of travel on bus stop flags would not confuse anyone; on the contrary, it would help avoid confusion. All too often, the timetable papers are missing from bus stops or are outdated. Then, with the flags giving you no clue either, a tourist or visitor is going to be baffled. Merseytravel could do a lot worse than take a leaf or two out of TfGM's book.
There are 4,440 bus shelters in Greater Manchester. Of this, 3,573 are owned by JC Decaux and are maintained under contract to TfGM, meaning they are accountable for their upkeep and repair (and have to foot the cost of any repairs).
The remaining 832 are owned by TfGM, who maintain them in house (cleaning is usually done by a contractor).
All upkeep of information on bus stop flags and in shelter casing, as has been stated, is done by TfGM's Service Delivery team. The only locations where this is not the case is at bus stations as the supervisors do this.
As for the "towards" detail on TfGM bus stops, yes this is a good idea, however there are often errors as I have seen bus stops with a place stated on it although no service heads towards it (or one out of a large number of services). Previously, all stops had the next settlement (or major road in some cases) along on it, however this has started to be phased out in favour of the next major settlement along, which is causing these inaccuracies.
Today, I found that Blackpool bus-stops were helpful with service-numbers (and logos, in some cases) on the flags. It made looking for where a service stops a lot easier than fighting with overcrowded bus-stops to view the timetables.
MAG, ORM, BOO, AIG. What the hell are Merseytavel thinking of? It's no wonder paswsengers don't use the bus if this is the kind of looney logic there.
Why not just show the route numbers and 'Towards City', 'From City' or something similar as others have suggested?
Mal