Dame Starry

Quite simply because people had to leave school at 14/15 years of age and go to work for a living so, obviously, they were considered adults even though they couldn't smoke (legally), vote or get married.
Then the school leaving age was raised and University became accessible to all, but I assume the public transport fare system took a while to catch up with that.

DS x.

Mark O

Absolutely!..........

Mark

Mark O

A 'traditional' Routemaster anyone?!!..........

Mark

penfold

Thirty years and counting, outside of London, Dame Starry....

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

Dame Starry

That's quite true, penfold, but I wasn't making excuses for anybody as to why it went on for so long - for the answer to that, you will have to ask the bus companies! I expect that, after privatisation, it was exploited by those who took control.
I merely gave you the reason as to why 14 year olds were originally classified as 'adults' - that is why I singled out that line specifically.

DS x.

dremble wedge

The 73 and the 38 (which are the ones I used when I lived there) used to be Routemasters and are bendy now.

christoph404

Being a country boy from a rural town in Scotland, I quite like the smell of horse dung, much better than exhaust fumes......nice big deep breath now...ah...lovely

christoph404

I think the routemaster bus drivers in London got to know the low clearance bridges in London and managed to avoid them most days.

Steve Crook

Except when they were diverted onto other routes and didn't follow the signs properly or were a new driver learning the route and got it wrong ...

Most buses avoided low bridges most days. But there were (and still are) quite a few that were hit over the years.

Steve

Steve Crook

I think I've only ever seen them around Victoria. And both those routes terminate at Victoria. Bendy buses certainly aren't all over London

Steve

Dame Starry

Route 38

Route 73

DS x.

christoph404

Apparently there are approx 350 bendy buses in London, 5% of the fleet but they cause 20% of the accidents. One of the reasons they lose money is that they have double the rate of fare dodging than other kinds of buses, you can get on the bus without passing the driver or having to show him a travel card, and if you don't feel like swiping your Oyster card then no-one is really going to make you, unless an inspector comes on. I've never encountered a bus inspector in London in 20 years of living here and I use the bus quite a lot. And for fare dodgers who favour the back of the bus, well the back of the bus is so far away from the driver that he hasn't a clue whats going on anyway. Its also difficult for the driver to judge whether everyone is on the bus or not, many passengers have complained about being stuck in the doors as they shut simply because the driver can't see from his mirrors properly whether people are on are not. Also if that 60 foot long bus happens to pull up at a bus stop and another bendy is already there, well you end up having to sprint down the street from the stop to get on the wretched thing!

Mark O

Yes, the main-line Railway Bridge at Finsbury Park station over Stroud Green Road is one place where Double-decker Buses won't 'fit'........been a fair few incidents there over the years!

Mark

CaptainWaggett

I started secondary school 6 years after the school leaving age was raised to 16 (it was raised to 15 as a result of the 1944 Act though I'm not quite sure when it kicked in). I think it had more to do with the fact that schoolkids, unlike pensioners, aren't really in a position to complain about fares. My memory tells me that cheap fares up to 16 was a GLC initiative but I could well be wrong about that since it didn't affect me.

Dame Starry

Why would schoolchildren want to complain about fares when it was their parents who had to find the money?
Over a certain distance, fares to and from school were, invariably, paid for by the local authority as, indeed, mine were.

I couldn't have cared less what fares cost until I went to work and had to pay them out of my own pocket!

DS x.