(02 Jun 2020, 8:30 am)Jimmi wrote Owing to family members with breathing difficulties, I am unlikely to be getting on public transport any time soon or in a very limited capacity at least such as a hospital appointment next month which I can't drive home from but can seemingly go for a test drive up to Barnard Castle.

As much as I want to return to some level of normally and resume my usual activities such as bus bashing I feel it's going to be a fair while until this becomes something that I can do again, not only that but with buses running at roughly 25% capacity it's just not right IMO getting on buses for non essential reasons right now, saw a photo of my local service the other day which is currently running on an hourly frequency with 'Bus Full' on the blind so I don't want people who need to be places getting left behind by me having a jolly.

I'm hoping for September that I can return to travelling and spotting again as per pre lockdown especially as I have trips booked which I've already had to alter, I will however be continuing to spot in a limited capacity by driving to locations where social distancing is possible.

I would personally have no issues riding the buses 'recreationally' during off-peak times where the chances of other passengers being on board are low, especially routes like the X21 where even pre-covid you could have the whole upstairs to yourself for the full journey.
Plus, it looks like with the new counting feature on the ticket machines they'll be able to keep the app up to date with passenger numbers so you can see how busy the bus is before you get on, and they'll have data to estimate how busy services usually are.