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Re: why do buses always come in 3s? , math book?
Posted:
Jun 11, 2000 4:16 PM
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Peter <pmilne@the.net.nz> wrote:
> >Don McDonald wrote:
> >
> >> Buses always come in 3s.. 3 close together every 30
> >> minutes.
> >
How long (in minutes) is the route?
>
> Someone once said that buses run on the banana principle ie they run in
> bunches.
>
> In all seriousness this is recognised and I understand that modern
> technology is being applied to this problem. For example indicators at
> bus stops indicating when the next bus is likely (based on satellite
> global positioning system)
But AFAIK none of them yet say how full the bus is.
> and dispatchers who know exactly where every
> bus is and who can give instructions to bus drivers. For example if buses
> start to bunch, the first bus is told not to pick up passengers so he can
> get ahead (ideally the destination indicator should be turned off).
>
What sort of destination indicators do you have?
I hope they're issuing better instructions than your example, though.
Are they telling the drivers when to run early and when to overtake?
All this technology will reduce the problem, but it won't actually solve
it. Assuming the buses are starting at even intervals (if they're not,
it's the easiest thing to fix), traffic conditions are causing the
delays. Things such as bus lanes and traffic signal priority can fix
this. Then there's the time taken to board. Conductors are the solution
to that.
--
Aidan Stanger
From London, where buses don't come in threes, but on some routes they
come in twos.
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