In message
s.com of Tue, 22 Nov 2011 05:43:14 in uk.transport.london, Simon Mason
writes
On Nov 22, 1:36*pm, Offramp wrote:
I always imagine some driver along the north circular leaning out of
his window shaking his fist and shouting bloody cyclists, then parking
at Edgware, hauling out a Boris Bike and immediately shaking his fist
and shouting Bloody Useless drivers!!
Don't forget the bit after he parks the car and becomes a pedestrian
at which point he will shake his fists at cyclists AND car drivers.
The Boris (sic) Bikes area is roughly equivalent to Zone 1.
cf. https://web.barclayscyclehire.tfl.gov.uk/maps
At 2209, a prospective Boris Biker might have been lucky. ;(
My cropped snapshot shows:
Bikes Empties
Fore Street Avenue 0 26
Bank of England 0 15
Queen Street, Bank 2 18
Barbican Centre 0 19
Aldersgate Street 2 12
Clerkenwell Green 0 21
Fore Street Avenue was also empty at 1850, as I walked past.
http://bikes.oobrien.com/ shows the Boris Bike load balance.
I find the imbalance often makes the system unusable: during the day,
the centre is full and the outskirts empty and vice versa at night.
Hardly surprising.
A Boris Bike journey is between a station with one or more bikes and a
station with one or more empty bike slots. It is bad when no bikes can
be found; it is worse when no slots can be found. ;(
I recently found a third failure mode. Empty slots in 2 station would
not accept 'my' bike. Staff collected it six hours later and the system
still shows me owing 50UKP for its failure. ;((
I shake imaginary fists at those who ignore 'no exit except in
emergency', 'keep left', 'keep right', etc. in tube stations, except
where I do it.
LU seems to ignore relevant breaches of TfL's Conditions of Carriage
(CoC). cf.
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/conditions-of-
carriage-october-2011.pdf
"4.5.1 ... you must not: ... use emergency exits except in an emergency
or when instructed to do so by our staff. You may be prosecuted for
disobeying these requirements." I find nothing in CoC covering the
'shortcut' from the ticket hall to the eastbound Central Line Platform
at Tottenham Court Road.
I look forward to seeing the effect of such indiscipline, during the
Summer Olympics, from 27 July to 12 August 2012.
--
Walter Briscoe