Random reminder

Press, 21 July 1986, Page 12

Random reminder

PSYCHABUS A bus route in Birmingham is attracting customers. That fact is itself attracting attention. It is most unusual for urban transport to do well, be it in Britain or in New Zealand. Psychologists are speculating on why this particular journey, Birmingham Route 65, should show such puzzling results. Somewhat over a year ago, the operators gained permission to run their vehicles on the otherwise unused concrete median strip of a dual road. The buses are no more frequent than they were, and are only marginally faster. Patronage has steadily increased, against all other trends, and is now 65 per cent higher than before the change. Fascinating to the outsider is this vision of a Thatcherite Britain where a median strip wide enough for buses safely to pass each other is not only bare of trees and grass but is concreted to a sufficient depth to carry the load. What loads must the carriageways themselves be designed to bear? U.S. Army missile transporters, no doubt. The Birmingham City Council is more interested in why it should be that 16 people want to catch Big Reds this year for every 10 last year, at least on Route 65. They have

come up with an answer. People have more confidence in being picked up if the vehicle does not share its path with other “unfriendly” vehicles. People know that the very next vehicle will bring them comfort, security, and all those nice psychological feelings. They are relieved of the strain of searching and scanning and signalling. They can relax. The bus WILL come. The bus WILL stop. The operators, delighted, are spending a little money on putting digital timepieces at each bus stop. Passengers can see at a glance when the next bus is due: This is expected to increase the number of journeys taken on impulse during non-peak periods. The C.T.B. need not rush out and demand the impossible. All it needs to do is to put decent timetables and maps at every bus stop, as the Aucklanders do, replacing the cheap slim-jims which refer to unknown termini whose buses may already have gone. And then, perhaps by means of fluorescent flags, perhaps by means of rotating beacons, perhaps by the same means our milkman uses — “Greensleeves" on an air-horn — they should let the bus be known to be on its way.