Twitter solves bus wheel mystery

This was fun and about how Twitter solves bus wheel mystery.

Last week I was walking through Dunstable on my way back from work (had been hot desking) and I saw this odd looking wheel on the side of the road. It looked a little familiar.  Then it dawned on me it was a guide wheel from a bus that is adapted for use on our guided busway.

The fun was the conversation on Twitter which involved Travel Choices who got Arriva to realise it was one of theirs (having been prompted to go and check all of their buses).

I know you’re wanting to know more about the wheel and how it happened to be lying on High Street North in downtown Dunstable.  When I picked it up I was firstly amazed at how heavy it was.  The second striking thing was the yellow metal shaft had cleanly snapped.  I suspect the reason for this was the wheel itself being completely jammed – it did not rotate at all.  Because of this I imagine it would have shuddered all the time while in use on the bus way, eventually causing something to fail.

Meanwhile those nice people in Travel Choices were trying to persuade Arriva to provide some more bus timetables while denying all knowledge of the bus wheel whereabouts.  Somehow the Twitter conversation even managed to include something about playing around in the late April snow.  All pretty random but good fun.

So there y’go.  A wheel reunited with it’s bus, all through the power of Twitter.

PS local resident Alan D Winter, public spirited and prolific twitterer, has pointed out a linked Facebook thread: https://www.facebook.com/BuswayNews/posts/1033386256741174