Why don’t people queue in bus stop anymore?

As an ex-Londoner myself I would have to agree that the custom of queueing in an orderly manner for a bus has sadly declined in the capital and probably other cities around the UK. School children are often pushy, noisy, rude and intimidating when travelling, but so too are adults. When I worked in a London school I often travelled home at the same time as the kids going home andd the bus drivers were often relieved to have a staff member on the bus, and I must admit the kids were a little more restrained in their behaviour if they thought I might report them!

We now live in a small village on the South Coast where the buses are far less frequent, but they will stop anywhere to pick you up or drop you off. Everyone has a friendly word and a Thank You for the driver (even the kids) or maybe even a sweetie or an apple, and the bus 'queues' (rarely more than 3 people) are always friendly, polite and helpful. The buses nearly always run on time so people who live near a bus stop will remain in their homes until the bus is due then dash to the stop. I wouldn't want to return to the free-for-all 'queues' of London now.

GillT57 - I think you and I caught the same bus!!

Yes,as Petra says, only 36.7% of Londoners were actually born outside the UK.

As a schoolchild I had a long bus journey to school, and I can tell you that it wasn't the pupils that pushed, it was the 'old ladies'! It always irritated me as to my young mind, they had all day to do whatever they were doing, whereas I would get ticked off for being late, and a detention for repeat offences. A half hourly bus service, old ladies with sharp elbows was a bad combination

In my opinion queueing for the bus disappeared in central London round about 1987! Remember queueing for a bus with my four youngsters and when the bus appeared so did a gaggle of folk who simply pushed my children and the others queueing clean out of the way and it hasn’t improved in the 30 years since! Having grown up in central London, I left the area when I got married. Going back and discovering how things had changed really took my breath away. As a youngster who used public transport to get to school and back each day I know it was never like that.

lol yes me too Kim loevly lady and oblivious that she was being filmed by an office/shop worker..

Bikergran, selfishly, I was so disappointed when the bus came! Ta. Great fun.

I love watching the queuing you get sometimes in Scotland. People assemble randomly in the area of the bus stop and when the bus arrives everyone holds back until those who were already there when they arrived gets on before them. All so very polite (and choreographed) with much smiling and giving way. Another thing I love is seeing everyone thanking the driver. Sadly incomers don't seem to adopt that habit so perhaps it will die out in time.

Missdventure I think she became quite a celebrity .

I love that. Can't help but smile.

So ladies...next time your stood at the bus stop..iPhone in pocket and earplugs in!!

Come on girls lets see you lol.... lol

On lighter note....this lady makes me smile every.time I watch it
youtu.be/j9cd0ortxu0

Hope the link works!

Lack of queues for London buses has got worse in recent years. As an infrequent visitor I have noticed the problem more perhaps than those that live there. I wondered if it was due to other cultures not being in the habit of forming queues, but also suspect that the influence of the war generation, who had to queue for everything, is now being lost.

Sorry to hear that flump I am appalled and don't think that would happen here.

coast is it something about airports that make people behave badly? I won't let them jump in front of me and have been known to point out where the back of the queue is. One of the advantages of being a little old lady is that I can politely say what needs to be said and get away with it.

I always remember queuing for a plane. My mum in law barged right up to the front and called to us to join her. We had allocated seats and not much luggage. It was cringe making embarrassment.

That is abhorrent Flump, people should respect one another, whoever they are and wherever they are. How awful for you and your husband to experience racism when you’re out together, or for your husband when he’s alone. Racism has nothing to do with cultural differences, it’s often enriching to experience different cultures, but not to experience racism. I say often because there are certain cultural practices which I find abhorrent, FGM is an example. And it’s true to say that queuing is accepted in some cultures, and in others no one bothers to queue.

I don't agree with the British not being the offenders. I think elderly British people are the worst where I live. They seem to think if anyone is the slightest bit brown they should "know their place" and go to the back of the queue. I'm white husband isn't and I see the difference when we are together. Disgusts me.

Gracesgran, I am fully aware that cultural differences exist throughout the world. What on earth do you mean by pointing out what I clearly already know. I said that it’s not xenophobic to mention that cultural differences exist, and it’s not.

What a timely thread!

Yesterday we were on a busy commuter train in a big city (yes, I know the thread is about buses but still relevant) and found it difficult to get past all the people standing near the doors. We stood in the aisle right by the seats with notices saying "please offer these seats to people with disability or the elderly. No one made eye contact, no one offered a seat. It wasn't a long journey so we just stood there until an announcement said there was a delay and DH wondered how long he could stand as he has had major back surgery. He asked me, in a normal tone, how old one had to be to be considered elderly and havoc broke out. A couple in the not disabled seats offered their seats and we accepted and thanked them and said it should be the people in the seats behind who should offer. The woman in one of those seats got out her season ticket and said "I've paid for this seat" and then proceeded to tell the whole compartment that she was about to have a panic attack and had never had such a bad experience. She shouted that she had been using this train for 4 years and didn't know the seats were for people who needed them. She got the attention she wanted and eventually calmed down when the attention stopped. Her next step was to loudly offer us £10 so we could buy ourselves a drink and start complaining again about how bad we had made her feel. Of course we refused the money and didn't tell her how that made us feel. When we got off the train we were behind her as she walked off as calm as could be straight to her car. If her 'panic' or 'distress' had been as bad as she made out there was no way she would have been able to drive. So glad we don't live where people normally behave like that.

Here everyone sits in the bus shelter chatting and in some cases continue chatting when the bus comes and then get on the bus in an orderly manner, often insisting that someone looking unsteady or with a pushchair or shopping trolley gets on first. Everyone thanks the driver when they get off, whatever age. I know I shouldn't judge by appearances but it does always make me happy when a gum-chewing scruffy 'oik' politely says thank you to the driver or offers their seat to someone they think needs it more than them.

MPs annoy me when they think that we all get the London Freedom Pass. They work in London and see it in use and assume that their own constituents have it too.

I'm not sure what the 2011 Census figures quoted by petra actually prove. If 37% were born outside the UK then 63% were British by birth, regardless of colour, and more than two-thirds of them were white, not bad going for a cosmopolitan city with a lot of descendants of Empire/Commonwealth immigrants.

As a Londoner whose father was a Welsh immigrant job-seeker I am happy to be living here, and my bus queuing experience is the same as Niobe's. The single bus queue just doesn't work where one stop serves several routes which have a number of stops in common.

Beau that is exactly so.

But some posts implied that queuing was "polite", "British", and preferable to not queuing. Those who don't queue , therefore are acting in a non-British, impolite fashion. I would challenge that assumption, also the fact that many Londoners who maybe, the 3rd , 4th or more generation to be born here but happen not to be white are "foreigners" and not British. There are many reasons for queueing and not queuing and not just about whether someone is British or not - age of passengers, how many buses there are, cost of said bus travel, urban vs rural location, whether seating is provided at said bus stop, could all contribute to queueing behaviour and not just their nationality or cultural origins.

Maddyone, I think you will find cultural differences throughout the UK. We used to be proud of that fact. We were all still British and we still are. I think Niobe was being kind when she said some of the posts "verged" on the xenophobic.

Good point Suzied. Where do black/Asian/Far Eastern people born in the U.K. fit in to those statistics?

No posts on here are remotely xenophobic, mentioning people are or are not British is not xenophobic, nor is speaking of cultural differences ie queueing or not queueing.