On Sun, 23 Oct 2005 20:28:11 +0100, Ian Jelf
wrote:

In message , Paul Corfield
writes
On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 14:22:28 +0100, Dave Arquati wrote:

Is it bendy enough to make the left turn from New Oxford Street into
Charing Cross Road, and the turns between Charing Cross Road and
Shaftesbury Avenue? Oh, and the left turn into Piccadilly too?

I have seen a route 25 bendy turn round under Centre point so it managed
the first of your turns.
And I would have thought that the Charing + Road / Shaftesbury Avenue
one would have been the easier of the two.

It's tighter than it looks but the real issue is that both roads heading
in either direction can be full of traffic thus stopping a bus making
the manoeuvre properly, leaving them blocking the junction. It's bad
enough with RMs, worse with LFDDs and I dread to think what will happen
next week with bendies.

The other issue at this junction is that it is a struggle for southbound
24, 29 and 176s to squeeze past anything turning right into Shaftesbury
Av at Cambridge Circus. With a 18m bendy bus slightly out of place
nothing will move for ages. You can wait a fair few minutes at Leicester
Square waiting for a s/b bus to get past Cambridge Circus given the
ludicrously short phasing for buses.

This will get much worse, in my view, with bendies on the 38 and as for
when the 29 goes over - I think I shall abandon using the 24 as I can
see 29s taking over 15 minutes to get through the multiple sets of
lights near Trafalgar Square. It will certainly be possible for a bendy
bus to straddle at least one junction and two sets of lights just before
St Martins in the Fields.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!