Annoying bus stop locations

[Volvo]

I have thought about this one over the last couple days and though this one will be mainly for bus drivers others can comment if you know of any.

I'll start off with route 19 and Slone Square Station towards Battersea, now this bus stop is a utter pain in the neck as you come around the roundabout you can't actually serve the bus stop properly and have to serve it at an angle so tend to block the traffic heading towards Victoria and then when you want to pull out again no one wants to let you out or younger blocked in by other vehicles if the lights change and the angle that you have to come out again means you have to lean out the window to see what is coming around the roundabout. I find this bus stop hazardous and I don't see what is wrong with using the bus stop just before the roundabout on slone street. 


Next is park view road (monument way) towards Tottenham Hale in the 76, 123 & 230 this bus stop is literally two minutes walk from Tottenham Hale bus station and is a very irritating bus stop when monument way is full of traffic. As once you serve the the bus stop at the top of monument way you have to then sit in the left lane of traffic all the way down to that stop  just incase someone rings the bell or appears lastl minute and as it is around the bend sometimes you cant see if there is anyone there until you get close to it and this can lose you 5-7 minutes especially if no one is there or no one wants to get off when you could have long moved to the right hand lane and have been long gone this would certainly help improve the service on the 123 & 230 imo.

Next is the bus stop at Bruce Grove for the 149, 259, 279 & 349 towards Edmonton. It is right outside the station which means when serving the stop these buses block the left hand lane to go towards Lordship Lane when it would make more sense for the 123, 243 & W4 to serve this stop then they can simply turn left after. The other routes should serve the 318, 341 & 476 bus stop and then the 318, 341 & 476 serve St Loys Road instead.

[​galwhv69]

This one is only for curtailments on the 322 to Gipsy Hill (Stop E)
When the bus turns around to stand/pick up passengers it can't turn properly into the pullover and consequently has to stand on the double yellow or block the roundabout traffic on the outer lane

[Deleted]

Heres one for you its on the 182 bus route and its bus stop EE neasden underpass you come around the roundabout and serve the stop but to get to it you have to join the traffic queueing for the north circular slip road once your at the stop you have to try and force your way back out across the queueing traffic and into the traffic belting down to the underpass to say its a pain is an understatement the thing is theres a bus stop prior to the roundabout so really no need for this one

[snoggle]

May 11, 2018 15:16:47 GMT Volvo said:

I have thought about this one over the last couple days and though this one will be mainly for bus drivers others can comment if you know of any.

I'll start off with route 19 and Slone Square Station towards Battersea, now this bus stop is a utter pain in the neck as you come around the roundabout you can't actually serve the bus stop properly and have to serve it at an angle so tend to block the traffic heading towards Victoria and then when you want to pull out again no one wants to let you out or younger blocked in by other vehicles if the lights change and the angle that you have to come out again means you have to lean out the window to see what is coming around the roundabout. I find this bus stop hazardous and I don't see what is wrong with using the bus stop just before the roundabout on slone street. 


Next is park view road (monument way) towards Tottenham Hale in the 76, 123 & 230 this bus stop is literally two minutes walk from Tottenham Hale bus station and is a very irritating bus stop when monument way is full of traffic. As once you serve the the bus stop at the top of monument way you have to then sit in the left lane of traffic all the way down to that stop  just incase someone rings the bell or appears lastl minute and as it is around the bend sometimes you cant see if there is anyone there until you get close to it and this can lose you 5-7 minutes especially if no one is there or no one wants to get off when you could have long moved to the right hand lane and have been long gone this would certainly help improve the service on the 123 & 230 imo.

Next is the bus stop at Bruce Grove for the 149, 259, 279 & 349 towards Edmonton. It is right outside the station which means when serving the stop these buses block the left hand lane to go towards Lordship Lane when it would make more sense for the 123, 243 & W4 to serve this stop then they can simply turn left after. The other routes should serve the 318, 341 & 476 bus stop and then the 318, 341 & 476 serve St Loys Road instead.

I understand your respective annoyances about these stops. However the reason they exist is that to force people to use alternatives would result in far too many people crossing multiple junctions, some of which have no pedestrian priority (Sloane Square). Park View Rd is a long standing stop with a large residential area close by - the trek from T Hale is not exactly ideal or that safe. The Bruce Grove stops used to be differently arranged. TfL changed them - for the worse IMO. If you want Bruce Grove on the 123 you're forced to get off round the corner. I sometimes go to ALDI at Tottenham and it is in the middle of a long gap between stops and if you want the 123 you've got to cross the High Rd and hope there isn't a bus just moved off its stop as you turn into Bruce Grove. The big problem on Tott High Rd is that every service is high frequency most of the time meaning very high bus movements and stop occupancy issues. I'm not sure how you can sensibly rationalise / change stops there - you'll always upset someone.

