Two thirds (66%) of British adults think that bus travel would be easier if there were on-board audio announcements about where the bus was going and what stop was coming up, a survey on behalf of The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association (Guide Dogs) has found.
40% of people even went as far as to say that such announcements would make their travelling experience more pleasant.
Most people agreed to some extent that announcements on the buses should be similar to those already in existence on other forms of transport, most notably trains. However, when it came to the question of which celebrity voice people would most like to hear make these announcements, the debate really took off.
Stephen Fry walked away with the top spot with 14% of the vote, followed by the motoring show host of BBC's Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson, with 10%, while actress and human rights activist Joanna Lumley took third place with nine percent of the vote.
There were also some comical suggestions. One person suggested that rocker Ozzy Osbourne would be his ideal candidate for the job, while another suggested the fictional character Yoda from the Star Wars franchise. Other options included actors Ewan McGregor and George Clooney, singer Cheryl Cole and wildlife broadcaster David Attenborough.
Guide Dogs has committed itself to working with all transport operators so that access for the blind and partially sighted people is also improved – ‘calling for all buses in the UK to provide audible as well as visual information about the next stop and final destination’.
Many, however, were not seduced by the thought of a celebrity announcer, with 35% saying that they ‘would not like to hear any celebrity announce [their] bus stop’. One respondent commented that the most important factor for audio announcements would be to have someone ‘who speaks English clearly’.
