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How well do London buses match the timetables?

michalpaszkiewicz.co.uk

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Re: How well do London buses match the timetables?

#41

Post by bluGill »

YayamiOmate wrote: post #31

I've noticed this when riding on a long tram lane which is supposed to be a fast track and a transfer one. So I prefer more often trams, because it means less people. I've also noticed that I dont have to remember timetable because it's basically organized in so-much-trams-per-hour, so it's 20mins or 15, 12 etc. So I just need to remeber a minute-offset and an interval. As a side effect, i've noticed that at rush hou…

Generally being 5 minutes late for an appointment counts as you get a dirty look but you are on time. Being more than that and they get mad. So 5 minutes or less intervals mean someone running just a little late isn't actually late to their appointment.

Re: How well do London buses match the timetables?

#42

Post by bluGill »

benj111 wrote: post #35
ben_w wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You jest, but TicTacs are allowed to be labelled “sugar free” despite being 91.3% sugar because, to quote, “the amount of sugar per serving (1 mint) is less than 0.5 grams, FDA labeling requirements permit the Nutrition Facts to state that there are 0 grams of sugar per serving“ - https://www.tictacusa.com/en/faq

So Nutrition facts can round to the nearest gram despite allowing servings to be less than a gram? What a well thought out policy. Ps I thought the US used imperial measures, why are grams getting used?

US is a mix of measures. Imperial is allowed, but there are only a few places where it is required. Metric is in fact very common - but only for measures not in day to day use (that is intentionally contradictory have fun figuring it out)

Re: How well do London buses match the timetables?

#43

Post by tspiteri »

SamBam wrote: post #14
NullPrefix wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If I recall correctly, calorie values on nutrition boxes are the same, at least in the US: a 100 calorie snack bag will have at least 100 calories, because the FDA mandates that the seller should be at minimum providing what it claims. Check out our new BigMac Zero. At least zero calories.

The FDA definitely has requirements for anything advertising "zero calories," "no calories," "reduced calories" etc: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/cfr... As for the "minimum calories," I've searched and either I'm out of date or was never correct: it seems like the FDA used to have a "80/120 rule": "beneficial nutrients" (vitamin, mineral, protein, total carbohydrate, etc.) must be at least…

Calories should not be considered as just "a nutrient to limit" in such a way that the number is only a maximum. I sometimes used to look at the energy value to choose a ready meal that had at least enough energy so that I would not remain hungry after eating; providing significantly less energy would leave me hungry.

Re: How well do London buses match the timetables?

#44

Post by [deleted] »

bluGill wrote: post #40
chrisseaton wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right - the arrival time is a no-later-than and that’s all I need. People complain about leaving a gate in an aeroplane and then sitting on the apron for a bit - who cares if you’re on the ground or in the air or even going backwards - I just care about my arrival time and don’t mind what you do as long as you hit that. I use a flight that’s regularly delayed by half an hour but still gets there half an hour early. W…

I also care about departure time. If I arrive with one minute to spare (counting security and check in) but the plane leaves 2 minutes early I don't get their on time through no fault of my own. If I'm even a second late I accept it is my fault.

[deleted]

Re: How well do London buses match the timetables?

#45

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

tialaramex wrote: post #34

The buses and underground in central London do have real timetables by the way, but they're primarily for the operators. If you drive buses or trains you want to know when your service is supposed to start and how long it's supposed to take to get where it's going. But for passengers this is a metro service (except for the first and last services on routes which shut overnight) so they don't care if this is an 1105 r…

TFL has a journey planner which assumes the timetables are correct.

https://tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey/

Timetables are more or less irrelevant at peak times, but if you have connections to make out of peak hours any delays can make a big difference to your day.

Re: How well do London buses match the timetables?

#46

Post by benj111 »

bluGill wrote: post #42
benj111 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So Nutrition facts can round to the nearest gram despite allowing servings to be less than a gram? What a well thought out policy. Ps I thought the US used imperial measures, why are grams getting used?

