Dublin Bus - can anyone be happy with the price and service?

poggyone wrote: »

Drivers usually have the front door up to kerb before opening, if accident happen at front when bus not near kerb the driver is screwed, it is much harder in dublin to get middle door near to kerb. Therefore driver is taking a gamble every time they open middle door when not close to kerb.
Why would you take the risk?

Fair enough, some bus stops need to be fixed. But there are some drivers who will not open the middle doors even if they are close to the kerb. Most stops there is no problem getting near the kerb.

I use Suffolk Street and D'Olier street occasionally, there are lots of buses but on Suffolk Street in particular there are no problems getting near the kerb, the only problem is that buses often pull in too far back from the bus stop. It is more likely to be an issue in residential areas where parked cars may partially block the bus from pulling in.
If I take the stops on my morning commute into consideration, out of the 17 stops only at 3 stops is getting close to the kerb is sometimes an issue and two of them people don't usually get off at. The rest of the stops there would very rarely be an issue with getting close to the kerb.

Do you use the middle doors at all?
You must accept the there are some drivers who will not use the centre doors even if they are perfectly stopped at the bus stop.

foggy_lad wrote: »

At places like Suffolk St buses should not be allowed open doors unless at their designated stop or unless there is an inspector present to oversee the boarding and alighting of passengers.


For most stops on city streets the bus stops should be placed alongside the traffic/bus lane sticking out from the main footpath if required so then the bus just pulls up alongside and does not need to manoeuvre into a tight bus stop bay that may be partially blocked by cars or just poorly designed like the one at the DCC library in Rathmines, opposite the Travelodge/aldi. This stop cost thousands to place there but most buses stop in the bus lane just past the bus stop! It is easier for Deriver and also for passengers.

Excellent concept indeed.....diluted a tad by the actual number of Bus Routes allocated to each specific Bus Stop.

The other unspoken of issue here is the presence of ranked-up Taxi's now regularly seen along the street.
This makes any attempt to safely access Bus Stops largely impossible.

No amount of polite requesting will get these people to move,as the Gardai appear to have reached some form of "agreement" with them on the issue which they then take as carte blance to act the eejit 24/7.

One answer...the old reliable...Pedestrian Barriers along the kerb edge...with openings only at the Bus Stop.

However,my discussions with DCC Traffic Engineers has revealed a their absolute resistance to ANY form of physical barrier in such cases.

It would appear that DCC has a significantly greater appetite for risk (Or placing the Public at risk) than the other players in this production.

As it currently stands,the "Problem" (Officially Non-Existent) will disappear from the 18th Jan,when the Bus Routes are removed to facilitate BXD works.

Whether this will see the Taxi fraternity make a wild-eyed dash for Lincoln Place to set up their crazy stall is another matter entirely...;)

The Rathmines issue is far simpler,springing from the reliance of the Local Authorities upon manufacturers theoritical data on Bus Manouvering space,which is then superimposed upon the actual on-street area...resulting in largely unusable Bus Stop arrangements,particularly when Disabled Access is required.

The Roads Design Engineer thinks laterally it appears,so as long as the required kerb space can accomodate the required length of Bus,the issue of how that Bus actually gets to position at the Stop is somebody else's problem.

Rathmines Road is an absolute classic,but again,it is a Problem which OFFICIALLY does not exist,because Busdrivers concerns are regarded as nit-picking and trouble-making...the answer I have heard given on more than one occasion...."WTF do yiz want...a fcekkin Runway ?"......to which my reply was...."Yes-A runway,with clear approach and departure slope is EXACTLY what we want...Great Idea !".

The act of pulling a full-size Bus into and out of that Stop is where the vast majority of the DANGER lies,and it is DANGER which has been deliberately engineered into the location largely as a result of professional laziness....

Needless to say,my glide-slope analogy was swiftly pooh-pooh'd and the Engineering Luminary moved swiftly on to greater things...such as Arran Quay....!

Put very simply a 10Mtr+ Vehicle requiring regular access to a Kerbside Location MUST be facilitated to approach that Stop in a controlled and safe manner.
Rathmines offered the long,straight stretch of Road which could have facilitated this,but the Local Authority plumped instead for the tightly boxed-in approach,always guaranteed to result in a typically Irish Engineered Mess of a solution.

How does all of that sound then......?

poggyone wrote: »

Drivers usually have the front door up to kerb before opening, if accident happen at front when bus not near kerb the driver is screwed, it is much harder in dublin to get middle door near to kerb. Therefore driver is taking a gamble every time they open middle door when not close to kerb.
Why would you take the risk?

Anytime I'm in London its always the middle doors that you get off. They seem to manage it ok. And dwell times are much shorter as a result and you don't have to wait for all disembarking passengers to get off before those getting on can do so.

cdebru wrote: »

TFL have guidelines for bus stop design which means they don't just stick a pole in the ground and hope for the best, and have you ever seen taxis make a defacto rank at a bus stop in London ?

Don't Dublin Bus also have guidelines for bus stop design? Or at least the pavements seems to be designed for their buses near me. It doesn't explain why the middle doors aren't being used. If its safe to get off onto the pavement at the front door then what is unsafe about the middle one ? I'm just curious as they seem to manage it fine in London, and most other major European capitals from what I can recall too. Are things more dangerous in Dublin for some reason? I can think of plenty of eastern European capitals whose streets are made of cobblestone and yet passengers don't seem to have problems using the middle doors, its the done thing if anything

I'd suggest that the majority of bus stops are ones where there isn't that much pulling in to do, i.e. they're on the side of the road and the bus just stops on its route.

Irrespective of whose fault it is it all comes back on the customer at the end of the day. Longer dwell times mean longer journeys for everyone on board. It seems daft to me that Dublin Bus is investing in buses with middle doors which we know are effective at cutting dwell times but then not using them.

Muahahaha wrote: »

Anytime I'm in London its always the middle doors that you get off. They seem to manage it ok. And dwell times are much shorter as a result and you don't have to wait for all disembarking passengers to get off before those getting on can do so.

i'd imagine in london the stops are set up for such operation, and you don't have other vehicles being able to park in them

How is it that the Gardaí know better than the local authority where a bus stop would best be placed?