Action Bus Seat Logic

A soda can?

Erg0 said :

EvanJames said :

Erg0 said :

Except the private school kids sat down the back.

Radford may be private, but it’s a wannabe Grammar school and always has been. The students are a graceless lot, and if you complained about them hogging the oldies’ seats to their school, belike they’d do nothing. A real Grammar school would locate the offenders and tell them off.

I’d thought that the point of sitting at the back was that it put you further from the authority figure down the front. That was certainly the reason that we used to do it.

Damn Gen Y kids, too lazy to even walk the length of a bus…

Isn’t Radford the stop before Belconnen so it would be better if passengers disembarking at Radford sat at the front of the bus?

gentoopenguin said :

I wrote the piece as a humourous dig at Action Buses but it does raise a question about the usability of the ageing bus fleet for passengers. Yes, I could stand. But what about the pensioner who catches my bus each morning? Or the woman with the broken arm?

The tone did not come across as humourous, rather someone getting their knickers in a knot over a minor issue, but thats just how I read it.

The pensioner or the woman with the broken arm sit at the front. If school kids are sitting there, they should be asked to move. Chances are they’re not the most badass kids ever (otherwise they’d be up the back) so there shouldn’t be any problems.

EvanJames said :

Erg0 said :

Except the private school kids sat down the back.

Radford may be private, but it’s a wannabe Grammar school and always has been. The students are a graceless lot, and if you complained about them hogging the oldies’ seats to their school, belike they’d do nothing. A real Grammar school would locate the offenders and tell them off.

I’d thought that the point of sitting at the back was that it put you further from the authority figure down the front. That was certainly the reason that we used to do it.

Damn Gen Y kids, too lazy to even walk the length of a bus…

FD10 said :

And to the OP, seriously, what do you expect Action to do? Tear the seat out? Lengthen the bus by 30cm just to put in some leg room? Replace the bus on YOUR route (only to shove it onto some other route to let someone else deal with it)?.

I dont know, perhaps decide to buy buses that have one less row in them so you dont end up with a seat that is essentially unuseable for anyone of a useful height? Or maybe change the bus so it is used on a less busy route so no one needs that seat (or, even, have a special school bus for Radford?)

I find being a tall guy myself that sitting diagonally on the seat solves the problem of breaking my knees on the on in front. Incidentally, this also works at the footy.

FD10 said :

EvanJames said :

To solve your problem how about you wake up earlier and catch an earlier bus? Or invest in a car/motorbike/bicycle/rollerblades/helicopter. This way you’ll never have to deal with old bus drivers, old bus suspension, school kids up the front, and other commuters taking your preferred choice of seat again. Or if worst comes to worst, stand up?

A helicopter. Great idea. All our public transport issues are solved. Genius.

I wrote the piece as a humourous dig at Action Buses but it does raise a question about the usability of the ageing bus fleet for passengers. Yes, I could stand. But what about the pensioner who catches my bus each morning? Or the woman with the broken arm?

ThisIsAName said :

Lazy I said :

On the subject of ACTION buses, I always love seeing the aqua blue one around that has “save our fossil fuels” or similar painted down the side with hand painted dinosaur bones on it… it would have to be the oldest gas guzzler in the fleet..

I recall seeing that bus in 1995/96, so it is at least 15-16 years old…

There are a couple of them – circa 1992.

EvanJames said :

Radford may be private, but it’s a wannabe Grammar school and always has been. The students are a graceless lot, and if you complained about them hogging the oldies’ seats to their school, belike they’d do nothing. A real Grammar school would locate the offenders and tell them off.

Another “accurate” opinion founded on sour grapes. I’m sure your intimate knowledge of the intentions of Radford’s founding and discipline policy are quite well known to you, right? Moron.

And to the OP, seriously, what do you expect Action to do? Tear the seat out? Lengthen the bus by 30cm just to put in some leg room? Replace the bus on YOUR route (only to shove it onto some other route to let someone else deal with it)?