As I say I can see why as a bus driver you don't like the stops but don't forget that passengers have needs too. At least in London stops are usually well located - almost everywhere else stop distances are ridiculously long between stops or immensely awkward or counter intuitive because the needs of car drivers override everything. I've had to abandon planned visits to places because bus stops and bus services are so utterly abysmal in terms of location, proximity and service levels.

[Volvo]

May 11, 2018 17:58:50 GMT snoggle said:

May 11, 2018 15:16:47 GMT Volvo said:

I have thought about this one over the last couple days and though this one will be mainly for bus drivers others can comment if you know of any.

I'll start off with route 19 and Slone Square Station towards Battersea, now this bus stop is a utter pain in the neck as you come around the roundabout you can't actually serve the bus stop properly and have to serve it at an angle so tend to block the traffic heading towards Victoria and then when you want to pull out again no one wants to let you out or younger blocked in by other vehicles if the lights change and the angle that you have to come out again means you have to lean out the window to see what is coming around the roundabout. I find this bus stop hazardous and I don't see what is wrong with using the bus stop just before the roundabout on slone street. 


Next is park view road (monument way) towards Tottenham Hale in the 76, 123 & 230 this bus stop is literally two minutes walk from Tottenham Hale bus station and is a very irritating bus stop when monument way is full of traffic. As once you serve the the bus stop at the top of monument way you have to then sit in the left lane of traffic all the way down to that stop  just incase someone rings the bell or appears lastl minute and as it is around the bend sometimes you cant see if there is anyone there until you get close to it and this can lose you 5-7 minutes especially if no one is there or no one wants to get off when you could have long moved to the right hand lane and have been long gone this would certainly help improve the service on the 123 & 230 imo.

Next is the bus stop at Bruce Grove for the 149, 259, 279 & 349 towards Edmonton. It is right outside the station which means when serving the stop these buses block the left hand lane to go towards Lordship Lane when it would make more sense for the 123, 243 & W4 to serve this stop then they can simply turn left after. The other routes should serve the 318, 341 & 476 bus stop and then the 318, 341 & 476 serve St Loys Road instead.

I understand your respective annoyances about these stops. However the reason they exist is that to force people to use alternatives would result in far too many people crossing multiple junctions, some of which have no pedestrian priority (Sloane Square). Park View Rd is a long standing stop with a large residential area close by - the trek from T Hale is not exactly ideal or that safe. The Bruce Grove stops used to be differently arranged. TfL changed them - for the worse IMO. If you want Bruce Grove on the 123 you're forced to get off round the corner. I sometimes go to ALDI at Tottenham and it is in the middle of a long gap between stops and if you want the 123 you've got to cross the High Rd and hope there isn't a bus just moved off its stop as you turn into Bruce Grove. The big problem on Tott High Rd is that every service is high frequency most of the time meaning very high bus movements and stop occupancy issues. I'm not sure how you can sensibly rationalise / change stops there - you'll always upset someone.

As I say I can see why as a bus driver you don't like the stops but don't forget that passengers have needs too. At least in London stops are usually well located - almost everywhere else stop distances are ridiculously long between stops or immensely awkward or counter intuitive because the needs of car drivers override everything. I've had to abandon planned visits to places because bus stops and bus services are so utterly abysmal in terms of location, proximity and service levels.

I hear what your saying throughout most of your post. However I don't see anything wrong with the walk from that park view road area to Tottenham Hale in terms of safety though. What is a safety compromise is the crossings around the Philip lane/high road area. There is no green man on any side.

Also I see they have removed the 318, 341 and 476 bus stop now so they have to serve the same bus stop as the 149, 259, 279 & 349 so that's more buses at that bus stop.

[Volvo]

May 11, 2018 17:27:45 GMT @surfnuttz said:

Heres one for you its on the 182 bus route and its bus stop EE neasden underpass you come around the roundabout and serve the stop but to get to it you have to join the traffic queueing for the north circular slip road once your at the stop you have to try and force your way back out across the queueing traffic and into the traffic belting down to the underpass to say its a pain is an understatement the thing is theres a bus stop prior to the roundabout so really no need for this one

That sounds like a drivers nightmare.

[Volvo]

May 11, 2018 17:10:40 GMT ​galwhv69 said:

This one is only for curtailments on the 322 to Gipsy Hill (Stop E)
When the bus turns around to stand/pick up passengers it can't turn properly into the pullover and consequently has to stand on the double yellow or block the roundabout traffic on the outer lane

That sounds annoying like seriously, sometimes I really wonder if peolem who think about these things actually bother to go out and have a look.

