Strike special: We find the Lime parking bay with 411 bikes, explain why some tube lines are still running during a tube strike, and have the data on the Elizabeth line surge.
I cycle from on the C4 into central London three times a week, and one of the things that was already evident but the strike highlight further, is that the cycle lanes built are already inadequate. They aren't wide enough for the volume of bikes using them during the peak (e.g. you can't overtake easily) and the light phases aren't long enough at certain junctions for the volume of bikes to get through.
Very interesting. I'd love to understand, in even more depth, how the RMT calculates the costs and benefits of actions like this. Barring concessions from TFL, what will they count as a win or a loss in terms of this action? What's the constraint on further strike actions from their point of view? Is it members not keen on losing more income, is it possible shifts in public opinion? What's the internal debate they're likely to be having about how to proceed? I know there are plenty of informed readers who might have some answers.
Having seen it from the inside I genuinely think you credit the hierarchy of the RMT with too much intelligence (and too much regard for rank & file members) by talking in terms of cost/benefit analysis like this.
Unfortunately in my experience the majority of those who become union reps are the belligerent and work shy who realise that becoming a rep is one of the best ways to avoid having to actually do the day job. That attitude then prevails within the leadership structure of the union. Trust me when I say there are plenty who delight in causing disruption.
It's also my experience that many reps are adept at arranging their work schedule so they mysteriously avoid having to lose any money on strike days. I'm pretty left leaning and theoretically pro union but the RMT make it very hard for me to maintain that belief!
I'm covering quite a bit of distance in London this week, but had planned out my routes and felt pretty smug about the fact that I'd be able to do them all without being substantially affected by the strike.
Got to Tottenham Court Road just after 10pm last night and hadn't been banking on them having already stopped eastbound Elizabeth line trains. No Lime bikes anywhere near, so pottered over to a bus stop. No buses show up for 15 minutes, so a vast crowd of would-be Elizabeth line users had gathered by the time three busses came along within a ten minute period. Didn't manage to get on any of those, so just caught a different bus to get anywhere out of the area.
Then walked to find a Lime bike. Lime encouraged me to buy a Lime pass, but of course it was only *after* buying the pass that Lime told me I couldn't hire this bike. So, now, with sunk cost bias, I trawled around trying to find other Limes. Eventually succeeded, but what is usually a 40 minute commute took 2hr10m
When I read your headline of a 400+ Lime bike bay I guessed exactly where you meant! I had to park my own bike opposite it this week, and there were eight - just eight - Sheffield stands for the whole area. They were of course full. I used a dodgy signpost and was surprised to see my bike was still there each afternoon.
Sorry to hear about your battery loss. Journalism needs you to keep chasing these stories across London…
The majority of Sheffield stands I see are blocked by (s)Limes that don’t even need to be locked to anything - but prevent them from being used by those which do. These people are so selfish and lazy.
Report awful Lime dumping to london-ops@li.me (I use the W3W details for location)
It definitely felt as if London has become used to strike action rather than letting it massively disrupt the day to day.
My Tuesday commuter train was as busy as it normally is and despite the chaos we were met with at Victoria trying to get on a bus, my commute was only really 5-10mins longer than usual (my normal tube line is the circle line - horror). I don’t love strikes but it does feel as if they’re having less impact.
I don’t think people appreciate / are aware how fast it is until they use it, so your luck might be running out. I’d be curious (as I’m sure others would also be) to hear how it goes for you next week
The RMT are thugs. Only interested in cash for themselves and not in improving London or life for anyone else in London. It’s idiotic to say tube strikes improve the city. Typical academic time wasting .. Tell that to the bars, restaurants, theatres, cinemas that lose massive income every time there’s a strike; tell that to people stuck in traffic jams holding £70 of tickets for a theatre show they can’t get to. The RMT are Union capitalists - screw what you can out of the owners by making life impossible for thousands of Londoners, don’t work with other Unions to improve the city by making it more equal and greener .. not interested in Society only in cash and time off. Force concessions, threaten Sadiq, move on and come back k for me in a few months ..
