So I cycle to work today and forgot that I had an appt for the electricity supplier to come out to one of our shops to check the mains feed.
Was absolutely chucking it down so didnt fancy nipping out on my bike, obviously didnt have my car, my van was being used by someone else and the pool car was also in use.
So, for the first time in as long as I can remember, I got on one of those big bus things!
Checked a travel app on my phone to find out what bus and where to get, got to the bus stop and a digital display in there told me when my bus would be arriving.
Got on the bus, paid my £3.35 return and took my seat. First thing I noticed (and oldgits thread prompted me) was that the bus had stop/start! I reckon it is triggered by the doors opening but not sure what restarted it. It certainly restarted while the doors were still open. In fact the period of time that engine was off was probably only a couple of seconds.
I got the impression that the driver had no control over it automatically switching off but when it did, he immediately restarted it? Anyone able to confirm how this works? Maybe its aimed more from the viewpoint of not idling whilst at a bus stop as opposed to conventional stop/start?
Although I wouldnt admit in public, I reckon the door to door journey was quicker in the bus than car as it obviously uses bus lanes, and I didnt have the time needed to park car etc.
But even though journey was only 15-20 mins, I felt very travel sick!
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I have a Merseyside Travel pass - it was first introduced in the early 1990s - and you can't beat it for free travel and the area it covers (bus, train and ferries). In fact I can go all the way to Chester if I wish...:-)
Obviously I keep my car fully paid up (insurance and VED wise), but for local journeys the bus is brilliant (every few minutes on my route), journeys further afield can be done by train if appropriate and the savings more than pay for my council tax....:-)
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We have a bus once an hour, Settle to Skipton. The oldies use it because it's free, but don't think I get a bus pass until I'm 66yo so a fair wait yet. I use the train, a lot cheaper, and faster, although for our regular ' jolly boys' mini trips to Kirkby Lonsdale for a few hours afternoon drinking ( 14:10>16:50) the price is £6.80 return not bad for a 40 minute journey, calling at Austwick, Clapham & Ingleton plus other stops in between where you hold your hand out!
Lovely scenic views are a bonus from the back seat!
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Smartphones and connectivity have made taking a bus, especially in a strange town, more viable.
I only take the bus 6-8 times a year, so don't know the routes. My phone allows me to see how long it will be to the next bus. When I'm aboard I know where we are, and when we're approaching my stop.
Previously it would have been lots more hassle - and in a strange town, dependent on observation [typically as we drove past the stop I'd wanted] or the driver telling me when I'd reached the right stop.
Last edited by: Tigger on Sat 16 Jul 16 at 07:11
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Journey from here by car to central Stoke on Trent - 10 miles. 30 minutes
By bus: 12 miles (detours for pickups) -70 minutes.
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Nearest town is 90 mins by bus, it's a long time because there is no real service. Takes about 20 minutes by car. Next nearest town is about 50 mins by bus about half that by car. Never used the buses around here so no idea what they are like.
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I've been on a bus a couple of times, most recently in Dublin a couple of weeks ago. It was quite interesting really.
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. It was quite interesting really.
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How so ?
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Being Ireland the driver stopped in a busy street to talk to a friend who was riding past on a bicycle
. Turns out that the bus company was short of drivers after a major win on the Lottery...around 1.3Million Euros each !
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If we're spending any time in an unfamiliar city we'll often find a couple of hours early on day one to take one of those bus tours as a way of quickly seeing where everything is, and to filter the things and places we actually want to go back, either on foot or by taxi, to spend more time on!
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If you're travelling on your own then public transport might make sense cost-wise but it can become ridiculous if moving a family. Some eco-barmy relatives of my wife insist on getting bus into town a couple of miles away and it costs £12 return for the family.
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I bus it every day.
we have a dedicated bus lane system in the centre of the dual carriageways, with stations all along the route.
Swipe through turnstile, onto bus, swipe out at end of journey.
35/40 mins to travel 20km into town.
Same journey by car = at least an hour in peak traffic.
Other benefits:
Cost - about R10 a one-way journey. Cost of petrol here = R12.90 a litre.
Also, no worries for parking.
A get to read a book on the trip as well!
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I mostly use then nightbus, if I buy a £4 day rider after midnight, it is valid till 4:00am the next day so that is all my weekend transport sorted. However during the week if I need to go to the city centre I will get the tram. The tram works out cheaper and it is a lot faster.
My main gripe with the buses is the lack of legroom.
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We can get a bus pass in Wales at age sixty, something I hadn't realised till a few weeks ago. I haven't been on a bus for years but I thought I'd apply just in case. Got the forms but still haven't got round to getting the photos.
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>> We can get a bus pass in Wales at age sixty, something I hadn't realised
>> till a few weeks ago.
Had mine since age 51; mind you Mrs HM is a bus driver by trade and mine's a company pass!
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That's one thing I noticed when I was in leeds recently, public transport drops away quite early on. You had to start going around the houses at 9 and by 11 it had pretty much stopped apart from a few last buses/trains that trickle on for a bit. Plus the train station is a trek from the bus station.
