Is this a thing on the bus now in London?

[IrritatedEarthling]

I'm in London for work this week, I don't live there. I'm visibly pregnant (shouldn't make a difference to this story)

I went to the bus stop to wait for the bus, it was only five minutes' wait (hooray, London!)

I stood near to the bus stop sign, rather than sitting inside the shelter. Whilst I was waiting, some other women - three of them - arrived separately with some small children. They looked about 5-7 years old. I realised that they were nannies as the children were addressing them by their Christian names, rather than "Mummy". The ladies knew each other as they chatted together.

One lady stood close to me.

A bus arrived, and someone got off and walked away, and as I didn't get on it, it now became clear that I was waiting for the only other bus that visits the stop.

As the bus arrived, the lady near me stepped ahead of me to get on the bus. It's hard to describe, but i had thought I was in the "getting on" position, and I had my payment hels out in my hand. The other two ladies approached too, stepping ahead of me. However as I was first, I- without pushing, touching or glaring, stepped ahead of lady number 2.

I was thinking, well I was here first.

But I heard her say to my back, "Really?!" as though I was very rude. I got on and the priority seat had been taken by lady number one, so I went and sat a few seats back.

Was I rude? Are you supposed to give priority to people with children? I do have a child of my own aged 4 and when I was with him in the evening yesterday nobody let us cut in front, and neither did I expect it.

What should I have done? How does the queue system for a bus work now in London?

@Gwenhwyfar True, but in the scenario I described the person in question is of Jewish faith.
The thread is an open one, and I'm not the only one who commented on the use of the term.

The only time I have seen an orderly queue was at a train station. I think Waterloo? They were all white city workers!

If you let everyone else on on a busy route then you'll never get on yourself.

I would give way to the elderly, less able to walk, pregnant women but that’s it.

A busy bus route has many buses

Do you mean they worked at White City? Or they were all white people? Because the second would be patently untrue.

And people need to get to where need to get to on time. Not everyone has the time to do a leisurely amble to work and then let half the world on before you.

Possibly. I avoid buses for the reasons I have stated!!

This. I lived in London from 1981 to 2004 and sometimes in the late 80s, early 90s, bus stop discipline began to break down and became the scrum it is today.

We both get really busy and trains to work - hospital appointments other connections etc regularly outside London and everyone where we live managed to wait and be polite to everyone else.

I suppose though if it becomes so common not to wait those that do do get disadvantaged - so it errodes the common etiquette.

You avoid buses because of gang fights, sexual assaults and drunks? Blimey where do you live?

But you don't live in london now?

There is no formal queuing for buses in London, not least because you often get two or three at a stop at the same time so everyone just scrambles for the one they want to get on. That said it would be unusual for people to push and shove and its not uncommon for people to gesture for me to get on first (older woman and younger men). It might blow your mind OP but the new Heatherwick buses actually have 3 doors you can use to get on the bus so queuing to get onto one of those would defeat the purpose of speedier boarding.

South east london 😂have lived here all my life.

Sounds awfully dangerous, i wonder how the thousands of other se londoners cope?

Its over 30 years since my first commuting pregnancy and then as now there were people who queued, people who didn’t, people who offered seats to visibly pregnant or disabled passengers, people who didn’t. Same on tubes and buses (but even less inclination to “queue” on the tube).

Pretty much the only difference I’ve noted on buses since then is that the implementation of wheelchair spaces seems to be regarded as an open invitation by a subset of parents to take oversized pushchairs on buses without closing them down even when actual disabled passengers join the bus. That didn’t happen way back simply because there was nowhere to put them and bus drivers would refuse them.

Having said that I noticed in Malta ( several years ago admittedly), nuns used to travel free on the buses… they would try to pay but the driver invariably waved them on!

There are 5 million bus journeys per day in london and there are 9.9 crimes per a million passenger journeys. Pretty safe i reckon.

To shit, with apologies.

@IrritatedEarthling

Where was the bus stop, OP?

I'm asking because it sounds as though it wasn't in the City or West End.

In the City, people gather around the bus stop and the order in which people get on depends on who is right by the bus door as the driver stops.

If I saw a pregnant woman, an older person, or someone with little children, I would usually gesture that they could get on before me and then be the next person to get on, but other people might not.

They keep their eyes on the floor, headphones in and pretend it's not happening. That it's all worth it because there are some museums and galleries they might go to sometimes if they could be bothered.

They take their chances... it's like russion roulette out there...
Tbh I have been sexually assaulted on london transport and also had a gang fight on a bus I was on, the london bus bombings were on a bus route I took to work too and I was early that day. And a school girl got stabbed to death in the morning on a bus route near my house last year. And then a 14 year old boy got stabbed to death on anotheer bus in south east london a few months later. A father with his son was stabbed to death on a train on the line that I use to go into london reguarly just a coupe of hears ago too So I accept my transport trauma probably plays a part in my view of buses.

Not surprised OP!

I live in London (but from a different part of the UK) and I recently went to baby clinic. It’s walk in only annoyingly, as it’s extremely busy. I was told by the health visitor it’s common practice to arrive early. Anyway, I went, arriving early, and held the door open for two other mums with prams who arrived after me. They then hastily jumped in front of me in the sign in queue, walking in front of my pram in the queue, so were seen before me! 🤣

People are dickheads…

I'm not sure queuing for public transport in the city is really a 'thing' these days. People tend to dither amongst themselves about where they're going to sit, so I try to time getting to a door position as the train pulls up. That way I can find a corner to perch in out of the way and don't have to ask people to move so I can get off at the first stop. Most of the time people pay so little attention to their surroundings (glued to a phone with headphones on) that you're lucky if you can walk anywhere without people bumping into you. Many have also mastered taking up the whole pavement whilst walking at a snail's pace.

People have been complaining about London for centuries.

London is still London though.

If you were there first, you should’ve got on first 🙂
I’ve been told off by a bus driver for not allowing his passengers to get off before I got on! Wasn’t a thing back in the day, always plenty of room 🤷‍♀️