I am not sure the fact that these strikes are not as disruptive as they used to be will necessarily change the approach of the unions. The Birmingham bin strike, now six months deep, similarly causes only minor inconvenience for most people. The agency staff filling the gap do a more than adequate job. Recycling doesn't get taken, but a tip visit every couple of months can clear the backlog for many when the garden waste that they may have taken via a paid for collection can also be taken away. And still there is no end in sight.
I came across what must be a record of at least 50 Lime bikes having fallen over in a domino effect on Queen Street on my walk into work (yes, I do feel very smug, thank you...) on Tuesday morning. I wish I'd taken a picture of it now!
I travel into Lindon for leisure. I had something booked for Thursday. The tube was out of action so I had to fing a new route. I discovered that my new route was about five minutes longer on trains with about another three minutes walk.
Not bad,I thought. Until I realised it was about 25% cheaper.
Yes, I've become another example of the enforced change better being.
And, yes, Farringdon was like Hell - if Satan had provided people with cases on wheels and absolutely no sense of direction. Or sense.
Anyone measuring the difference in air quality? More cars on the road.
I don’t have a view on the strike (whether it’s justified or not) as I’m not in their shoes. But the union interview you published previously made me wonder about fatigue… this must be an issue *other* public services have to mitigate. In emergency services exhaustion is not really conscionable. There must be info out there on how to timetable shifts to maintain energy, instead of constantly mixing up early shifts with late shifts, which would be draining.
This is a great piece - out of interest, where do the TfL passenger numbers come from? They seem to have discontinued the data they used to publish on the London datastore
Which would I rather have, a Lime bike with possible safety concerns or RMT holding the city to ransom for a 32 hour week, I’ll back Lime every single time.
OK. So you have to go to work and look up which tube lines are available and chose one you can use and, if your journey is better and easier than before, you decide to always go that way. We, in London, figured that out ages ago.
I cycle from on the C4 into central London three times a week, and one of the things that was already evident but the strike highlight further, is that the cycle lanes built are already inadequate. They aren't wide enough for the volume of bikes using them during the peak (e.g. you can't overtake easily) and the light phases aren't long enough at certain junctions for the volume of bikes to get through.
Same for C2 from Stratford into the City.
Very interesting. I'd love to understand, in even more depth, how the RMT calculates the costs and benefits of actions like this. Barring concessions from TFL, what will they count as a win or a loss in terms of this action? What's the constraint on further strike actions from their point of view? Is it members not keen on losing more income, is it possible shifts in public opinion? What's the internal debate they're likely to be having about how to proceed? I know there are plenty of informed readers who might have some answers.
Having seen it from the inside I genuinely think you credit the hierarchy of the RMT with too much intelligence (and too much regard for rank & file members) by talking in terms of cost/benefit analysis like this.
Unfortunately in my experience the majority of those who become union reps are the belligerent and work shy who realise that becoming a rep is one of the best ways to avoid having to actually do the day job. That attitude then prevails within the leadership structure of the union. Trust me when I say there are plenty who delight in causing disruption.
It's also my experience that many reps are adept at arranging their work schedule so they mysteriously avoid having to lose any money on strike days. I'm pretty left leaning and theoretically pro union but the RMT make it very hard for me to maintain that belief!
I'm covering quite a bit of distance in London this week, but had planned out my routes and felt pretty smug about the fact that I'd be able to do them all without being substantially affected by the strike.
Got to Tottenham Court Road just after 10pm last night and hadn't been banking on them having already stopped eastbound Elizabeth line trains. No Lime bikes anywhere near, so pottered over to a bus stop. No buses show up for 15 minutes, so a vast crowd of would-be Elizabeth line users had gathered by the time three busses came along within a ten minute period. Didn't manage to get on any of those, so just caught a different bus to get anywhere out of the area.
Then walked to find a Lime bike. Lime encouraged me to buy a Lime pass, but of course it was only *after* buying the pass that Lime told me I couldn't hire this bike. So, now, with sunk cost bias, I trawled around trying to find other Limes. Eventually succeeded, but what is usually a 40 minute commute took 2hr10m
When I read your headline of a 400+ Lime bike bay I guessed exactly where you meant! I had to park my own bike opposite it this week, and there were eight - just eight - Sheffield stands for the whole area. They were of course full. I used a dodgy signpost and was surprised to see my bike was still there each afternoon.
