Editing Bus spotting

{{Short description|Hobby}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{Original research|date=August 2019}}
{{Expand Japanese|date=March 2023}}
}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
[[File:Ikarus-Zemun IK160P.jpg|upright=1.3|thumb|Bus spotters in Poland on a trip celebrating the 25th anniversary of Ikarus-Zemun buses in Cieszyn]]
'''Bus spotting''' is the interest and activity of watching, [[Photography|photographing]] and tracking [[bus]]es throughout their working service lives within bus companies. A person who engages in these activities is known as a '''bus spotter''', '''bus fan''', '''bus nut''' ([[British slang|colloquial British English]]) or '''bus enthusiast'''.<ref name="Belofsky2010">{{cite book|author=Nathan Belofsky|title=The Book of Strange and Curious Legal Oddities: Pizza Police, Illicit Fishbowls, and Other Anomalies of the Law That Make Us All Unsuspecting Criminals|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zff7aLA3toMC&pg=PT97|date=3 August 2010|publisher=Penguin Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-101-18896-5|page=97}}</ref>

There are many enthusiasts of the bus and coach industry across the globe. Like [[railfan|train]] and [[aircraft spotting|aircraft spotters]], bus spotters activities include monitoring bus route allocations, sharing knowledge about buses and taking pictures of buses.<ref name="wale_Forg">{{Cite web| title = Forget selfies and One Direction, this teenager is a bus spotter| last = McCarthy | first = James| work = WalesOnline| date = 4 July 2015| accessdate = 30 August 2017| url = http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/forget-selfies-listening-one-direction-9586170}}</ref><ref name="FieldField2002">{{cite book|author1=Hermann H. Field|author2=Hermann Field|author3=Kate Field|title=Trapped in the Cold War: The Ordeal of an American Family|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YBIyiXMu0uUC&pg=PA275|year=2002|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-4431-7|page=275}}</ref> Some may be so keen that they might track a vehicle through its life, knowing for example which fleet numbers it has carried with different owners and when mechanical parts or interior fittings were renewed.{{Citation needed|date=March 2023|reason=Is there a source that this might be the case for some "bus spotters"?}}

Since bus spotting involves urban [[mass transit]], it often goes hand in hand with [[metrophile|metrophily]]. Such enthusiasts can be known as "transit fans".

There are a number of magazines aimed at bus enthusiasts and spotters, e.g. ''[[Buses Magazine]]''.

==Preservation of buses==
{{See also|Bus preservation in the United Kingdom}}
Some bus spotters may list or trace the whereabouts of surviving retired vehicles from a particular operator to purchase them for preservation purposes. The preserved buses can then be taken out to be driven either on discontinued services or through a set route for an event.<ref>{{Cite web|last=McLean|first=David|date=2021-09-08|title=Vintage Edinburgh buses will be appearing on city streets this weekend|url=https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/vintage-edinburgh-buses-appearing-city-21519116|access-date=2021-09-26|website=edinburghlive|language=en}}</ref>

== Gallery ==
<gallery mode="packed" widths="200" heights="150">
File:Bluestar 1035 YN55 NFP rear.JPG|Bus spotters photographing a [[bus]] in [[Southampton]], UK
File:HKBusFans 200709.jpg|Bus fans in [[Hong Kong]]
File:Bus enthusiast at Indonesia.jpg|Teenage and adult bus spotters in Indonesia 
</gallery>

==See also==
{{Portal|Buses}}
{{Commons category|Bus spotting}}
*[[Roadgeek]]
*[[Railfan]]
*[[Bus preservation in the United Kingdom]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bus Spotting}}
[[Category:Bus terminology]]
[[Category:Observation hobbies]]