What do we think of the new bus shelters?

Who the hell uses the Calwell playing fields stop? Try not only students, but soccer players on weeknights after training, on weekends for games, as well as me personally when i reffed at those fields. I’m pretty sure they’re utilised for other sports as well when its the soccer off-season, probably cricket in summer. Selfish canberrans always so willing to criticise, and from most of your comments i presume none of you were ever young yourselves.

there’s one right outside calwell playing fields.

Who the hell gets on the bus there? gahhhhhhhhh!

(oh, right, calwell high students, who will do a carney on them. or more..)

But yeah, i guess they’re better. and the seats are more comfy than the older ones, i guess.

At least now the carney can run away.

People will still continue to piss in the new shelters.

Having said that, the new style shelters will do a lot less to cars that slam into them than the old concrete bunkers.

PM said :

Strangely, I saw one of those concrete “bunker” bus stops painted blue located around Liverpool in Sydney over the weekend. I freaked. I thought they were only a Canberra thing… but I was wrong.

maybe it was sick of the cold, and moved…

Strangely, I saw one of those concrete “bunker” bus stops painted blue located around Liverpool in Sydney over the weekend. I freaked. I thought they were only a Canberra thing… but I was wrong.

Crikey said :

Well peterh the deal with the provider is that they maintain and clean the new shelters for free.

And I would suggest that they are more likely to do that compared to how the ACT Government look after their stock of bus shelters.

but, and there is a big but, how weather proof are they? even on a rainy day, the rain coming into the bus shelter, you can stand behind it (the concrete ones), still see the road and not get that wet.

The crucial difference with the new ones is that the government or ACTION dont pay for them
If we waited for ACTION to provide them, we’d wait a long time
So even if they’re useless against the wind and rain, they’re better than nothing

The orange and green are a bit bright, I would have preferred that they spent more money leaving some of the express services on the road. I hate that I have to switch buses at the Belco interchange, and the buses are ALWAYS full during peak hours…

Well peterh the deal with the provider is that they maintain and clean the new shelters for free.

And I would suggest that they are more likely to do that compared to how the ACT Government look after their stock of bus shelters.

toriness said :

i was about to say i preferred the old ones, because they had character but LG and RAGD’s comments ring much truer. and i second crikey’s motion to keep some of the old ones for historical purposes.

but if the new ones stay, how long till the local youth decide to:

pee on the seats
break the glass windows
break the seats
smash the billboards?

at least the old ones were made like a bunker – I remember seeing one that had a car stuffed into it after someone lost control at the end of spalding street and plowed straight in (it was empty). The shelter moved about a foot, but was still ok.

the driver wasn’t.

Old, new, we’ll take any we can get out around Gungahlin. Except in the town centre, you get nothing but a good stand in the rain…

i was about to say i preferred the old ones, because they had character but LG and RAGD’s comments ring much truer. and i second crikey’s motion to keep some of the old ones for historical purposes.

They look fine.

But I hope they keep a few of the old concrete ‘bunkers’ for history’s sake so we can show our children how it was in our days.

The new ones seem like they wouldn’t keep the wind totally out like the old ones used to. However they also seem like they wouldn’t stink up as much. People used to pee and vomit and whatever in the old ones and they used to stink. At least they used to when I used to catch buses in the mid 90’s.

Seems that Maccas almost has a monopoly on the advertising.

I think they’re good though.

Seriously, those old concrete things are so 1980’s.
Just like the old yellow bus stop poles were so 1970’s….

Advertising at bus stops was introduced by the Government so they could attract a private operator to maintain the bus stops. They get to make money from advertising while keeping the shelter looking nice an neat.

Saves the Gov from paying for mainenance.

I don’t use buses much, but i pass the shelters all the time, and i will say this – What’s the story with the billboard advertising in Canberra? I was under the impression that it was supposed to be kept to a minimum. I go to Sydney and almost bleed from my eyes because i am unable to look in any direction without seeing giant advertisements. I like the fact that i’m not subjected to this (outdoors) in Canberra unless a bus happens to drive past with an ad on it. But now ads are appearing on bus shelters??! What next – massive billboards on our overpasses and sides of buildings, a la Parramatta Road?

Meh.
I don’t mind them they blend in pretty well, Though they don’t provide as much protection from the wind and cold as the old ones do.

Why did they need to stick the timetable sign there where it blocks everyone’s view and gets in the way of people getting on or off the bus. It is also facing the wrong way so that when you are reading the timetable (whilst being jostled by people getting on or off a bus) you have your back to the approaching busses.