Dublin Bus - Flagging down

Jimmy McGill wrote: »

Bus Éireann drivers are 10 times worse in my experience. Most of them are ignorant pigs.

Spitting on them as you disembark is an effective way of expressing customer satisfaction, but should never be done.

I always waved down the bus I wanted just seemed the obvious thing to do but is there any notices etc on DB website or at the stops informing passengers that they must wave down the bus they want ?

yabadabado wrote: »

is there any notices etc on DB website or at the stops informing passengers that they must wave down the bus they want ?

No, and why would there be? Are there notices on shoes saying you have to tie the laces before you walk? On bananas saying you have to peel it before eating? On the ocean to say you have to hold your breath before dunking your head in?

Jimmy McGill wrote: »

Bus Éireann drivers are 10 times worse in my experience. Most of them are ignorant pigs.

Dublin Bus is fine.

It's the passengers that are the c*nts.

punisher5112 wrote:

It's actually a very good way as it gives the driver time to read the road, time to look out for cyclists etc.

VG31 wrote:

Although there may be good reasons for this practice, they seem to manage just fine without it in other much bigger cities than Dublin. In Moscow they don't even have stop buttons on the buses, the buses just stop automatically at every stop.

Why do they stop at every stop? Supposing nobody is exiting or boarding? What's the point?

bobbyss wrote: »

Why do they stop at every stop? Supposing nobody is exiting or boarding? What's the point?

Maybe because they don't have buttons.

...I presume the putting the hand out is an unwritten rule. Plenty of drivers take the piss on this. Slow down at the bus stop, make eye contact with a someone standing at the stop and then continue on without stopping because the bus wasn't flagged by said punter, an obvious tourist with suitcase in hand, waiting at a one option bus route.

Oasis1974 wrote: »

They always stop for the ladies though which shows fierce sexism......

I don't....

98% of the time runners are an absolute scourge....
No ticket, no money, wrong bus, only stopped to ask directions, no ticket or pass or whatever.... Pain in the hoop.

Badly Drunk Boy wrote: »

Is there any reason the driver wouldn't stop if he had been flagged down? I was in Dublin two weeks ago, going to a gig so beforehand, I was sauntering down Thomas Street towards the venue when I noticed a male and a female at the bus-stop I was approaching (they were not together). Then I saw both of them step forward, flag a bus that was approaching behind me, and the bus just hurtles on by.

They looked at each other, confused. It was a lovely sunny evening, traffic was light, they were the only people at the stop, the buss wasn't full, and they seemed to have given the driver enough time. The lad had even stepped out onto the road.

Maybe the driver couldn't keep his eyes off his phone...

Maybe the bus didn't stop at that stop?

Where I get the bus from in town, there's 66/67/25 but the 66/67/25X also goes by but doesn't stop there and there's always some chancer trying to flag the Xs down

weldoninhio wrote: »

Let me guess, you wouldn’t stop for someone running for a bus if they weren’t at the bus stop in time?? Even though buses seem to run at their own convenience, with no set timetable.

That's bull tbh.

There will be somebody running for a bus at almost every stop at rush hour.

The driver can't endlessly inconvenience his passengers to cater for this.

Last year a group of 5 of us left from my house to go to a match in town on a Saturday, timed it to reach the bus stop a few minutes before the next one was due in order to be sure to catch this twice hourly weekend service.

We live about 5 stops from the terminus, so the timing is always pretty reliable, but as we rounded the corner onto the main road and the bus stop came into sight maybe 100m away, what do I see only the bus approaching to fly past the empty stop about 2 mins before it was even due to depart the terminus.

As it had to pass us, I stepped to the edge of the kerb and pointed at my wristwatch shouting my displeasure, whereupon the brake lights came on the bus and it juddered to a halt just beyond us.

The front doors opened and we bailed on as Dessie Driver says to me 'hang on there, what do you mean by that gesture, who do you think you're being ignorant to?'

Says I, 'if you hadn't left 6 or 7 minutes early at top speed so you could finish to catch the (insert club) game and hope no one would notice, I wouldn't have to be gesturing to anyone, am I right? So lets leave the phonecall to the garage to one side and get on with it shall we? '

Mr Red Handed proceeded without another word.

So, my takeaway is this, for many bus drivers, customer service is an irrelevance and they hate the job. This kills the goodwill for their whole profession and so my expectation is that the bare minimum is about right and so i dont engage with them any more than i would with the postman or binman who come while im at work or the invisible person posting my bills or tallying my toll bridge journeys.

Larbre34 wrote: »

Last year a group of 5 of us left from my house to go to a match in town on a Saturday, timed it to reach the bus stop a few minutes before the next one was due in order to be sure to catch this twice hourly weekend service.

We live about 5 stops from the terminus, so the timing is always pretty reliable, but as we rounded the corner onto the main road and the bus stop came into sight maybe 100m away, what do I see only the bus approaching to fly past the empty stop about 2 mins before it was even due to depart the terminus.

As it had to pass us, I stepped to the edge of the kerb and pointed at my wristwatch shouting my displeasure, whereupon the brake lights came on the bus and it juddered to a halt just beyond us.

The front doors opened and we bailed on as Dessie Driver says to me 'hang on there, what do you mean by that gesture, who do you think you're being ignorant to?'

Says I, 'if you hadn't left 6 or 7 minutes early at top speed so you could finish to catch the (insert club) game and hope no one would notice, I wouldn't have to be gesturing to anyone, am I right? So lets leave the phonecall to the garage to one side and get on with it shall we? '

Mr Red Handed proceeded without another word.

So, my takeaway is this, for many bus drivers, customer service is an irrelevance and they hate the job. This kills the goodwill for their whole profession and so my expectation is that the bare minimum is about right and so i dont engage with them any more than i would with the postman or binman who come while im at work or the invisible person posting my bills or tallying my toll bridge journeys.

That's ONE driver, on ONE day. If you're deciding that "many" bus drivers hate their jobs based on that, cop yourself on.

Yer Da sells Avon wrote: »

I love doing the complete opposite - pulling up alongside them and opening the door as they stare at their phones. People are so used to grumpy bus drivers who resent the public that anything even remotely helpful or decent completely shocks them.

It's a piss-easy job that pays relatively well - there's no excuse for not being decent.

It's called respect.

If they don't have it for us then I don't have it for them.

It's fair game, if they say please and thank you, I will too. Doesn't take much to be nice but it goes both ways, the more you give the more they take and they do take the piss at times !