[​galwhv69]

May 11, 2018 18:56:57 GMT Volvo said:

May 11, 2018 17:10:40 GMT ​galwhv69 said:

This one is only for curtailments on the 322 to Gipsy Hill (Stop E)
When the bus turns around to stand/pick up passengers it can't turn properly into the pullover and consequently has to stand on the double yellow or block the roundabout traffic on the outer lane

That sounds annoying like seriously, sometimes I really wonder if peolem who think about these things actually bother to go out and have a look.

It is,not only coz you don't know if the driver will pull up further on the double yellow or block the roundabout momentarily but also because it can block the number 3 if one is behind

[RandomBusesGirl]

308's old Forest Gate Station stop at Forest Lane towards Wanstead was right before the junction with Woodgrange Road, so whenever a bus stopped, it blocked all the traffic
That's why it was moved backwards, but now that means a bit of a walk is required, so still annoying!

[vjaska]

Pretty much all the annoying and dangerous ones in Brixton have been moved:

The westbound stop at Lambeth Town Hall was moved up not long ago due to being too close to the junction - quite why it took them this long to realise is anyone's guess given it's been a problem at least since the 1990's.

Years ago, Effra Road only had one northbound bus stop right by where the zebra crossing is which is astounding as walking to the stop before or after is a fair old length especially if it's a 37 as the next one after was on Acre Lane However, the stop's proximity to the zebra crossing resulted in a number of accidents including fatal ones - I think the final straw was either the police chase that went wrong or the motorcyclist who sadly died (not to be confused with the one who sadly died last year). The result was what we have now - the stop became two stops and since then, accidents along Effra Road plummeted

A couple of others were moved for other reasons - almost all of Brixton Hill's northbound stops have been moved - I believe the Holmewood Road stop moved in order to install the pelican crossing, the New Park Road & Jebb Avenue stops have been in those same spots since I've been alive, the Blenheim Gardens stop was before the lights instead of outside Nisa, the Brixton Water Lane stops (yes there was two northbound stops back then) were outside what is now Pizza Experto & a cafe (was a newsagent & electrical shop back in the day) whilst the current Brixton Water Lane stop just before Hayter Road was where the pelican crossing is now - it was moved in order for the crossing to be installed following complaints about it being dangerous for schoolchildren to cross. The southbound Brixton Hill stops have largely remained as they are during my lifetime - the only one I'm unsure of is the New Park Road where I'm sure it was a little further down the hill from where it currently is.

[TB141]

Lewisham Station, specifically bus stop D, the final of the three stops heading towards Lee High Road. So badly designed it’s unreal, having served the stop you then have to try and get across to lane 3 in order to turn right at the police station. And it’s not as if it’s even a straight bit of road, you’re doing it on a bend meaning your vision is pretty poor of the traffic, not that anyone ever lets you out. And they wonder why some drivers turn right from the middle lane.

[enviroPB]

May 11, 2018 22:38:32 GMT RandomBusesGirl said:

308's old Forest Gate Station stop at Forest Lane towards Wanstead was right before the junction with Woodgrange Road, so whenever a bus stopped, it blocked all the traffic
That's why it was moved backwards, but now that means a bit of a walk is required, so still annoying!

I'm surprised you haven't mentioned the Forest Gate station stop on the 308. Once a bus serves that stop, that's it. Traffic behind the bus can't get past the bus cause there's normally traffic attempting to turn onto Forest Lane; and if there's a heavy flow of oncoming traffic (like there normally is on Woodgrange Road); 308 buses will take 2 phases of traffic lights from serving the bus stop to departing onto Forest Road. At least after the first phase buses negotiate into the outer lane to try to let some traffic through...but for buses and HGVs to get through, it's like Mission Impossible!

I've always hated the Bow Road/Bow Church Station stop on Campbell Road, now on the 108. To have buses hold up traffic at that junction where the phasing is barely a few seconds long & hardly lets all the queueing traffic through, I've always thought is a bit of a selfish place to put a bus stop. Passengers can wait the 100 or so metres when the bus gets onto Bow Road to alight; that stop does no great service to any Joe or Jenny Public.

[londonbusboy]

Any bus stop placed near a set of traffic lights, Woolwich springs to mind.

[Eastlondoner62]

I'll take this opportunity to mention every single stop on Ilford Lane, everytime a bus stops there it ends up causing a jam because there's almost no space to overtake and there's almost always a continuous stream of traffic coming in the opposite direction. 

[snoggle]

May 12, 2018 18:45:46 GMT Eastlondoner62 said:

I'll take this opportunity to mention every single stop on Ilford Lane, everytime a bus stops there it ends up causing a jam because there's almost no space to overtake and there's almost always a continuous stream of traffic coming in the opposite direction. 

That's slowly becoming the case at a lot of stops in Waltham Forest too. Parts of Forest Rd grind to a complete halt whenever a car wishes to turn right or a bus stops at a bus stop. It's ludicrous.