[183/365] too tired to think of new words to say

[cosmolinguist]

...so I'm copying this from what I just wrote on Facebook, sorry.

Turns out spending a couple of hours standing at bus stops not getting on buses is really tiring!

I think it was very useful though too, so it's worth it. Today me and a Stagecoach inspector collected a lot of data on how far the drivers fall from the standard expected of them, to stop for blind people and to tell us what service they are.

Bless him, he says he turned up expecting to prove me wrong. Instead, everything that always happens when I'm waiting for buses happened -- they didn't stop, or they stopped somewhere they couldn't check whether I wanted their bus, or they just stared right at me and still didn't say anything. He went away rather disappointed! But very keen to improve things, and I'm hopeful for our (me, RNIB and them) future plans to do just that.

Time for pizza now, and maybe even a beer! I feel I've earned it.

Comments

[askygoneonfire]

Great that they came out with you and got to see first hand how awful it is. I'm sort of really glad it was as bad as it ever was? Hopefully something significant is going to shift now.

[cosmolinguist]

I'm really glad too. There was a bus before I'd even gotten settled in at the first stop but after that there was a long wait before the next bus, which I spent thinking things like "what if nothing goes wrong today like when you ask someone to fix a thing and suddenly it isn't broken any more?" But then buses started showing up and being disgraceful again, so that's alright. :) I'm hopeful for significant changes too.

[miss_s_b]

* snuggle *

That does sound exhausting, yes. I am glad it also seems to have been productive, though.

[cosmolinguist]

Yep, I don't mind being useless for the rest of the day if it ends up being worth it.

[softfruit]

What everyone else said already.

And kind of handy that today wasn't a freaky, we-know-the-inspector-is-around-so-behave, day for the drivers.

[cosmolinguist]

At the first bus stop, after a while a driver did stop just for me, told me what number he was and asked what bus I wanted (I needed a better answer to that really! I got asked a few times), saying there'd been a heads-up about me on the radio. The inspector I was with thought this was very interesting, checked with the depots and since none of them had put the call out he reckoned there must have been a (ticket) inspector on one of the buses who had spotted me. :)

[haggis]

Interesting that someone DID try and nobble your test and so many of the drivers still can't be bothered.

[cosmolinguist]

It's not nobbling really, it's part of what we were testing. This is something wheelchai-using friends have experienced too, a driver asking what bus they're waiting for and then putting a call out to make sure the next one of that service knows to look out for a wheelchair user at that particular stop. We're fine with drivers helping each other like that because it helps us too.

We didn't stay at that stop much longer after we found that out, I think it was only one more bus, so it's impossible to tell how it affected the other drivers' behavior.

[mtbc]

It's great that you did this. Always helps if people's impression of things actually has some grounding in reality!

[sir_guinglain]

Well done on making your case, but I'm sorry it's still going on.

[cosmolinguist]

Oh of course it's still going on. It's an entrenched, systemic problem that I want a systemic fix for. It's going to take a long time. I can be patient.

[jack]

Oh gosh, well done.

[(Anonymous)]

go you!!! I'm really so happy that RNIB seems to actually want to change.

[cosmolinguist]

The RNIB person I'm working with is a campaigns officer and she's very busy trying to change a lot of things.

[jesse_the_k]

Thank you for spending your energy in this work, which could help so many!

[cosmolinguist]

I hope it does!

[swingandswirl]

I'm glad the inspector got to see that there is a problem, AND that he's keen to improve things! Fingers crossed it happens fast and with minimum fuss, though I sincerely doubt that.

[cosmolinguist]

Well this is one step in a big process, but there are already plans afoot for a follow-up meeting and other avenues we're using to tackle the problem.