Nick H (UK) wrote:
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?


Lets have a complete ban on buses using roads where traffic cannot pass
when they are stopped!!! And prosecute the drivers that do not pull in
when they can.

Why not ban cars from roads where they cannot pass buses?

Why should bus drivers have the right to delay *everybody* --- which
includes all the other buses, before anyone replies with the specious
'because they carry more people' argument. A bus blocking the road may
have a dozen people on board: it may be delaying hundreds.

Why not move bus routes to minor roads?

Why not move cars on to minor roads?

This is London, not the highlands of Scotland. There simply isn't enough
road space for everyone to travel by car. Remember, before the
congestion charge something like 14% of journeys in central London were
made by car, and we had near gridlock. Cars can only be used by a small
minority in large city - it's difficult to see why they should be given
much priority.

And why can't other drivers actually *use* bus lanes when available? No;
scrap that one because then I wouldn't be able to sail down the
available bus lane while everyone else waits in the single lane;-)


I can't see how delaying cars can be a bad thing on the whole. Making
driving in London really unpleasant seems like a good way to get people
out of their cars to me. After all, a similar policy was in place
against pedestrians for many years - look at most British towns. OK -
it's a shame for the small number of drivers who have to travel by car,
and emergency access needs to be considered. In the long run, though,
fewer unnecessary cars on the road would be to everyone's benefit.

The cause of the filling in of bus stops is that car drivers don't let
buses pull out. If car drivers acquired some basic consideration for
other people (which it's questionable whether you can have if you choose
to drive in London anyway), this wouldn't be necessary.

A