These writhing whales of the road have swung their hefty rear ends round our corners for the final time.
 

On Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:45:44 +0100
"Recliner" wrote:
I don't think it was any secret that he was and is a keen cyclist.

I guess political anoraks may have been aware of it but I wasn't.

B2003

These writhing whales of the road have swung their hefty rear ends round our corners for the final time.
 

Paul Corfield wrote:

Well, it was one of his clearest manifesto commitments, so it's fair to
assume at least some of his voters also approved of the idea.

Possibly but how many of them run in Barnet, Bromley, Croydon, Harrow,
Hillingdon, Bexley, Sutton etc? I think the number is a great fat
zero [1].

Well when campaigning for Boris in Tower Hamlets and Newham, we found many
voters who heavily approved of the policy based on their direct experience
of the 25 (and before anyone jumps in, no this wasn't people in the docks
end of the two boroughs but those actually living around the route). Now
some of this may be the general problems the 25 has, but people believe it
was better when it was a double decker, and indeed IMHO on the
Ilford-Stratford section many passengers have shown a clear preference for
the 86. Certainly the idea that the bendy bus is primarily hated by those
who don't have any near them is a myth.

There isn't a universal bendy experience but is the same bus design really
suitable for both Waterloo to Victoria/London Bridge and central London to
outer suburbs?

[1] not entirely certain where Sudbury sits borough wise but the 18
stretches that far so may be more zero.

It's the point where Ealing, Brent and Harrow meet and the name is used in
all three boroughs. Very much the Crystal Palace of north west London.

These writhing whales of the road have swung their hefty rearends round our corners for the final time.
 

On Jul 27, 7:04*pm, "Tim Roll-Pickering" T.C.Roll-
wrote:
Well when campaigning for Boris in Tower Hamlets and Newham, we found many
voters who heavily approved of the policy based on their direct experience
of the 25 (and before anyone jumps in, no this wasn't people in the docks
end of the two boroughs but those actually living around the route). Now
some of this may be the general problems the 25 has, but people believe it
was better when it was a double decker, and indeed IMHO on the
Ilford-Stratford section many passengers have shown a clear preference for
the 86. Certainly the idea that the bendy bus is primarily hated by those
who don't have any near them is a myth.

No - that's only evidence that the idea that the bendy bus is *only*
hated by those who don't use them. It's entirely consistent with the
idea, which is almost certainly the correct one, that most bendy-
haters don't use them but a small proportion do (and indeed, that said
small proportion are blaming the use of bendies for more systemic
problems like 'the bus is full' and 'the bus takes ages...)

There isn't a universal bendy experience but is the same bus design really
suitable for both Waterloo to Victoria/London Bridge and central London to
outer suburbs?

That's certainly what your candidate of choice seems to believe.

(more seriously, it probably is true that although the bendy 25 is a
very good bus for Whitechapel Road, it's less good for outer parts of
Newham. Similarly, the 29's bendy capacity is needed between Warren
Street and Manor House, but again a decker with more seats and less
total capacity would be better once you get to Wood Green.)

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org

These writhing whales of the road have swung their hefty rear ends round our corners for the final time.
 

On Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:04:13 +0100, Tim Roll-Pickering wrote:

There isn't a universal bendy experience but is the same bus design really
suitable for both Waterloo to Victoria/London Bridge and central London to
outer suburbs?

Why wouldn't it be (for certain selected routes from central London to
the outer suburbs, not all of them)?

These writhing whales of the road have swung their hefty rearends round our corners for the final time.
 

That's certainly what your candidate of choice seems to believe.

(more seriously, it probably is true that although the bendy 25 is a
very good bus for Whitechapel Road, it's less good for outer parts of
Newham. Similarly, the 29's bendy capacity is needed between Warren
Street and Manor House, but again a decker with more seats and less
total capacity would be better once you get to Wood Green.)