To solve your problem how about you wake up earlier and catch an earlier bus? Or invest in a car/motorbike/bicycle/rollerblades/helicopter. This way you’ll never have to deal with old bus drivers, old bus suspension, school kids up the front, and other commuters taking your preferred choice of seat again. Or if worst comes to worst, stand up?

The only “real” issue I see in the OP is the one of Action’s punctuality (further demonstrated again in #7), but it is one done to death.

I love the bus systems in Canberra, and the buses they use. I get a great view from the ariconditioned seat of my car.

Erg0 said :

Except the private school kids sat down the back.

Radford may be private, but it’s a wannabe Grammar school and always has been. The students are a graceless lot, and if you complained about them hogging the oldies’ seats to their school, belike they’d do nothing. A real Grammar school would locate the offenders and tell them off.

Lazy I said :

On the subject of ACTION buses, I always love seeing the aqua blue one around that has “save our fossil fuels” or similar painted down the side with hand painted dinosaur bones on it… it would have to be the oldest gas guzzler in the fleet..

I recall seeing that bus in 1995/96, so it is at least 15-16 years old…

Those old busses are actually far more comfortable for tall people such as myself. Apart from the stoopid seat at the back that gentoopenguin’s referring to, the new ones have considerably less leg room on almost all seats. (The first of the new green ones did have an awesome, but always taken, seat immediately behind the rear door. This design flaw was rectified on the second generation green busses and there is now nowhere for anyone over 190cm tall to sit with any legroom except the side facing seats at the front, meaning everyone else has to trip over their legs when they board. Based on my public transport missioning in other cities, it seems that we are unique, with the exception of Melbourne trams, in providing public transport that only short people can travel on.)

If it makes you feel any better, the buses I caught in Perth in my youth are exactly the same.

Except the private school kids sat down the back.

My bus didn’t turn up this morning, it was broken down and I had to wait 35 minutes for the next one. I guess the Action Bus gods were angry at my seating rant.

When I were a lad it was the same bus!

Is this only on the older buses?

From memories of my youth spent pondering this same question on buses, it has to do with the rear wheel arch location. I think either that row or the row in front is mounted over a wheel arch (or heater box?) so that you have ‘to the floor’ leg room. If it was moved forward/back you would have your feet up on the wheel arch / heater box.. which would probably be more uncomfortable.

On the subject of ACTION buses, I always love seeing the aqua blue one around that has “save our fossil fuels” or similar painted down the side with hand painted dinosaur bones on it… it would have to be the oldest gas guzzler in the fleet.. and it is regularly belching thick black smoke over the cars behind it.

Luckily a bus spotter has this image of said bus:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kommissar_todd06/1405710685/.

For those playing at home it’s BUS-971, a Renault PR100.2mkII

When I were this young whipper-snapper’s age I had to get up at 3am, walk the cow, milk the dog, split the water bucket and carry the firewood in for the washing (I wasn’t much of a morning person) before setting out to climb the north face of the glacier to make it to the one roomed school run by a gnarled old buggar who would happily give you six of the best for even raising your eyes during prep which lasted until it was time to go home anyway, and on the way home I had to go via the trade store on the other side of the lake and because we were too poor to afford a boat I had to swim and buy the paper for the old man and swim back with it above the water so it didn’t get so much as a drop because if it did the old man would give me a thrashingg to within an inch of my life before my mum would come home from her ‘job’ at the saloon and if I didn’t have dinner ready she would tie me to the bass pedal on her drum kit and practise until well past midnight when I would be allowed to jump into bed for five minutes to act as a hot water bottle for my spoilt sister before taking the 1am shift watching out for the bandidos who would terrorise the type of isolated farmhouse we inhabited, before starting again at 3am… and this person has a complaint about the legroom and suspension provided on a warm dry and comfortable bus that takes him on a journey I would have considered a warm up run before heading out to the dunny out the back? You young people today, you don’t know how good you’ve got it!

“There is zero legroom”
Looks like there is Max leg room, not Zero leg room…

I’m sure we’re all relieved that Gentoopenguin’s fingernails have compiled cleanly.