Bus stop accessibility: what the published data does and does not tell you

If you need to know whether a stop or a service will work for you, it is worth being clear about what published bus data actually contains — because the answer is less than people assume, and knowing the gap tells you where to go instead.

What the stop data holds

For each stop, the national stop database provides the name, a unique code, its coordinates, the direction buses face when calling there, and what kind of stop it is — for example an on-street stop as against a bay inside a bus or coach station.

That is genuinely useful for some questions. Coordinates let you see exactly where a stop is and judge the walk to it. The stop type tells you whether you are heading for a roadside pole or an indoor station. The direction helps you identify which of a pair of stops you want without needing to read the flag.

What it does not hold

The stop records we work from do not tell you whether a particular stop has:

• a raised kerb for level boarding
• a shelter or seating
• step-free access on the approach
• lighting
• real-time information displays

Nor does the timetable data tell you whether the vehicle running a particular journey is a low-floor bus, has a wheelchair space available, or has audio and visual announcements.

We would rather say that plainly than imply a level of detail we do not have. Showing an accessibility symbol we cannot verify would be worse than showing nothing, because it could send someone to a stop they cannot use.

What you can work out in advance

Where exactly the stop is. The map position on a stop page is precise, which lets you check the approach and the walk, and spot whether the stop is on a slope, a narrow pavement or the far side of a crossing.

Whether it is a bus station. Station stands are more likely to have shelter, seating and staff than a roadside pole. That is a reasonable inference from the stop type, not a guarantee about any specific station.

How frequent the service is. This matters more than it might seem. On a frequent service, a bus you cannot board is a short wait; on a two-hourly route, it changes the day. Checking frequency is a practical way to judge how much a problem would cost you.

Which operator runs it. This is the route to an authoritative answer, and it is on every route page.

Where to get a reliable answer

For anything about the vehicle or the stop's physical facilities, the operator and the local transport authority are the sources that can actually answer. Operators know their fleet and can tell you what runs on a given route. Local authorities are generally responsible for the stops themselves — the kerb, the shelter, the pole.

Start from the route to identify the operator, or use the operator list if you know the company name. For questions about the stop rather than the bus, the local transport authority for the area is the better contact.

What we are doing about it

Our own site accessibility — how the pages work with a screen reader, keyboard navigation, contrast — is a separate matter from the data, and it is something we are responsible for directly. That is covered on our accessibility page.

If you find something on the site that gets in your way, please tell us through contact or report a problem. Specific reports are far more useful than general ones: the page, what you were trying to do, and what happened.

If accessibility information is added to the published stop data in future, we will show it. Until then we would rather be honest about the gap than fill it with guesses.