Bendy buses - we should keep them for rough sleepers

[0a]

According to this Guardian blog the bendy buses were great because they allowed homeless people to get on without paying and stay warm...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/patrick-butler-c...

On another note, I see that on some routes the last bendy bus will run at just after midnight tonight.

Thank goodness- hateful bloody things, glad to see the back of them. They managed to piss me off as a pedestrian, driver and cyclist.

[thinfourth2]

Okay how did you do that?

How did you get a daily Mash article to appear with a guardian web address?

[0a]

I know! Sometimes I think most of the Guardian is a piss taking joke.

[AndyACB]

Are the bus drivers blind? The story makes out that the homeless use the buses because they're warm and free , free because they can sneak on without the driver making them swipe their Oyster card.

I'm sure if 70 people filed onto my bus and sat down I fking notice

If I stopped at a bus stop and a huge crowd got on without paying - again I think i'd notice!

Daily Mash/Guardian said:

He spent several nights filming passengers on the N29 route, which wends its way from Trafalgar Square in the centre of the capital out to Enfield in its northern suburbs and back again. Up to 70 homeless passengers would board the vehicle on any one trip. Once it reached its final destination (about an hour later), they would get off, and jump on the next bus heading south.

[0a]

I must admit I was surprised - can't the bendy driver use his mirrors? How is the upstairs of a normal bus different? I guess it could be the rear door?

[AndyACB]

Even if he can't see, 70 people at say 85kg each. That's 6000kg approx extra weight on your bus, are the engines so powerful that you wouldn't notice?

[0a]

AndyACB said:

Even if he can't see, 70 people at say 85kg each. That's 6000kg approx extra weight on your bus, are the engines so powerful that you wouldn't notice?

Noisy things (they used to pass outside my window) so they must be powerful...

[williamp]

some of the first to be removed from London are now in leicester doing the routes from the university to the city centre

[Pesty]

AndyACB said:

Even if he can't see, 70 people at say 85kg each. That's 6000kg approx extra weight on your bus, are the engines so powerful that you wouldn't notice?

i thought the gurdian was bothered about carbon footprints etc etc. Or does that all go out of the window when one of their other pet crusades is involved.

[0a]

williamp said:

some of the first to be removed from London are now in leicester doing the routes from the university to the city centre

I hoped they were cut up and scrapped.

[davepoth]

As it turns out it was very easy to not pay on a bendy bus - I managed to do it by accident once.

The drivers don't want to have an argument - all it would take is for one of those tramps to have a weapon (and a lot do I bet) and he could be in deep trouble.

[Tampon]

Bendy bus, not a fan of, I drive, motorbike and cycle in London.

Watching that video though, very moving, and the people on the buses, felt incredibly incredibly sad for them, especially the 22 year old lad who parents aren't here.

I think you judge a society by how they treat the worst off, that bus driver was a lovely bloke and tried to show empathy with people in a crappy situation. Good for him.

Edited by Tampon on Friday 9th December 18:40