Sorry to hear about your battery loss. Journalism needs you to keep chasing these stories across London…
The majority of Sheffield stands I see are blocked by (s)Limes that don’t even need to be locked to anything - but prevent them from being used by those which do. These people are so selfish and lazy.
Report awful Lime dumping to london-ops@li.me (I use the W3W details for location)
It definitely felt as if London has become used to strike action rather than letting it massively disrupt the day to day.
My Tuesday commuter train was as busy as it normally is and despite the chaos we were met with at Victoria trying to get on a bus, my commute was only really 5-10mins longer than usual (my normal tube line is the circle line - horror). I don’t love strikes but it does feel as if they’re having less impact.
Please god I hope the Elizabeth Line switch isn’t permanent. Almost always getting a seat may soon be a distant dream
I don’t think people appreciate / are aware how fast it is until they use it, so your luck might be running out. I’d be curious (as I’m sure others would also be) to hear how it goes for you next week
The RMT are thugs. Only interested in cash for themselves and not in improving London or life for anyone else in London. It’s idiotic to say tube strikes improve the city. Typical academic time wasting .. Tell that to the bars, restaurants, theatres, cinemas that lose massive income every time there’s a strike; tell that to people stuck in traffic jams holding £70 of tickets for a theatre show they can’t get to. The RMT are Union capitalists - screw what you can out of the owners by making life impossible for thousands of Londoners, don’t work with other Unions to improve the city by making it more equal and greener .. not interested in Society only in cash and time off. Force concessions, threaten Sadiq, move on and come back k for me in a few months ..
I am not sure the fact that these strikes are not as disruptive as they used to be will necessarily change the approach of the unions. The Birmingham bin strike, now six months deep, similarly causes only minor inconvenience for most people. The agency staff filling the gap do a more than adequate job. Recycling doesn't get taken, but a tip visit every couple of months can clear the backlog for many when the garden waste that they may have taken via a paid for collection can also be taken away. And still there is no end in sight.
Wait, Birmingham bin workers still on strike after 6 months? Aren't they suffering from that lost of income?
And surely if trash is being dealt with adequately after 6 months... Shows the bin workers weren't as essential as needed? Can be replaced easily?
Saw someone put their suitcase on a lime scooter outside Tottenham Court Road station today. Needs must.
I came across what must be a record of at least 50 Lime bikes having fallen over in a domino effect on Queen Street on my walk into work (yes, I do feel very smug, thank you...) on Tuesday morning. I wish I'd taken a picture of it now!
I travel into Lindon for leisure. I had something booked for Thursday. The tube was out of action so I had to fing a new route. I discovered that my new route was about five minutes longer on trains with about another three minutes walk.
Not bad,I thought. Until I realised it was about 25% cheaper.
Yes, I've become another example of the enforced change better being.
And, yes, Farringdon was like Hell - if Satan had provided people with cases on wheels and absolutely no sense of direction. Or sense.
Anyone measuring the difference in air quality? More cars on the road.
I don’t have a view on the strike (whether it’s justified or not) as I’m not in their shoes. But the union interview you published previously made me wonder about fatigue… this must be an issue *other* public services have to mitigate. In emergency services exhaustion is not really conscionable. There must be info out there on how to timetable shifts to maintain energy, instead of constantly mixing up early shifts with late shifts, which would be draining.
In motion Lime bikes this week have become the Michael Holding of hazards for pedestrians. Too quiet, too much on the pavement and no civility.
This is a great piece - out of interest, where do the TfL passenger numbers come from? They seem to have discontinued the data they used to publish on the London datastore
https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/public-transport-journeys-type-transport/
Which would I rather have, a Lime bike with possible safety concerns or RMT holding the city to ransom for a 32 hour week, I’ll back Lime every single time.
OK. So you have to go to work and look up which tube lines are available and chose one you can use and, if your journey is better and easier than before, you decide to always go that way. We, in London, figured that out ages ago.