US is a mix of measures. Imperial is allowed, but there are only a few places where it is required. Metric is in fact very common - but only for measures not in day to day use (that is intentionally contradictory have fun figuring it out)

In Europe theres regulations over labelling etc.

In the UK if you buy a 'pint' of milk it will still be labelled 0.568 litres.

Presumably there are some rules in the US also, or labels could just use some obscure measures that hide what a product contains.

Re: How well do London buses match the timetables?

#47

Post by acheron »

SamBam wrote: post #9

The conclusion of the article seems to be related to the general rule that if, say, a box of nails advertises 1000 nails, the manufacturer will have set the actual average to be higher than 1000 nails so that some large majority of buyers will always have at least 1000 nails in the box. (I seem to recall an A-Level stats question on my exam asking what the average should be, to ensure that 95% of buyers received at l…

This is the reason for the "bakers' dozen". Bakers were at one time required to sell a minimum amount by weight in a dozen, and so would throw in one extra item to ensure the minimum was there.

Ah, here it's on Wikipedia:

"In the United Kingdom when selling certain goods, bakers were obliged to sell goods by the dozen at a specific weight or quality (or a specific average weight). During this time, bakers who sold a dozen units that failed to meet this requirement could be penalized with a fine. Therefore to avoid risking this penalty, some bakers included an extra unit to be sure the minimum weight was met"

Re: How well do London buses match the timetables?

#48

Post by vinay427 »

benj111 wrote: post #46
bluGill wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US is a mix of measures. Imperial is allowed, but there are only a few places where it is required. Metric is in fact very common - but only for measures not in day to day use (that is intentionally contradictory have fun figuring it out)

In Europe theres regulations over labelling etc. In the UK if you buy a 'pint' of milk it will still be labelled 0.568 litres. Presumably there are some rules in the US also, or labels could just use some obscure measures that hide what a product contains.

Yes, there are definitely rules. Virtually every product on store shelves in the US seems to be labeled with metric or imperial units depending on what is more convenient or less obscure to the public, though sizes for many products are the same across the oceans which can make for weird numbers for everyone.

Labeling definitely isn't always imperial in the US, and it isn't always metric in many European countries. Regulations tend to do a good job of avoiding units that are obscure in that they're rarely used for the specific purpose in question or would have clumsy numbers like the pint to liters conversion you noted.

e.g. A common PET bottle size in the US and elsewhere is 0.5L, which in the US is labeled as "0.5L"/"500mL" usually along with the, in my opinion, somewhat pointless "16.9 fl oz". Meanwhile, a 2L PET bottle is also common in the US and is labeled (and known by virtually everyone) as "2L".

Re: How well do London buses match the timetables?

#49

Post by vidarh »

TFL cares a great deal about these kind of contracts with users.

Years ago I was involved with a project to build dynamic displays to show bus times (mostly for third parties like e.g hospitals that wanted to display bus times as a service, but they're in use on some bus stations like Vauxhall and East Croydon as well).

TFL did tons of testing to ensure we complied with requirements to ensure the display would remove time estimates if it could not reach the API often enough, etc. to ensure we never misled passengers.

They were very adamant that the displays always had to under-promise based on what information was available.

Re: How well do London buses match the timetables?

#50

Post by kiwijamo »

johnchristopher wrote: post #30
gpvos wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Europe, train operators often have a target percentage, like 90%, of trains that must be on time[0] specified in their concession, with a system of fines or bonuses. So they have an incentive to put some padding in their schedules, since that will improve their lateness statistics. [0] Usually defined as being less than 5 minutes late or so.

And in Belgium those 5 minutes only count at the end of the line. It means that the train can be 15 minutes late and miss connections but it won't be considered late if it made up for the delay upon arriving at the terminus.

In Auckland, New Zealand up until a few years ago it was the start of the trip that determined whethe or not the bus was considered late. Depart on time, but delayed en route and arrive at the end of the line 60 mins late? "On Time"!
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