We solve the one-dimensional cessation Couette and Poiseuille flows of a Bingham plastic using the regularized constitutive equation proposed by Papanastasiou and employing finite elements in space and a fully implicit scheme in time. The numerical calculations confirm previous theoretical findings that the stopping times are finite when the yield stress is nonzero. The decay of the volumetric flow rate, which is exponential in the Newtonian case, is accelerated and eventually becomes linear as the yield stress is increased. In all flows studied, the calculated stopping times are just below the theoretical upper bounds, which indicates that the latter are tight. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.