Now back in Auckland after one year overseas and I’m generally impressed with the great leaps forward that have occurred in so many areas across the city. Got my HOP card, love it. Catch the Mt Eden b-line, love it. Visited the new extended Art Gallery, love it. Meandered Wynyard Point, love it.
BUT (you knew it was coming) there’s one question I’d like NZ Bus to answer: What the BLEEP? More specifically, what is the God-awful sound emitted when someone pushes the stop button on your buses? Never, in all my years of catching public transport in cities all over the world, have I heard such an unpleasant, high-pitched sound.
Honestly, it makes riding the bus THAT much more unpleasant when every 500m you are shocked out of your seat by a high-pitched beep. Why, of all the noises you could have chosen, did you opt for the BLEEP?
Is anyone else out there similarly annoyed by the NZ Bus BLEEP, or have I become hyper-sensitive to noise at the grand old age of 29?
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You think that’s bad. Wait till you hear the noise the train and Outer Link doors make when opening & closing. There seems to be a determined ploy to deafen passengers.
Yes, you’re right – the train sound is awful. But the thing is that it’s ALWAYS been that way. What amazes me about the buses is that NZ Bus have replaced the moderately annoying buzz on the old buses with a highly disturbing bleep on the new buses. I just can’t fathom the reason for the backwards step in an area that is SOOO easy to get right.
Why do public transport service providers have such disdain for the comfort of their passengers? Do they want us to enjoy catching the bus or not?
They can’t be as annoying as London buses. When they are busy the bell gets pushed 1000 times, so you get 1000 ‘dings’ in the space of about 30 seconds. And that happens at EVERY SINGLE STOP. Maddening.
Yes, I think they are more annoying than London’s buses, even thought the latter allows for repeat bells (this is quite common in the U.K. actually, e.g. Edinburgh).
Is there an online example where I can judge this horrendous bleep with my own ears? 🙂
No but I will load one up tomorrow. In the meantime, amuse yourselves with this FANTASTIC noise, which I think originates from Toronto: http://youtu.be/_aYZF8ghnm8
Comment from one YouTuber: “man, it sounds like the bus is murdering a duck or goose.”
Strange, I think the ding in London is so soft I often press the button twice just to be sure it worked
Yeah those train noises are awful. It truly hurts my ears. Possibly they are made so loud so the deaf could hear it
I think they’re made loud because someone made a bad decision. My mum was telling me at dinner how the metro in Budapest plays music when it’s approaching a stop.
How about NZ Bus choose a sound that is distinctively NZ? E.g. the call of a tui? (watch this to 0.18 http://youtu.be/YioLInSP3Ec.
I’ve always loved the Tui sound. DO IT, NZ Bus!
Stu,
Thanks for the feedback, will get the fleet team to have a look and see what can be done to fix.
Zane Fulljames
CEO
NZ BUS
Thanks Zane!
Thanks Zane! P.s. Love the new buses, the fleet renewals are much appreciated.
Thanks Zane,
The Inner Link has from memory 3 very annoying noises, the doors are the worst, the warning pings that tell the driver their indicator is on are nearly as bad. Surely only the driver needs to know that- not the whole bus. A blinking light would probably do it…
Can’t remember the 3rd, but will post after my next ride.
And huge ups to you for caring enough to check blogs.
Could I nominate you to run Veolia?
In defence of Veolia, I don’t think they are responsible for fitting out the rolling stock – so the decision about the sound of doors closing is outside their hands. Nonetheless it should be fixed because it really, really annoying.
Thought it was just me. Another horrible, overly loud bleeping noise is the ‘back door opening’ on the new Links. I actually avoid sitting close to the door now because of it.
Sound designers (or the lack of them) should look to Japan who are the masters of distinct but non intrusive alert sounds.
I always love the sound the Paris metro trains make before they close the doors & move away from a station.
Definitely agree about the trains. It’s annoying alright. Loud and intrusive. Obviously, they need to be sufficient to let people know that doors are closing, but not quite that loud. Thankfully the ‘remember to mind the gap’ message isn’t as incessant as it was a few weeks ago!
I actually miss the Aussie “doors closing, please stand clear”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsVDwdpGC84 I think that’s about where you want things to be.
They seem to have modified the mind the gap message a little bit, for one they have dropped the “please” from the front which makes a big difference, many of the trains now have a “doors closing” message added as well now
Whats wrong with a “ding”. Thats what Wellington buses seem to use.
My thoughts exactly.
Didn’t realise before how good we had it with the old, mechanical ‘ding’ of the Auckland Yellow Buses…
The New York Subway announcement is nice & simple. And very iconic too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDgCnQQSGIo
That’s funny! And very authoritative.
Agree with all above…always found the noise on my usual NEX buses a bit odd, sorta long drawn out thing…little dings for the win.
Ah! Interesting, so it’s not just NZ Bus buses that suffer from this phonic-distress disorder? In that case I owe an apology to Zane and NZ Bus, you are not the only ones with annoying stop sounds.
Are the deaf people more deaf in New Zealand than overseas? Perhaps they want to make us deaf with terrible and comfortable noises?
It’s all about customer experience!!! I can’t understand why public transport operators just can’t pickup the basic business strategies employed by parallel industries, particularly retailers. There’s two basic business growth models out there – high volume turnover, and offering high quality experiences. If you can achieve both you’ve cracked your market.
The Easyjet / Ryanair / Air Asia model are examples of how important the high volume model is in other transport businesses; ideas such as releasing realtime bus timing data to mobile phones via Open Source software providers (why wait forever for Auckland Transport to implement the bus stop signs?), free wifi, improved interior lighting ambience & sounds/announcements.
Great to see NZBus paying so much attention to this Blog, but I’m trying to figure out how far they (and Veolia, Auckland Transport any of the other providers) really understand and focus on these priorities. The discounts for loyal / high volume customers are really derisory, and the quality of experience is only slowly being addressed as new vehicles are purchased. Don’t they want to grow their business?
Yes, customer experience is very important – especially for new customers and/or those people who would otherwise drive. To be fair I think NZ Bus has gone a long way in the right direction with their new rolling stock (which is very, very nice – even by world standards).
Looking forward, lighting and WIFI are possible additions – although 3G seems to be cooking Wifi’s goose at the moment, so maybe it’s not necessary? I think what would make a bigger difference is slightly wider entrances to buses, so that HOP users could more easily board while someone is paying by cash. This issue has been discussed elsewhere on this blog …
Was on an Outer Link the other day with a rear door alarm either broken or disconnected. SO much better.
I have followed up with the fleet team who are looking at the what the “bleep ” issue and a number of others raised. And they will update me on progress.
I would also like to propose that post the RWC if those who participate on this blog are interested that I set up a session in my offices in Akl to provide an overview on the things that we are focussing on in terms of Operating Strategy/Business Improvement and listen to your thoughts and ideas on what we need to be working on that we have not already captured in our plans.
Let me know and I’ll set it up!
Zane Fulljames
CEO
NZ BUS
Sounds like an excellent plan Zane. Send me an email – address is under “contact us”.
Hi Zane, thanks for the offer and yes sign me up: sdonovan@mrcagney.com.
Glad someone brought up the subject. Reason I suggest is we have the doziest drivers on the planet. They drive past stops with regularity. Always a laugh in our office when we see old smokey slamming on the anchors outside our door 100m past the stop to let off a bunch of irate souls. Common talk around our circle are report drivers even ignoring the yells and not stopping till next stop 600m further on. How many times – LOTS!