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Alan Tate · King Joined: 01 Feb 2007 Posts: 186 Location: Edinburgh

There i was, at the bus stop, waiting for a bus to take me into town. As i could get pretty much any bus, that is except for one, which went a bit out of the way, one would have thought there would not be a long wait ahead.

Some time passed, and the longer i waited the bigger the queue got, until there were quite a few of us there. Eventually, i saw what looked like the top of a red bus appear over the hill, and indeed it turned out to be a bus, but, as sod's law would have it, the least useful one. Myself and most of the growing crowd decided to wait for another bus, as we reasoned that there are enough buses in circulation to provide a regular service.

Finally, a bus popped it's head over the hill and, funnily enough, another right behind it. The first one pulled up, and the driver shouted "Sorry, Full." out the door. The next bus pulled up, but this time it was only half as full as it could have been. Some people got on, but there was still plenty room left over. Looking at the timetable revealed that there were two more buses to come within a couple of minutes of each other, and true enough another bus came along quickly. This time, the bus was less than half full, and a few more people boarded.

I started to wonder about the effects on the numerous businesses caused by all these buses arriving at once. It seemed to me that if they were more spaced out then there would be a more even distribution of passengers on each bus, therefore making both the customers, and the various bus companies better off. Lost in thought, i forgot to board, but felt safe in the knowledge that another was due.

Less than a minute later, another bus did indeed come trundling along, and i, the only person left, hopped on. There were very few passengers on this one, so i started chatting to the driver. He seemed surprised at the lack of "bums on seats" as he put it, and i replied by suggesting that there could be an agreement of some sort between the different companies, that would ensure they space out the bus timetable more efficiently. He then said that this would not work, as the managers were not getting paid enough to care, and that working different hours may interfere with other parts of their lives. I then put to the driver an idea that i had overheard whilst queuing. This involved regulations in place that encourage the different companies to co-operate, by allowing them 'windows' in which to run their service. The driver responded again by saying that it would inconvenience too many managers, and added that i should be grateful there is a service at all. I 'kind of' agreed, and i put forward my idea that for a business to flourish, the customer should be considered first, and only then can financial rewards increase. The driver then seemed a bit miffed, probably because he had no reply, and he pointed to the sign saying 'do not disturb driver whilst bus is in motion'. I duly sat down, and a few stops later arrived at my destination., and got off the bus.

What i would like to ask is, Am i asking too much, or is this a reasonable suggestion?

GreenVeganRhino · Queen Joined: 08 Feb 2007 Posts: 100

You wait for one and three come at once. The reason is that three buses leave the depot evenly spaced out as you say. When it is busy (rush hour etc.) the first bus to arrive has to collect more passengers, say 5-10 per stop, the second bus has only to collect say, 2-5, the reason being people needing that route boarded the first, the third bus has to collect one or two on an empty bus like the one you boarded, the reason being the first two picked up the bulk of the passengers.

The effect is bus 1 is slow from a to b because of longer stops for boarding, bus two not as slow from a to b and bus 3 is fast as buses 1 and 2 picked up all the passengers. Bus 2 and 3 eventually catch bus 1, and have to queue behind it at the later stops, but are quicker to leave.

So they are spaced, it's just they can't stay that way for obvious reasons.