--
John Band
john at johnband dot orgwww.johnband.org

The 29 is awfully busy along the whole route I feel, even after Manor
House it stays incredibly busy; and gets busier even because of the
big gap between Manor House and Turnpike Lane tube stations that is
Harringay.
The problem is simply Green Lanes itself which is ridiculously
congested and always the slowest part of the route, but I can't think
of much of an alternative, given that the only parallel road is also
quite busy (Wightman Rd)

These writhing whales of the road have swung their hefty rearends round our corners for the final time.
 

On 27 July, 20:17, Paul Corfield wrote:
On Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:34:52 +0100, Tom Barry
wrote:

Lucas wrote:
Has anyone been on the 507 today, especially during the rush? What's
it been like and is the increase in number of buses actually causing
more congestion?

A couple of tweets earlier mentioned a friend waiting ten minutes and
the bus being crush-loaded, but also that this was par for the course on
the 507 lately. *Others commenting on how small the bus was and how few
seats there were. *Not seen any indication of bendies still being in use
so it's possible they had all the MECs in service or tried to run it
with whatever they had to avoid embarrassing the Boss.

There was a sudden surge in deliveries from Coventry yesterday which
meant enough buses were in place today. Evobus hid the buses away from
prying eyes and then made "a mad dash to the finishing line" yesterday.
I suspect London General's staff were just a tad busy yesterday.
--
Paul C

How I laughed today as two packed 507s left Victoria at the same time,
taking up possibly more room than a bendy (nothing else was going to
fit in the gap between the two buses...!) and then remembered that
this is what awaits the 38, (a route I use daily, with very busy
buses, boarded in seconds...) and all because an out of touch Tory
needed some soundbites to get elected. Actually, that wasn't me
laughing, it was me almost crying.

These writhing whales of the road have swung their hefty rear ends round our corners for the final time.
 

In article ,
Paul Corfield wrote:

Why then has TfL gone to
the loony bin if it introduces a bus boarding scheme that means shorter
dwell times at stops?

WHy indeed. Christian Wolmar, whom I have a lot of time for, writes:
'However, it is the bendy bus fiasco that really shows up Boris as
little more than a standard issue Tory playing narrow political
games....I am no great fan of bendy buses which are not objects of great
beauty. But, my god, they do their job efficiently.'

http://www.christianwolmar.co.uk/200...ter-to-tory-po
licies/

And also:

Sharon Grant, Chair, London TravelWatch said: "We have yet to hear a
credible reason for scrapping bendy buses..."

http://www.londontravelwatch.org.uk/news.php?id=662


It seems extraordinary that one man is walking all over us.

E.

These writhing whales of the road have swung their hefty rear ends round our corners for the final time.
 

In message
, at
21:08:56 on Mon, 27 Jul 2009, eastender
remarked:
Christian Wolmar, whom I have a lot of time for, writes:
'However, it is the bendy bus fiasco that really shows up Boris as
little more than a standard issue Tory playing narrow political
games....I am no great fan of bendy buses which are not objects of great
beauty. But, my god, they do their job efficiently.'

But that's not the point. It's their collateral damage which people are
worried about.
--
Roland Perry

These writhing whales of the road have swung their hefty rear ends round our corners for the final time.
 

On Mon, 27 Jul 2009 21:08:56 +0100, eastender
wrote:

Sharon Grant, Chair, London TravelWatch said: "We have yet to hear a
credible reason for scrapping bendy buses..."

Presumably this is because every time a cyclist tries to talk to her
she stuffs her fingers in her ears and chants "laa laa laa I'm not
listening". Whatever good they may be outside the city centre, in
cramped and narrow streets they are an absolute bloody nightmare.

Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

These writhing whales of the road have swung their hefty rear ends round our corners for the final time.
 

In article ,
Roland Perry wrote:


The routemaster was perfect. I always feel somewhat "trapped" on a bus
where the driver has the power to stop me getting off (especially when
stuck in traffic and I'd rather continue on foot).

My word - bet you really hate air travel.

E.