London Banter - View Single Post

Helen Deborah Vecht · November 8th 04, 09:38 AM posted to uk.transport.london

(Boltar)typed

Stuck in a traffic jam again this morning caused (surprise surprise)
by a bus crawling along the road and stopping in the middle of it even when
it could pull into the bus stop,

Knowing that, if he pulled into a bus stop, London's considerate drivers
would not let him out.

I suddenly wondered why it was deemed
necessary to have a bus stop every 200 hundred metres.

They are only closely spaced when separated by major junctions that are
difficult to cross on foot IME. Otherwise, the spacing is closer to 400
metres.

Are the people who
use the bus too bone idle to be able to walk more than the length of a
football pitch to get to the stop?

I AM NOT BONE IDLE; I AM DISABLED!

Many people who use buses are elderly or disabled, or both. Destinations
or start points might be some way from bus stops, like on side streets
for example.

You are obviously using a car which takes you, near enough from door to door.
I see you have one standard for your convenience and comfort and another
for mine. Lovely!

Reducing the stops by half would mean that
the jam I was in (and probably hundreds of others) would move at double the
speed (maybe even the heady heights of 15mph, woo!). Surely this would be
one way of reducing jams in the city?

Another way of reducing jams in London would be to reduce unnecessary
car journeys.

(And anyone who tells me that I should
be in the bus instead of my car anyway can just save their typing right now
because if they think I'm changing twice and spending probably 90 mins in 3
juddering buses and waiting in the rain to travel 9 miles they're living in
dreamland. If the tube or train was an option I'd use them but they arn't.)

Get a bicycle then.

--
Helen D. Vecht:
Edgware.