h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

For the avoidance of doubt a few corrections are needed here. Double-decker buses do go under bridges. It is only the bridges that are too low that they need to avoid. Luckily for passengers they generally do.

Self-driven buses are normally known as "Guided buses" although for much of their route they will be driven as a traditional steered bus. The guided section would normally be justified where traffic conditions are such that they would normally delay buses on that route.

It is misleading to suggest that buses only serve towns, as many serve villages and rural areas too.

The deregulation of buses in the UK has not been implemented in Greater London or Northern Ireland where public bodies let time-limited contracts for individual routes, having previously specified the frequency or timetable and route of the service and, probably, some other standards that the vehicles and management need to meet.
The sharing of risk on such tendered services varies from contract to contract.

In other parts of the UK where deregulation occurred in 1985, some journeys not provided by commercial operators are contracted by public bodies - primarily County Councils and (in metropolitan areas) Passenger Transport Authorities. As most timetables there are guided by the profit motive of independent operators, publicity both on and off-street is extremely difficult and fares, route numbers, termini and timetables are generally unco-ordinated. Some County Councils and PTEs endeavour to offer telephone helplines or customer-friendly websites, but given the inherently volatile nature of market forces their information services may not be entirely accurate. Fares information and details of journeys crossing County boundaries may be especially hard to obtain, particularly where several operators serve the same route at different times of the day or week (not necessarily using the same route number). A few train operators will sell a bus add-on ticket that can be used in the local area once you alight from the train. This does not necessarily imply that bus maps, schedules or informative bus stops will be on display at your destination station. In comparison with plans for inter-galactic by-passes, bus information is extremely hard to find in deregulated parts of the UK. The means of monitoring performance also vary and may be non-existent. Unlike train operators, bus operators in the UK never compensate passengers for services interrupted or significantly delayed.