The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #142789   Message #3293760
Posted By: Joe_F
21-Jan-12 - 01:30 AM
Thread Name: BS: 'Please' and 'Thank you' - or not ATCMB
Subject: RE: BS: 'Please' and 'Thank you' - or not ATCMB
It is nice if a bus or train driver waits for you, and annoying if he or she does not, but I try to have a lively sense of the tradeoffs involved in the decision to do that. Busses have schedules, and on average they will give better service if they stick to them. (There is a startling theorem that if busses arrive randomly, the average wait for one will be twice as long as if the same number per day arrive on a strict, even schedule.) Consider also that a driver saves you a 20-min wait by waiting 10 s for you will be delaying (say) 120 passengers already on the bus by 10 s each, thereby wasting a total of 20 min of their time. It all adds up. Finally, suppose, having waited for you, the driver sees another customer scurrying along the platform -- where is he supposed to draw the line? I'm glad I don't have that job.