Complaints against bus drivers

The BBC made a Freedom of Information request about the types and number of complaints being made against bus drivers – full story here. These statistics are for London only but I wonder if the rest of the UK would be much different?

The top 3 positions are not unexpected. Number 4; Fare Issues does strike me as a bit odd unless they’re not really complaints against the driver but complaints against what the passenger sees as a high (but correct) price. The biggest surprise for me was the number 5 position; Refusing Wheelchair/Pushchair it even beats ‘Insufficient time to Board/Alig’ and ‘Vehicle Moved Off Too Quickly’ added together! Then again, if most wheelchair users have the same attitude and expectations as this young man then perhaps I should not be surprised. “Disabled people cannot be treated like this.” he says when he was unable to board a bus which already had another wheelchair occupying the allocated space. I’m sorry he had to wait for the next bus bus just the same as I’m sorry for able bodied people who have to wait for the next bus when the one they expected to catch is at full capacity for seated and standing passengers. I wonder if the able bodied left behind would say “It makes you feel extremely victimised.”?

Driver – Attitude/Rude Behaved 22,542
Driver – Failure to Stop/Not Picking Up 20,657
Driver – Poor/Dangerous Driving 10,997
Driver – Fares Issue 3,627
Driver – Refusing Wheelchair/Pushchair 1,551
Driver – Early run/late run 1,272
ZSERVICE/Not assigned 1,216
Driver – Insufficient time to Board/Alig 1,193
Driver – Engine run on stand 1,180
Driver – Deviate from Route 914
Driver – Discriminatory Behaviour 523
Driver – Radio/Phone/PA 274
Driver – Alleged Assault 241
Driver – Vehicle Moved Off Too Quickly 166
Driver – Smoking 165
Driver – Staff Smoking 137
Driver – Securing Wheelchair 56
Driver – Lack of Toilet facilities 33
Driver – Appearance 33

In total 66,000 complaints have been made in the last 3 years. During the same period 5,400,000,000 (5.4 billion) bus journeys were made in London which makes the complaint rate remarkably low.

Chibuku, ‘the beer of good cheer’

This video refers to drinking skud in Zimbabwe. The drink was originally called chibuku (after the name of the brewery) and was known as ‘the beer of good cheer’. Originally it was sold in wax cartons similar to milk cartons. Now it’s sold in plastic containers called scuds named after the scud missile and the drink is now referred to as scud. The container does actually look like something which you’d ram into a launcher and then send skyward. Here’s a picture of a scud of chibuku.

A good description of chibuku including such information as “Actually, chibuku contains lumps of matter, not dissimilar in texture to cottage cheese, which may or may not be related to sawdust” can be read here. Having drunk chibuku myself I can confirm that this is indeed an accurate description.

PS Nice socks!

Washing Care Label

Any ideas what this washing care label might refer to?

Wash at 40C, drip dry and don’t iron.

Click here for the answer.

It’s my son’s LG Viewty which he left in the pocket of a pair of trousers. My wife then put the trousers into the washing machine along with other stuff for a 40 degree wash, added wash powder and rinse aid before starting the machine and getting on with other things. About 20 minutes later my son wandered into the kitchen asking his mother where his mobile was! The mobile was retrieved, shaken as if it were a dog after a swim and left alone all night. This morning it powered up and switched on! Screen quality is a bit degraded and the touch screen doesn’t work so a call can’t be dialled. However, we tried calling the ‘phone and it rang on the incoming call! I connected it to my PC via USB cable and was able to communicate with it and download all the video and pictures on it. It’s now being left to see if any more functionality returns after more drying. After it was retrieved from the washing machine I was all for just chucking it in the bin, glad I didn’t bet anything on it ever working again.

Come on, be reasonable!

Here’s a story about a bus driver refusing to open the exit doors on a bus in order to board a double width buggy which wouldn’t fit through the entry door. I’m sure there must be an exaggeration of what really happened by one side or the other so I’m not really commenting on this specific incident but my own observations of double width buggies. And my own observations have led me to the conclusion that they are owned and operated by totally, completely, utterly, 100%, selfish people!

Double width buggies are pushed along city streets as if they were snow ploughs sweeping anyone in their path either into the road or backing them into a doorway. They are pushed round supermarkets blocking the aisles. They clog department stores.

It’s not as if alternatives aren’t available, there are plenty of double in-line buggies which are no wider than a single buggy. There are some which though still in-line verge toward being double deckers in that the back seat is raised. So, other than the selfishness of commandeering as much space as possible, what reason can there be for the double width buggy?

This double width buggy is 80cm wide! Compared with the average wheelchair width of less than 70cm. Actually the width of a wheelchair is almost irrelevant – it needs to be as wide as it is otherwise it cannot do it’s job. This is not something you can say of the two toddler buggy.