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Previous: Gardena watering timer | Main | Next: Claritin e-mail confirm box
August 11, 2004 12:01 AM
Broken: London double decker bus seating sign
Jonathan Bruck writes:
This is from a red double decker bus in London, explaining how many people it can hold. I found myself trying to figure out the seating/standing capacity on this bus. Does anyone have a clue on this one?
That's the easy part to figure out. Now, what does:
Standing 20
Seating 17
Standing 25
mean? Which level? Are those simultaneous? Simle horizontal lines could have made this much more understandable.
I see what it means (after a couple minutes of a blank stare at it). they could have worded it better
I see what it means (after a couple minutes of a blank stare at it). they could have worded it better, such as:
top floor: 43
bottom floor: 20
1 wheelchair
total: 64
I still don't quite get those last 3 lines.
Here is my interpretation as well as my take on a not-broken sign:
Upper, Seating: 43
Upper, standing: 20
Lower, seating: 20
Lower, seat w/ wheelchair: 17
Lower, standing: 25
_____________________________
Total seats: 63
Max capacity: 108
I suspect this sort of thing is required for regulatory compliance, rather than being there to inform the passengers. (Would you get on, count the number of people on your level, and say "driver, stop, I have to get off, I'm #26!"?)
The bottom three lines are covered in my initial comment.
Upper deck: seats 43 [line 2]
Lower deck:
(20 seated or 17 seated + wheelchair) + 20 standing [lines 3 to 5]
*or*
17 seated + 25 standing [lines 6 and 7]
They don't bother with these here in Toronto (or so it seems) - just keep cramming people out until they start getting off to breathe.
To those who think this sign is not broken:
The point of this site, I thought, was to show what needs improvement in hopes that they will get improved. Thus if this sign can be improved - it's broken.
I think it is more likely a joke by the creative department of the London buses. They must have read some stuff about bad signage and said - "Yeah - let's do that! That'll confuse everyone". I did work on London buses for a month, handing out surveys (a long, long time ago), and got to know some of the drivers fairly well - and at the time this would have been a perfectly reasonable explanation - they definitely relayed a work atmosphere where it would have been perfectly normal and acceptable for the people who make these types of signs to have fun at customers expense.
The "Standing" definitely does not refer to the upper deck-- you can't stand there. Presumably you can have twenty standing and twenty seated, or seventeen seated, a wheelchair, and twenty-five standing. I guess to fit a wheelchair you have to tip up three seats, but that leaves enough room for five more to stand, too.
Hugo:
Not to mention that cameras are installed on the bus for our *comfort*...
No vandalized seats = comfort. Seems pretty clear to me.
Well, they may or may not record anything as "..during my journey cmaeras are installed." So I guess that means that everyday, new cameras are installed during everyone's journey.
In reponse to the comment about the creative department joke by Chris Law. That is so cool, here in America our municipal bus lines have drivers, mechanics, administrators, and (always) some city councilmans nephew named Josh or Brian, but no creative departments. Not sure what they'd do if we had them, but I'm sure we'd all be better off if they did. Oh yeah! they'd make signs.
Hmm...I think they should hve posted some info such as "jogging, vegetarians, etc."
As for the interpretation....I'm pretty much confuzzled.
Comments on this entry are closed
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There are 63 seats, 43 on the upper deck and 20 on the lower deck, plus you can have 20 people standing on the lower deck. Total: 83 passengers
You can reduce the seating on the bottom deck by 3 in order to fit in a wheelchair user (total 81 passengers), or 5 more standing people (total 85 passengers).
That's my interpretation. :)
Posted by: Alden Bates at August 11, 2004 02:03 AM