London Banter - View Single Post - These writhing whales of the road have swung their hefty rear ends round our corners for the final time.

Basil Jet · July 28th 09, 12:15 PM posted to uk.transport.london,uk.rec.cycling

wrote:
On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 03:16:34 -0700 (PDT)
"Just zis Guy, you know?" wrote:
I suggest you try riding a bike round some European city centres some
time. The bus routes in major European cities where bendy buses are
common typically run along broad boulevards which are straight or
have wide, sweeping bends. The narrow, twisty streets of London are
one of the main reasons the late lamented Routemaster was originally
developed.

What exactly is narrow and twisty about victoria embankment or oxford
street or the strand or 101 other roads I could mention? All cities
have wide roads and all cities have narrow roads. If you don't think
there are narrow and twisty roads in Paris or Madrid or wherever
you've obviously never been there.

Maybe the bendy routes in London should have been introduced as new routes
constrained to follow the wider roads, instead of taking over existing
routes like the 73 and expecting bendies to turn from Stoke Newington Church
St to Albion Road without causing problems.