Bendy and dangerous

I have previously blogged about London's bendy buses allowing illegal free travelling. Now I hear that a report has castigated bendy buses for their accident record.

Some other issues with bendy buses:
1. They have exacerbated the problem of youth crime on London buses
2. They are dangerous to cyclists
3. They don't carry that many passengers. The average in 2002 (the last year I can find figures for) was per Tony McNulty in the House of Commons was 24
4. They are not great in a tunnel
5. They are often driven really dangerously
6. They have many, many accidents

As a driver in London, bendy buses are a menace. I was once driving along the Euston Road into London and had to turn left across the bus lane, however there was a bendy bus there blocking the left turn. I couldn't cut into the bus lane behind the bendy bus because that would have meant me risking being caught on film and fined and I couldn't stop where I needed to turn left and wait for the bus to move off as that would have held up traffic. So I drove on, turned left when I was next allowed to and wiggled my way back to where I actually wanted to be. This was never a problem with the Routemaster bus.

You must remember the Routemaster, it was designed for narrow London roads not the wide boulevards of many European cities. A London politician with his finger on the pulse of London thought once said "Only some ghastly dehumanised moron would want to get rid of the Routemaster." Strange to say that it was the same politician, Ken Livingstone, that ended the Routemaster's role in London. This was done in the name of disabled access and clean air. Disabled access being something that had to be assured on London's roads by 2017. Although disabled access is easier now with the bendy bus, it was even easier with Dial-a-Ride service that London boroughs are cutting back on as result of bendy bus provision. Bendy buses are only better for wheelchair access if their ramp works and if there is space on board, neither being always the case.

Philip Johnston in the Daily Telegraph article says it well "(a) fetish for modernism that can be both aesthetically and socially disastrous, as was seen in the 1960s with the building of high-rise estates that became crime-infested concrete prisons for a generation of city dwellers." and is seen now with the replacement of the friendy, easy to access Routemaster with a long metal tube having three entrances that the poor driver cannot manage access to or check that people are checking in at.

I found this ode to the Routemaster "The open step at the back means people can hop on and off easily between stops - ideal when buses are often crawling along in traffic. Having a conductor on-board means fares can be collected while the bus is moving, again saving time. There isn’t much room to stand, but that’s because nearly all the available space is occupied by the things passengers want above all - seats. And because they spend less time stopping, and are relatively small and manoevurable, they are less disruptive to other vehicles, too.". You can read the rest here.