London Banter - View Single Post

Ian Jelf · February 3rd 09, 11:02 AM posted to uk.transport.london

In message , lid
writes
ROADS, ROUTES & TRAFFIC

The roads are MUCH busier, with many more vehicles of all kinds -
including buses.

Yes, I'm sure that's an issue. We travel for work and more notably for
school generally MUCH further than used to happen in the days before
parental choice became as great as it is now.

Here in SE London, the routes for both my local buses [244 and 380]
operate predominantly in residential roads.

The 380 in particular covers what must be one of the most challenging
routes in London on the section from Woolwich Dockyard to Blackheath -
steep hills, tight corners, lots of parked cars on both sides of the
road, and often very tight clearances, particularly where vans and SUVs
are parked.

I think the same about the W3 and W5 which traverse some roads around
Harringay and Stroud Green which I'm sure would not have been ever
remotely passable to a bus yesterday.

However, particular problems with some roads should not, I feel - have
resulted in a blanket cessation of London bus services on all routes.
(I feel the same about the "blanket" closure of schools here in the West
Midlands. A total over-reaction.)

Yes, they were exception conditions; yes we've not seen it quite like
this for a long time; yes there's more traffic; yes society is more
litigious.

But we are talking here about heavy levels of snow, not unprecedented
ones. We are talking about a city of getting on for 8 million people,
the economic centre of a region with perhaps twice that population.
Damn it, we're talking about what is probably the most "important"
single city in the world. The snow *was* forecast and the maximum
amount admissible of public transport should have run.

SO: not lawyer-itis, not elfnsafety, and for goodness sake, not lazy
bus drivers. Just common sense.

One thing I never for a moment thought it was was "lazy" bus drivers.

[1] I have mobility problems, requiring the use of a stick, and with
limited articulation of the knee can only fit into one or two seats.
Which group of pax most often allow me to board first and/or offer me
seats: black women aged mid-20s to 40s, particularly those with
children, who are often told "let the gentleman sit there - he needs
that seat more than you do" - and then provide interesting and engaging
travel companions.
Which least? White men, particularly under-40s.

I had to taker a group of elderly and not very mobile people for
Yorkshire on the District Line from Westminster to Tower Hill once (long
story). They were astonished at how - as we boarded the train - people
*everywhere* rose up together to offer them their seats. They said
that that wouldn't have happened back home on a bus or train. They
thought Londoners were great and were still talking about it when I
looked after them again a year later!
--
Ian Jelf, MITG
Birmingham, UK

Registered Blue Badge Tourist Guide for London and the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk