Matthew Church wrote:
Amongst all the mayhem of boxes, zig-zags, bumps, chicanes, lights and
bollards there seems to be a new phenomena in South London - buses
being used to deliberately block the routes they use so as to prevent
traffic passing them.

On the road from Hook to Chessington (71 bus route) the lay-by before
the Greenfields roundabout was filled in about 6 months ago, so the 71
has nowhere to pull into (bad thing for the traffic) but OTOH nowhere
to pull out of (good thing for the 71).

Today I notice just round the corner on the opposite side the bus stop
has been jettied out into the dual carriageway and the bus now
*completely* blocks the road to cars!

Is the idea that anyone in future using a car will travel at the same
speed as the bus they see ahead of them?

New TfL policy has been to fill in bus lay-bys so that buses aren't held
up waiting for traffic to let them out when they leave a bus stop. As
for the dual carriageway "jetty", that sounds a bit odd!

Although in favour of speeding up buses, I wonder whether it might
better serve the interests of both bus users and motorists to introduce
a rule which makes it compulsory to let buses leaving a bus stop pull
out. Unfortunately I suspect the problem would be enforcement - on-bus
cameras might be an option, but they're expensive and it's another thing
for the driver to worry about.

--
Dave Arquati
Imperial College, SW7
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London