The campaign to get this scheme into law is worth supporting. Car owners are often uninterested in this, as they are non-users of bus services. However, making bus travel more attractive will encourage more people to use buses, thereby decongesting roads and reducing traffic pollution. It is for this reason that county councils support bus users’ groups such as the North-West Surrey Bus Users Group.
Experiences from the kerb
As a non-car-owner, I am a regular user of local buses. I have had a number of unpleasant experiences with bus stops, which I will note here in order to see whether the bus stop proposal would lessen these. The first is the fact that our nearest bus stop is one of the lowest-grade ones. It is marked as a bus stop, but the bus only stops if a passenger is there waving it down. It does have the paper list behind the glass of the regular bus schedule. But the worst experience is to be relying on that schedule for a medical appointment, and the bus does not turn up at all. I once experienced that when, newly arrived back in Kent from South Africa, I was standing in the freezing cold, with my husband complaining that his back was hurting. After half an hour, we just had to walk home again and phone about the missed appointment. After that, I had to upskill myself on how to get real-time information about a bus on the online phone app.
The use of buses by the elderly, the infirm, and even the disabled has to be taken into account in any policy-making regarding buses. It is true that there is a system of volunteer drivers for medical appointments that works well for some villages. But the system that is advertised in GP surgeries for this is one where you have to register in advance and pay a subscription for a year. Suppose you need free-of-charge transport to get to appointments and apply through the system advertised at East Kent hospitals, for instance. In that case, you have to prove that you are receiving certain benefits (that means you are classified as too poor to pay for a taxi or for the other scheme). But there are plenty of people who are not in that category and prefer to use buses, especially if they have the KCC bus pass. So, it is essential that bus stops are convenient and comfortable for these passengers. And that the up-to-date information about bus times is available at the bus stop, not assuming everybody has a smartphone.
Shelters, safety, and rural realities
Ideally, every bus stop would have a bus shelter, but that is unrealistic for stops in the countryside or on narrow roads. In the deep countryside (I will not name the route), I have watched a driver kindly stop a bus at an unscheduled place to let a woman laden with shopping step off near a farm gate. She was obviously a regular customer, and the scheduled stop was much further away. I have watched that practice too in South Africa, where mini-buses (not much regulated) stop at the convenience of their passengers, thus following market trends more nimbly than can heavily regulated operators. But in our traffic-ridden island, this practice is unsafe, so unscheduled stops are not allowed, and it would also make the bus later at the scheduled stops. This makes one ponder different attitudes to time and distance: in the UK, people fret over every minute, whereas in Africa, distance can be overwhelming, as the dismounting bus passengers trek on small paths towards distant hills.
Who maintains the stops?
Two critical standards appear at the bottom of the list for all types of bus stops: who is responsible and who maintains each stop? In Kent, this can be complex with Stagecoach maintaining some stops and Kent County Council being responsible for infrastructure and publicity. In Ashford, the local district council is responsible for maintenance, but they have put this out on contract to Clear Channel whereby in return for maintenance they use the bus-stop structure for advertising. In Surrey, the county council does the work directly.
There are arguments for giving more responsibility for all local infrastructure to the lowest tier of local government, the parish or town council. They are currently responsible for village halls, toilets, playground equipment, so why not bus stops as well? Some, with pride of place, might even try to prettify them with planters. Or how about solar panels on the bus stop roof, to power phone chargers below? This is wafting off into dreams, while the more frequent reality is probably coping with graffiti or, worse, vandalism that actually smashes the shelter.
Litter and local issues
Litter around bus stops is also an issue. There is a particular bus stop in Dover that I encountered with my grandchildren. We wanted to sit on the bench as we had half an hour to wait for a bus to the castle. But it was unpleasant because there were so many cigarette stubs on the pavement. Sometimes these are thrown there by drivers themselves who take a quick smoke at stops! In Surrey, there are evidently complaints from property owners if a bus stop is suddenly located outside their gate. They are told they can request a litter bin to be attached to the bus stop pole.
Real-time information
The demand for real-time information (RTI) about approaching buses at bus stops is increasing. As the Campaign for Better Transport bus stops report states:
“Behavioral research suggests that providing RTI reduces both perceived and actual waiting times for passengers, as they can better time their arrival at the bus stop.”
However, there are challenges in ensuring that such real-time information is accurate and up to date. Surrey bus activists report that RTI is inaccurate at TFL stops in Surrey. TFL stops do not include information on connecting Surrey buses because of some technical incompatibility. However, at Heathrow, the information on both is accurate. In Kent, the availability of real-time information at even quite major bus stops, such as outside rail stations, is missing, although it is provided at the hospital stop in Ashford. Information about buses from Dover Priory station to the castle is completely missing, even though the castle offers ticket concessions for those who travel there by public transport.
Helping tourists and newcomers
Tourists are a category of passengers who may not know how to access the local bus app on their phones. It is helpful to have a QR code at bus stops for this. As long as the central information is accurate, the waiting tourist passengers who are savvy enough with their phones can check expected bus times.
But some passengers, unfamiliar with a route, may not know where to get off, even if they have looked it up on their phones. Many buses at least have an electronic system nowadays that displays the names of the stops as the bus approaches. But sadly, Kent still runs some rather older buses that lack this system, so one has to ask the driver. Some are amazingly unaware of their surroundings and the bus stops along their route. I asked to be dropped off at the nearest bus stop to Webbs Ironmongery in Tenterden, but the driver did not know where it was. But aided by fellow passengers, I got off at the right stop where Webbs is the most visible shop beside it! A different driver was more helpful when I explained I planned to walk from a high street stop to a church.
“I will drop you at the stop near Church Hill”, said the driver, and when we reached there, he pointed out which road I had to start my walk on. Actually, I have always found fellow passengers most willing to give directions. And we also have interesting conversations as we wait at bus stops. As always, although it is important to get the systems right, it is the human factor that matters and is most memorable.
