Bus drivers are having a hard time these days with people being so involved with their hand held devices that they don’t notice their bus is coming to the stop they want to get on or get off. I understand they get a lot of flipping off from these people.
The bus service in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, had strips when I was down there and the St. Charles streetcars have cords. No idea about the rest of New Orleans; I was never on a city bus.
Metrobuses have cords, I think Fairfax Connector does as well. Arlington Transit has the strips but ISTR some newer models in their fleet having cords instead. Alexandria’s DASH also uses strips, IIRC.
Metrobus and Arlington Transit aurally & visually announce “stop requested” and some models ding as well. Haven’t been on any others in a long time.
Most Portland buses have a button in the upright pole next to the rear door, as well as the cord; some have multiple buttons as well as the cord.
There also was an official policy that late at night or very early in the morning, drivers would stop to let people off anywhere they asked , if it was safe to pull over. I’m not sure if this is still policy.
Yes, I can remember when people did this in Melbourne too (more on than off - if you were running for the stop and didn’t quite make it). Also ride on the running board. It was the conductor’s job to notice you, just like any other passenger. If the tram was crowded there might be three or four people hanging off the running board at the side - and at that point, yes, you could pretty much get away without paying because the conductor physically couldn’t get near you. But that also applied on a very crowded tram where everyone was stuffed inside.
Trams in an urban environment go pretty slow. I wouldn’t want to try it on a modern Light Rail system that doesn’t have to play in traffic
Also when I was young. In fact, we used to just wander out in front of the house and hail the bus as it went past. But as the bus companies got fewer and larger, with different drivers every day and every hour, and regulation increased and other traffic increased, less so. The curb/kerb is filled with cars, the drivers are not permitted to open their doors, and nobody recognizes you anymore anyway.
One of the characteristics of the Melbourne tram system was that it was designed to get people in and out very efficiently. They looked at the number of people going up and down Swanston Street (CBD), and realized that they could never get that many people on and off a bus through the normal bus doors. So they specified trams that had multiple wide openings (I don’t say doors!) taking up a big chunk of the centre of the tram. Comparing it to the tram systems that were replaced by bus systems in other cities, I think it’s one of the reasons why Melbourne trams lasted: in other cities the trams didn’t work any better than buses.
In our old trams, those big “openings” were left open on the access side, and closed by curtains on the road-centre side. You were supposed to be smart enough to hold on, and to not jump off while the tram was moving. They moved faster than the SF cable trams, so jumping on and off when the tram was at full speed didn’t happen. And (when I was young) they went slower than motor traffic, so you also didn’t jump on or off if there was a car going past. You waited until the tram came to a stop (for whatever reason) and the cars came to a stop (because they were not permitted to overtake or undertake a tram) and then you jumped on or off.
Jumping on, if the conductor saw you, he would give you a dirty look. If he was angry, and you were smaller than him, he might even tell you get off and refuse to proceed until you did. It wasn’t his job to arrest you, but he could report you to a Tram Inspector if one got on. Jumping off, of course there was nothing he could do about it. You could jump off any time you thought it was safe to do so. You did want to hold on though, because the tram shook around quite a bit.
The conductor was supposed to notice where you got on, because the fare depended on how many sections you traveled, indicated by the stop number where you got on, and the stop number where you got off. But if you were young and had no money, you could make a lame apology and get off. Then wait for the next tram and do it again…:). Or, if you were going up Swanston Street from Flinders Street (the central rail station) to the University, you could jump off at whereever the tram was stopped, run forward past 11 queued trams, and hop on the one at the front 
(oh to be young again ) thus shaving 5 minutes off a 15 minute journey.
The old trams were replace by trams with actual doors, and the centre opening of the oldest trams was left permanently closed as numbers went down. Then bus-like trams with one entry door and one exit, which required special road reservation to handle the mob that gathered around and filtered through the entry door. As numbers rise again, new trams have many more entry doors, but now spaced out, and shut except at tram stops – which are mostly if not entirely all islands now.
And there were the Melbourne suburban trains (Melbourne is a city which was defined by real-estate development along train lines). There were doors, but not automatic. many people didn’t bother to close the door on exit, leaving you freezing on a cold wet windy Melbourne morning (55 F, but wet and windy). And when pulling into Flinders/Princess Bridge/Spencer St, you’d stand in the door, then leap running as you pulled to a stop, to get ahead of the crowd and be first at the ticket gate, slowing down just enough to have your ticket torn and returned as you passed through.
Or, if you were traveling on, you continue running to your onward platform, where the train would be pulling out just as you got up the stairs. You’d run to an open door, grab the handle, and jump through.
