Our broadband went down about 1 hour ago.

[Cudzoziemiec]

They even have live tracking in Keynsham, a town so backward it has Jacob Rees-Mogg as its MP.

[perpetual dan]

In Brighton it’s live tracking, except when it isn’t. However they haven’t (last I tried, haven’t used the bus much lately) found a way to distinguish between “tracker isn’t working” and “bus isn’t there”. Both cases fall back to timetabled times.

I’m not sure I’d count frequent timetable changes as an advantage. Once the bus is down to 4 an hour I’m aiming for a particular one. And mostly I have it’s time in my head. That gets broken by timetable changes, so I prefer the changes infrequent and predictable.

[Cudzoziemiec]

The paperless future is coming. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/travel/news/plan-to-scrap-printed-train-timetables-triggers-safety-fears/ar-AAPTzRq
Maybe. The article, apparently taken from the Daily Telegraph, throws tickets into the mix along with timetables, which seems like a larger and far more complicated undertaking.

[Jaded]

Local authorities etc.. seemed to have developed a recent obsession with QR codes.

QR codes are fine for their original intended purpose, but encouraging members of the public to use them as a means of opening website links is an inherently bad idea. It is trivial to produce official looking stickers/signs/leaflets with dodgy QR codes on them. Ideal for phishing etc..

Same with a bitly url. So it is not exclusive to QR codes. Any tech, and indeed lots of non-tech can be used as a vector for phishing.

[Kim]

Understandable reaction to how awkward it is to enter URLs on a touchscreen device, thobut.

[Mr Larrington]

In this part of London Town Devine our bus methodology is:

• Go to the bus stop
• Wait
• Get all excited when you spot something red in the distance
• Experience crushing disappointment when you realise it’s not moving, because it’s a post box
• Wonder what’s happened to the four buses that have gone the other way while you've been waiting given that the route terminates at the top of Larrington Towers Road.  Is there a wormhole in space-time that transports them back to Hackney Town Hall?
• Rinse
• Repeat

No new-fangled displays, QR codes or [“SCIENCE'S Telegraphic Marvel” – Ed.] here.

Just get an app or use the TfL countdown web site. Mine pings me 1 min before the bus arrives at the bus stop conveniently outside the pub.

Installs bus app.  No, you anbaric simpleton.  I am not in fucking Willesden.

[Afasoas]

Understandable reaction to how awkward it is to enter URLs on a touchscreen device, thobut.

I'd much prefer typing "mla.net/bus" rather than trusting a QR code or link shortening service, where mla is an abbreiviation of "my local authority".

Okay, so the bus stop has a number/code/identifier which will retrieve the relevant timetable. That's where things get tricky.

Option (a): Use device location awareness and work out where the bus stop is.
Option (b): Provide an identifier for the bus stop which is either appended to the URL or entered by the user into a web form.
Option (c): Use (a) with fallback to (b)
Option (d): Create 'MyLocalAuthorityBus' app which can scan a QR code type thing* to open the timetable. Has the advantage it could download and cache data when there is an Internet connection. Has the disadvantage that it's an app.


*Not a valid QR code so QR code readers won't read it. A nefarious person could still replace it with a QR code that does something nefarious. Still does nothing to discourage the general public from using QR codes etc..

Location awareness won't work for everyone and some. Typing out that identifier could be rather nasty for a local authority that has lots of bus stops.

[Cudzoziemiec]

But that only works where:
1) The would be passenger has a smartphone
2) There is internet connection or mobile signal at the bus stop
and
3) The buses are run by the local authority.

[Afasoas]

But that only works where:
1) The would be passenger has a smartphone
2) There is internet connection or mobile signal at the bus stop
and
3) The buses are run by the local authority.

1) In which case, what use is the QR code? =D ... but an app presents a whole world of problems, of which having a smart device to run it on is the most visible.
2) An app can periodically obtain information it requires, negating the need for an Internet connection at the bus stop (subject to certain other caveats)
3) Well, we really should have a national system for obtaining bus/travel information

Sometimes the low-tech solutions are the best. I'd favour a printed timetable at the bus stop.

[Jaded]

A local authority using a .net address would go straight in the bin.

[Cudzoziemiec]

But that only works where:
1) The would be passenger has a smartphone
2) There is internet connection or mobile signal at the bus stop
and
3) The buses are run by the local authority.

1) In which case, what use is the QR code? =D ... but an app presents a whole world of problems, of which having a smart device to run it on is the most visible.
2) An app can periodically obtain information it requires, negating the need for an Internet connection at the bus stop (subject to certain other caveats)
3) Well, we really should have a national system for obtaining bus/travel information

Sometimes the low-tech solutions are the best. I'd favour a printed timetable at the bus stop.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Next you'll be saying we really should have buses that run more often than twice a week!

