Each stand has a dedicated reversing lane, the road markings are clear how far a bus has to reverse in a straight line before it can stop and swing round *forwards*. West Yorkshire bus stations are very well designed in that regard. Not all are- Eldon Square and Haymarket in Newcastle, for instance.
I looked up Maesteg on Google. The problem is clearly the desire path takes you across the taxi rank and across both sides the bus station throat; indeed, Street View shows an old bloke walking with his shopping b exactly where the problem is. The choices there are put bigger and bigger fences in or accept the desire path and make it safe to use. Removing from use the stand where the EasyWay bus is would be a start.
Quite.
There is nothing inherently wrong with a sawtooth bus station. The one at Maesteg has a lot of similarities with the Otley one (which is why I mentioned it) and the banksman is also there to warn off pedestrians. However, you can redesign it to ensure that the "desire" paths are redirected. The presence of the taxi rank automatically puts people where you don't want them.
West Yorkshire has a number of smaller, well designed bus stations (a bit OTT in some cases) but in the cases of Ossett or Cleckheaton (pictured), they are designed to provide sensible secure routes for pedestrians (and actively dissuade those from walking across the apron) and also to guide reversing drivers, as you say. If you employed half of those measures at Maesteg, it would be massively improved viz:
- Relocate the taxi rank away to the post office location just up the road (where a small one already exists)
- Extend the raised flower bed to meet the lamppost at the end of the taxi rank in order to screen the bus station
- Lose the footpath that extends from the front of the taxi rank and slightly widen the footpath on the other side of the road
- Fence and barrier the stands in and fill the gap in opposite the taxi rank
- Note that if you look at the 2009 streetview shot, that gap and desire path did not exist; it's been created since then!
Alternatively, you have to question why Maesteg actually needs a bus station? It's not the biggest or busiest town and whilst I'm usually keen to have decent passenger facilities, it probably could manage with some roadside stops
NOTE: the two Newcastle bus stations are constrained because of the competing commercial interests. Drivers find Eldon Square a pig to manoevure around, with some odd angles to cope with