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The last time I used a bus was when I did jury service in Lewes. The town is a parking nightmare, so I took a bus to the rail station and got there that way. I was impressed by both of those services. On the buses, two incidents stood out - one was characterised by arrogance, the other by tenderness.
In the first, a teenager got on and immediately put his feet on a seat opposite. An older lady had the bottle to tell him he had no respect for other people, but he completely ignored her. He put his feet down pretty sharpish when a young policeman got on and stood at the front. As soon as the copper got off, however, the feet were back on the seat.
In the second, the bus was almost full of people, whose dress indicated that they didn't have much money. The appearance of the last two to get on didn't auger well. They were early middle-aged males, who seemed close to the Daily Mail perception of New Age travellers, squatters or the great unwashed - several days of facial growth, parkas, bandanas, boots and rucksacks. Within minutes one of them was in animated conversation with a young mother who was sitting behind me with her child. He had known the mother when she was a baby herself. An older woman, sitting beside me, joined in the conversation, which was mainly about mutual aquaintances. As the two guys moved down to the front, ready for their stop, she got up and kissed the vocal one. At the stop, there was quite a queue of people and it was immediately obvious that several in it knew them too and were equally pleased to see them.
I was overwhelmed by the warmth of the whole episode and so glad that I'd been on the bus to witness it. It also cautioned me against judging people by appearances - not the first time that has happened. Of course, they could have been regular working guys returning from a camping trip, but, no matter, it's the kind of interaction you miss when travelling by car.
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Then there was the drunken bus episode in Harrogate last year...:-)
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Last bus back from Skipton to Settle Monday through Saturday is 17:45
No service on a Sunday... Taxi is around £30/£35.
No wonder the young uns on a Sat night out in Leeds stay at a Travelodge or similar
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>> the bus had stop/start!
It used to be said years ago that diesel engines used such a minute amount of fuel when idling that it was never worth turning them off , and that the cost of doing so in terms of wear and tear and shot of fuel when restarting outweighed the cost of fuel saved.
That was when traditional diesel engines were direct injected and petrols were of course carburetor.
That was why boats left their engines running waiting for locks to fill, and farmers left their tractors idling while talking in the middle of the road or leaning on a gate.
I was told railway locomotives were never actually stopped, as it was too much palaver to restart and engine wear was less with constant running.
Was any of that ever in fact true?
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Some old canal boats have hot bulb diesel engines. Turn one of those off, and it might take ten minutes to restart. You have to heat the bulb with a blow torch.
Some old diesel tractors are similar, and some are cartridge start. Unless your pockets are full of blank cartridges best not to turn them off. Farmers have long memories!
Bags of videos on You Tube showing train engines starting and producing clouds of black/grey/white smoke.
And yes any engine will wear more with no oil circulation, so there must be a reduction, although some modern lubricants stick to surfaces like the proverbial to a blanket. One of the reasons why some taxis achieve star ship mileages, they are only turned off for servicing and otherwise just go from driver to driver.
Last edited by: Slidingpillar on Sat 16 Jul 16 at 17:05
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>> Was any of that ever in fact true?
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Our lorries cut out automatically after two minutes' idling. We are told that reducing idling time is one of the biggest fuel savings we can make, approximately two litres per hour on a big lorry. Modern engines, apparently, do not need to have their oil warmed up by idling first thing in the morning, and apparently it does modern turbochargers no harm to be switched off immediately after stopping; though I still leave my engine running for about thirty seconds after a lengthy motorway run.
I am however minded to wonder how much of this is down to the fact that most transport operations lease their vehicles these days rather than buy them, consequently avoiding the cost of the cumulative damage which I've no doubt still occurs.
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As far as the busses go, maybe the companies realise that having a place where the buses sit and idle and spews a lot of stuff into the atmosphere is a bad thing in the vicinity?
On a 'stop', that is minimal. but at a major hub, could become a 'perceived' health hazard?
On my route, we have a few hubs. main route busses will idle there for a few minutes, as they have to meet tie-ins from the minor routes.
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>> As far as the busses go, maybe the companies realise that having a place where
>> the buses sit and idle and spews a lot of stuff into the atmosphere is
>> a bad thing in the vicinity?
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There is a layby just north of Cardigan where the buses have a fifteen minute stop before the return journey. They sit with the engines running all the time, most annoying when I'm trying to have a quiet fag break. Mind you some of them are so old they probably worry if they would restart afterwards.
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It used to be said years ago that diesel engines used such a minute amount of fuel when idling that it was never worth turning them off...
Don't know, but my impression is that being stuck in traffic hurts the fuel consumption of my modern, manual diesel (but without stop-start) not too badly, judging by the computer's remaining range estimate anyway. The TC automatic diesel, on the other hand, goes on burning fuel at a noticeable rate while it stirs the porridge and goes nowhere, which I why I tend to put it in N between moves. Stop-start is a more elegant and effective solution, though.
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Had a few Shandys in town on Friday so got the bus back home. Its about 8 miles and takes around 30 minutes.
£4.50 one way. Bus was full and quite a few forced to stand
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Slumming it on the buses - Stuartli