[Kim]

If we had those, we might start to care about when they turn up.


(Are parliamentary buses a thing?)

[Jaded]

All the bus drivers have gone to drive HGVs, I understand...

[lissotriton]

Traveline is usually pretty good for bus times etc. Though still depends on the bus companies/local authorities actually supplying them with the data.

[Polar Bear]

All the bus drivers have gone to drive HGVs, I understand...

It is a growing problem, apparently.  Higher wages and less responsibility.

[Cudzoziemiec]

(Are parliamentary buses a thing?)

Good question. AIUI the question should perhaps relate to bus stops, as the purpose of the parly train is to avoid the legal process of shutting a station. I don't know but I semi-doubt if there's similar legislation about bus stops. Nevertheless, the once or twice a week bus is functionally equivalent. (Though I don't know if we have any bus stops equivalent to eg Pilning station, where the parly train only goes eastbound cos they removed the westbound platform. Or maybe we do?)

[Mr Larrington]

If we had those, we might start to care about when they turn up.


(Are parliamentary buses a thing?)

I don’t think so.  I mean, you never hear anyone say “She's on the gravy bus”, do you?

[Cudzoziemiec]

I am told by those who know (at least who know a lot more on this than I do) that a bus service can be withdrawn by giving statutory notice of 6 weeks to the bus commissioners. Furthermore, there's no obligation to provide a service a newly installed bus stop.

[ian]

In this part of London Town Devine our bus methodology is:

• Go to the bus stop
• Wait
• Get all excited when you spot something red in the distance
• Experience crushing disappointment when you realise it’s not moving, because it’s a post box
• Wonder what’s happened to the four buses that have gone the other way while you've been waiting given that the route terminates at the top of Larrington Towers Road.  Is there a wormhole in space-time that transports them back to Hackney Town Hall?
• Rinse
• Repeat

No new-fangled displays, QR codes or [“SCIENCE'S Telegraphic Marvel” – Ed.] here.

Just get an app or use the TfL countdown web site. Mine pings me 1 min before the bus arrives at the bus stop conveniently outside the pub.

Installs bus app.  No, you anbaric simpleton.  I am not in fucking Willesden.

Is Fucking Willeden near Kunting Kilburn?

But it is the future though, I can roll out of a (restaurant last night) and onto the bus with none of that nasty waiting in the bandity badlands of South Croydon where I would undoubtedly be eaten.

The buses to here should be every 10 minutes or so, but as is the nature of buses, there's a 200% variance.

[Cudzoziemiec]

And the very top news on the parliamentary bus: for seven years, until the stations officially closed, there was a parliamentary rail replacement bus serving Watford West and Croxley Green.

[yorkie]

For bus times, I tend to use Bus Times.org which can vary in information given per operator, depending on what the operator has enabled in the data feed from the ticket machine.


For example, in York it gives a map showing the location of all the buses running in the city - irrespective of operating company - and can be persuaded to show current timetables and the route any given bus has taken on previous journeys. Other locations may vary!


Edit: For those used to using Real Time Trains or Open Train Times, this is a roughly similar thing for buses.

[Kim]

That lead me to the TFWM API documentation, and I was about halfway through planning a when's-the-next-bus-from-our-nearest-stops display for near the front door when I realised that a) there's a pandemic  b) I have a several of perfectly good bicycles  and  c) Natalya can't walk.

[lissotriton]

You could buy a departure board, configure it for whatever stop you like. https://ukdepartureboards.co.uk/store/

[Polar Bear]

My timetable solution is to research the bus services that I regularly use.  I take a screen grab on my mobile of the current timetable and store these in a folder in my photo gallery called bus timetables.  When I need to use a bus I select the appropriate image and enlarge on screen to see what I need to see.

A mix of tech solution which doesn't require a 2g/3g/4g/5g connection but only rely useful to folk who already have the mobile phone tech.

In other news:

The broadband has remained reliable since the 8 hour outage.   This means of course that I can check and download the latest bus timetable if necessary before I leave the house today.  😃👍

[Kim]

My timetable solution is to research the bus services that I regularly use.  I take a screen grab on my mobile of the current timetable and store these in a folder in my photo gallery called bus timetables.  When I need to use a bus I select the appropriate image and enlarge on screen to see what I need to see.

A mix of tech solution which doesn't require a 2g/3g/4g/5g connection but only rely useful to folk who already have the mobile phone tech.

The great thing about having a smartphone is that you can cart gigabytes of useful data around in your pocket, just in case (I've got the whole UK in OS maps, for example).  Sadly, molishers of apps are reluctant to make use of this, assuming that you'll always have an internet connection.