Why don’t people queue in bus stop anymore?

Hmm, some of the posts on here have verged on the xenophobic .

According to the statistics above you can’t be British if you’re not white.

I think I am glad I don't live in London. Does 1 constitute a queue? I am sometime on my own. If it's raining I am one of the late comers and nip across from my house as close to time as I can. We do have a pretty bus shelter - with hanging baskets in the Best Village season - but my home is warmer. If there are more of us we come into the "remembering who came first" category with "the old or frail get preference" caveat.

We do sometimes have more when U3A Bus Pass groups come to see our castle - some wait at the bus stop (in the pretty shelter if it's raining) and some walk down to the castle and back but they are all very chatty. And kind. I don't think I have ever heard race mentioned.

No ... not moving to London.

most people who live in London are British
According to the 2011 census.
London population 8mil +
44.9% white British
37% born outside the uk.
24.5% born outside Europe.

The first time I came across the ‘who shoves hardest, gets on the bus’ was in Liverpool in the 1970s. I had recently moved there. The pushing and shoving wasn’t limited to any particular age group, and at that time, most people appeared to be British born. Most passengers were people heading into town to work or possibly for shopping. The first time it happened, I was near the front of the ‘queue’ which descended into a mob when the bus arrived. I missed the bus and was late for my appointment. Next time I joined in the pushing - the guilt only lasted until I was on the bus. Nowhere else I’ve lived seems to have a problem with queueing, but I’ve never tried in London.

Bus queues working ok in West Midlands!

Speaking as a Londoner myself.. you will find that most of central London is made up of tourists from abroad who just do not understand the concept of the British queue..hence nobody queues much in London these days.

Well I live in London and the bus stop I use the most has about 7-8 different buses using it. People wait in the shelter or sit on the nearby benches and when a bus arrives the 3-4 people waiting for that bus move forward and get on in no particular order. Never any problem to be honest. Many people shout their thanks to the driver too as they exit the bus and if drivers see you hurrying to catch the bus they will wait for you!

Please don’t blame foreigners and claim all Brits are the model of politeness when it comes to queuing, such sweeping generalisations are not my experience. Maybe it’s a city vs country cultural thing. Plus, guess what, most people who live in London are British, but a lot of people who travel in the centre on busses are tourists,

Don't get me started on this! There are two buses that I can use that serve the university (and are subsidised so cheap for me if it's before 9am). The students do not queue. They block the pavement. Some of the bus stops are used only by the uni buses, others are shared. At stops that the uni buses do not use there is always an orderly queue. At shared bus stops the students have little regard for queues. Often I have been first in the queue, the uni bus arrives and I can be last on. Students arrive and stand at the front of the queue or perhaps see a friend at the front of the queue and join him/her. Once on the bus they rarely offer me a seat (the uni bus is often heaving) or they sit on the aisle seat thus blocking a seat or taking up a seat with a large suitcase or I'm hit in the face by a rucksack (don't they realise that when taking off or putting on a rucksack it swings round, woe betide anyone in its flight path). The uni buses are more frequent than the other buses but I try to avoid them. Here, many of the students are Chinese but the English students are just as bad at queueing.

The OP may think the worst offenders are schoolchildren and others think “pushing in” is fairly new but I’m sorry to say I dreaded catching the bus home from school in the 60s/70s if there were middle aged or older women behind me in the queue as I was pretty sure I would be elbowed aside.
I had 8-9 miles to travel and only one bus an hour. It was a bus stop just outside Manchester so was often nearly full when it arrived and invariably only took on a handful of people. As there were busses every few minutes going along the first four or five miles of the route, I knew some of these sharp elbowed adults weren’t needing to catch my “once an hour” bus - so it was all doubly frustrating.
It has even happened to me on two or more consecutive busses so that in the summer I would sometimes walk halfway then get a different bus for the rest of the journey - or even walk home.
None of us children could complain though - one who did was reported to the head teacher for lack of respect for elders!
I still feel cross about it now and am mindful of young people if they are “ahead” of me somewhere.

I met a lovely young woman in the bus queue yesterday.
We told each other a bit about our lives.
Her husband has depression, and it has been a hard time for her, and I told her about my troubles.
I saw her getting off the bus as I got on, today, and she gave me a little cuddle and asked if I was ok

When I am "home" in the UK visiting the North West, I love waiting in bus queues, and get to know so many people before they orderly step onto the bus, then politely thank the driver, this happens in a big City also the rural area where we visit, I love coming home to politeness.

Where I live, parents drive their offspring (of varying ages) to a layby where coaches wait at 7am to take their pupils to school. Each coach for a different school and some have the school badge/logo on the side. As it's an infrequent bus service in these parts and they are privately educated kids, it's all part of the school fees ??
No children queuing at any bus stop here, not even in the holidays.
Everyone else is unfailingly polite and, when I've used the bus, everyone thanks the driver.

I agree with Beau, it happens mainly in London, as most are foreigners there, and dont have the British politeness and orderliness in queues.I live in another Country, and they dont know what queueing is, they just push on regardless of who was at the bus stop first, they never thank the driver and dont stand up for the elderly or people with children.

I've never known school kids to queue up when the bus arrive. I'm in my 60's and can remember having to join the scrum to make sure I got a seat.

Really nice to read that where I live isn't the only place where people queue and thank the driver when they get off!
I've had a few overseas visitors who are quite disconcerted when they hear the "Thank you!"s as people get off the bus!

The woman sitting next to me on our village bus yesterday was tutting away to herself about passengers talking & joking with each other & the driver. She said " You wouldn't get that in London where I come from". "Nice isn't it" I said, "we know lots of people on this route," Nice?" she scoffed "it's effin' weird".....end of conversation.

People still queue here, love it

Though I am dreading the day the schoolchildren push their friends back "to let the old lady on", which I've seen happen here!

I just don't get the point of not queuing - it's the logical thing to do and makes life so much easier for all concerned. Fortunately we still do it up here - even when there are seated areas and a queue people usually insist that they get on in the right order. And yes, we all thank the driver! I dread getting on buses and trains with suitcases when on holiday. You can be there first and still be trampled underfoot!

We all get on in order of arrival and everyone thanks the driver when they get off. Most drivers are chatty. I'm only using them at the moment as I temporarily can't drive, I've been pleasantly surprised as I hadn't used buses for years

Only the British queue or used to for buses and trains. Anywhere else in Europe you edge or push forward hoping to get on.

The real free for all are the Spanish intercity trains, where the elderly go in for bashing their luggage against other passengers' legs while fighting to get on

In Lancashire every one gathers in the shelter and usually chats. There is no queue but when the bus comes everyone gets on meticulously in the order of arrival at the bus stop. There is a lot of “after you”, “no you were first” etc.. Also there is a lot of thanking the driver, mostly by the older people.

My London Freedom pass allows me to travel on buses, tubes and British rail out as far as Zone 6 at any time for nothing.
I think in general giving children free travel has been a bad thing. Their behaviour at best is noisy and at worst obnoxious. Kids in London invariably go to school near their homes as the catchment areas are so small so they pile on buses just to go one or two stops which they should really walk. When I worked in a London secondary school teachers had to do duty supervising the kids on to the buses as there were always so man6 complaints about behaviour!