Plus: Why are London's buses getting slower, the 81-year-old running to be the YIMBY mayor of London, We R Blighty turn to body cams, and would you buy this basement for £500?
Question for TfL: why are the digital information boards at bus stops working so infrequently compared to previous years? They’re vital to knowing when a bus comes! Info is clearly still available because City Mapper will tell you if you look there..
I am one of those users who have largely given up on using buses regularly due to the deterioration in journey times in the last 10 years. Around where I live (E3) this is due to private car traffic which has got dramatically worse, with one major contributing factor being navigation apps sending through traffic down the side streets. TfL's refusal to establish bus lanes along Bow Road and Stratford High Street and LBTH's support for on-steet parking and opposition to LTNs means local bus journey times have literally doubled.
Also, appreciate bus drivers need to rest but changing drivers should happen at the terminus, not half way through the journey with a busful of passengers waiting, engine idling, and passing traffic being obstructed causing yet more delays.
Totally agree on that last point - the driver changes are a relatively new thing, and slow affected journeys massively. And don’t get me started on “this bus will wait… to regulate the service”…
They've only got four more years on the road, assuming that Sadiq Khan keeps his pledge to have only zero emissions buses by 2030.
Then, due to the way the contract is structured, my off-the-top-of-my-head-not-double-checked-understanding is that TfL will be left with a load of buses that no one will really want to buy second hand as they're unique to London and don't work for other operators.
Attention press officers reading this! The public respect it when you put someone up for interview and they set out the trade offs involved in a decision! More of that sort of thing!
There is another aspect to this, that I haven’t explored, regarding the transition from the event as an open walk-in country fair to an event inside a festival site. Met Police guidance plays a role in that, which changed the feel a lot.
And in some ways councils paying to put on public cultural events is a remnant of a pre-austerity era when that was seen as part of their former broad remit, rather than just being vessels for handling social care and emergency housing funds.
"The distance between bus stops may not appear to be a particularly well discussed issue in the industry.
However, a data expert who has acted as a consultant for local authorities on transport issues has claimed the UK has too many of them compared to other countries and that it is harming public transport as a service, having a negative knock-on effect on the productivity of our cities."
"The bus stop removal scheme in Birmingham was based on calculations that each stop added 35 seconds to the journey and that many of them were rarely used...the trial was deemed to be a success, with TfWM reporting an increase in 106,000 journeys over the six-month trial, which led to most of the stops being permanently deleted."
Lots of the bus speed problems do lie with users. There is a staggering amount of faff getting on and getting off buses. People not ready with payment cards; people blocking the entry/exit/stairs instead of using seats/more suitable space and allowing for people to get on/off; people not being ready for their stop; people not paying and ending up in a mexican standoff with the bus driver refusing to move. If everyone was me, no bus would be stopping at any stop for more than 20 seconds. A boy can dream!
(I'm of course excluding the elderly & anyone with mobility needs in my anger here - some people need more time and I'm of course more than happy to allow them what they need).
It's a bit like that story this week about the Avanti train running empty from Manchester to Euston — all passenger transport would run much more efficiently and stick to its timetable if there weren't passengers involved!
If anyone takes a UK bus outside of London, where very few have double doors and having a natter with the driver is part of the fun, you'll think the capital's system is positively streamlined.
Question for TfL: why are the digital information boards at bus stops working so infrequently compared to previous years? They’re vital to knowing when a bus comes! Info is clearly still available because City Mapper will tell you if you look there..
If we're doing real talk, why are Google Maps bus time estimates so wrong compared to CityMapper?
I am one of those users who have largely given up on using buses regularly due to the deterioration in journey times in the last 10 years. Around where I live (E3) this is due to private car traffic which has got dramatically worse, with one major contributing factor being navigation apps sending through traffic down the side streets. TfL's refusal to establish bus lanes along Bow Road and Stratford High Street and LBTH's support for on-steet parking and opposition to LTNs means local bus journey times have literally doubled.
Also, appreciate bus drivers need to rest but changing drivers should happen at the terminus, not half way through the journey with a busful of passengers waiting, engine idling, and passing traffic being obstructed causing yet more delays.
Totally agree on that last point - the driver changes are a relatively new thing, and slow affected journeys massively. And don’t get me started on “this bus will wait… to regulate the service”…
On my routes, you can only board the wretched Boris buses at the front door. Rear and middle doors closed and card readers gone...
I guess this is due to fare dodging?
Thomas Heaherwick should be sent to the gallows for inflicting this abomination of a bus on the good people of London
They've only got four more years on the road, assuming that Sadiq Khan keeps his pledge to have only zero emissions buses by 2030.
Then, due to the way the contract is structured, my off-the-top-of-my-head-not-double-checked-understanding is that TfL will be left with a load of buses that no one will really want to buy second hand as they're unique to London and don't work for other operators.
That official comment & explanation from TfL is excellent, detailed and informed. Credit where it's due.
Attention press officers reading this! The public respect it when you put someone up for interview and they set out the trade offs involved in a decision! More of that sort of thing!
Shutting down the Lambeth Country show seems spiteful
There is another aspect to this, that I haven’t explored, regarding the transition from the event as an open walk-in country fair to an event inside a festival site. Met Police guidance plays a role in that, which changed the feel a lot.
And in some ways councils paying to put on public cultural events is a remnant of a pre-austerity era when that was seen as part of their former broad remit, rather than just being vessels for handling social care and emergency housing funds.
In that photo, the We R Blighty man looks like he’s not wearing a body cam but a … *ring doorbell*?
Another option to consider is bus stop consolidation - https://www.route-one.net/features/could-removing-bus-stops-boost-services
"The distance between bus stops may not appear to be a particularly well discussed issue in the industry.
However, a data expert who has acted as a consultant for local authorities on transport issues has claimed the UK has too many of them compared to other countries and that it is harming public transport as a service, having a negative knock-on effect on the productivity of our cities."
"The bus stop removal scheme in Birmingham was based on calculations that each stop added 35 seconds to the journey and that many of them were rarely used...the trial was deemed to be a success, with TfWM reporting an increase in 106,000 journeys over the six-month trial, which led to most of the stops being permanently deleted."
Once again the NIMBYs have succeeded in making life in the city worse.
Lots of the bus speed problems do lie with users. There is a staggering amount of faff getting on and getting off buses. People not ready with payment cards; people blocking the entry/exit/stairs instead of using seats/more suitable space and allowing for people to get on/off; people not being ready for their stop; people not paying and ending up in a mexican standoff with the bus driver refusing to move. If everyone was me, no bus would be stopping at any stop for more than 20 seconds. A boy can dream!
(I'm of course excluding the elderly & anyone with mobility needs in my anger here - some people need more time and I'm of course more than happy to allow them what they need).
It's a bit like that story this week about the Avanti train running empty from Manchester to Euston — all passenger transport would run much more efficiently and stick to its timetable if there weren't passengers involved!
If anyone takes a UK bus outside of London, where very few have double doors and having a natter with the driver is part of the fun, you'll think the capital's system is positively streamlined.
Road pricing has been a Green Party policy for London since as least 2019.
https://www.onlondon.co.uk/sian-berry-pitches-bold-green-party-agenda-to-london-business-group/#:~:text=Road%20pricing%20based%20on%20vehicle,the%20Campaign%20for%20Better%20Transport.