Until one day my brother, following me and 8 or 9 at the time, slipped partly into the gap between the train and the platform, and the train came to a halt with him holding on to the door and his leg in the gap. I don’t remember that they were angry with us, and I don’t remember that it worried me at the time, but I also don’t remember that we ever did it again, and the thought now fills me with horror. The modern trains don’t have a gap like that between the train and the platform. The platform has been built out, the trains perhaps don’t sway as much, and the line behind which you are supposed to stand has been moved from 6" to 2’ from the edge.
Memories!
And of course, in terms of behavioural safety (none of that shit would fly these days), arseing about on the running board of a tram wasn’t a patch on that other favorite of my childhood - opening the train doors in transit so you could get a nice cool breeze while it was racketing on at 100kph between stations
ETA Ninja’d! I don’t think I recall the days when the train doors were wholly manual though - my memory is that they would close automatically but not very strongly, and it was easy to just lever them apart and sit there with your leg jammed up against the far one, keeping it open
On Egged intracity buses in Israel (or at least in Jerusalem) it’s a button on the vertical poles. There’s a “ding” sound when you press it and the digital signboards lights up with the stop name and “stop” in Hebrew highlighted next to it. There’s no English anywhere (only on the light rail) so you either have to listen carefully or be able to read Hebrew to navigate the system.
On the intercity coach buses, it’s a button, usually yellow, on the ceiling between pairs of seats. Depending on how modernized the bus is, either the signboard at the front will light up or the TV screen displaying the list of stops. Though I rode one once where there were so few people on it the the driver just shouted to us each individually to ask where we were getting off.
Ottawa, Canada, buses have multiple yellow push buttons on the upright poles and seatback bars the standing passengers hang on to, with numbers and locations varying depending on the size and model of the bus. Some also have pull cords running above the windows (older buses only had these). Pushing a button will turn on a signal light for the driver (and possibly flags the stop location on his GPS), and also shows a checkmark on the Next Stop Announcement System display at the front of the bus (and repeated after the bend on articulated buses).
The driver can lower the front of the current low-floor buses or deploy a folding ramp for easier boarding and debarking by wheelchairs, strollers, and other mobility-limited passengers. The driver will open the front door, but passengers must push a button or strip to open the back doors. Older buses had pressure plates on the steps down to the rear door or push bars on the doors.
Here’s a video inside a London bus, complete with audio and visual announcements, red stop buttons, display acknowledgement of the stop request and audio warnings of the doors closing:
With some variations, this is more or less standard practice across western Europe.
Every 3-4 hours? Luxury!
When I was little there was a bus stop right outside the house, though there was just a few houses there (former estate workers’ cottages), it wasn’t a proper village. Pretty often, we’d see a stranger waiting at the stop, having gone for a nice long walk and now trying to get a bus back to Chester, maybe 8 miles away.
Hence the regular entertainment;
Mum: ‘Uh, are you waiting for a bus?’
Stranger; ‘Oh, yes, I don’t mind a wait though!’
Mum: ‘Have you bought a tent? It’s not due til Wednesday morning.’
Stranger: …
Mum: ‘I’m going into town later, I’ll give you a lift.’
Yup, two buses a week. Basically so carless people could have two days out a week in Chester, it went into town Wednesdays and Saturday mornings, then back again those afternoons.
When I had a fairly remote holiday villa in southern Italy, there were no taxis into town and just one return bus a day - 5am and 12noon. Entirely around the local working patterns of farm hands. Not much help when I want to go out for a boozy lunch!
Metrobus drivers are allowed to do that but only outside the Beltway.
We take Arlington Transit so frequently that some ART drivers recognize us and stop to let us on even if we’re not really at a stop.
Beersheva, Israel, as in the rest of the country, the stop buttons are on the poles throughout the bus. Most of the buses now have LED signs that display the next stop in Hebrew and Arabic, and the bus company’s phone number, and even the bus’ license plate number. Someone pushes the button, and the word “stop” appears in Hebrew and Arabic. Sometimes I hear a ding, sometimes not.
The long haul buses - between cities - have a stop button overhead, along with the reading light, air vent, and sometimes a USB charging port.
Kansas City has buses that have a pull cord on both sides, buttons on several poles, and the yellow tape type of signal underneath the seats that fold up for wheelchairs. All of them trigger a “ding” noise and an LED screen displays “Stop Requested.”
On the bus this morning, a passenger wanted to get off on the street she was going to, not at the bus stop. She started complaining when the bus driver took her up five blocks to the official bus stop.
I guess she was one of those “but the rules don’t apply to MMMMEEEEE” people.
as another poster pointed out, here in Cleveland there may be multiple buses traveling same street, so each line has own stop.
first, cable cars do not travel that fast. second there is driver and brakeman (brakeperson?) who collect fares