Transport in London is shit

they don't even use buses so they don't care

Truth

The people who live in the outer suburbs, never see the bus (and don't use buses anyway) are not going to vote for Johnson based on that issue, because it's not an issue they have any interest in. They'll vote for him for other reasons.

True, they'll vote for him because he's Tory and he isn't Ken Livingstone. But what else has Boris actually done, other than rid London of the scourge of the bendy bus (which was actually popular with most people who used it regularly (because it was free amirite)) and 'bring back' the Routemaster which is of course A Good Thing, like everything else from the 1950s.
I don't know, I'm strawmanning furiously here. I wish this election was something other than the Boris-v-Ken show.

Not sure I hold withe the idea that people who live in the outer suburbs don't use buses when they're in town.

This isn't going to be an issue in the mayoral election though. Spiralling fares, on the other hand...

http://991.com/newGallery/The-Fatima-Mansions-Only-Losers-Take-450488.jpg

... quote attributed to Thatcher, but I don't believe it

It would seem to me Johnson might have to be very careful in the short term to strike the right balance between crowing about the new bus and keeping quiet about it. I notice information about it is rather buried on the TFL site.

Johnson doesn't seem to be in a very strong position. I might be wrong, but unless he can get Livingstone on particular issues, Johnson might be reduced to hoping that there's enough residual dislike of Livingstone to keep him out.

xp another favourite myth busted ;_;

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher#Misattributed

Johnson might be reduced to hoping that there's enough residual dislike of Livingstone to keep him out.

There's enough residual dislike of Livingstone to keep him out

The Standard will probably be a bit (read a lot) more circumspect about backing any one candidate this time, the editorship skews Tory but it won't be Boris's propaganda paper this time round. Chance of Ken shooting himself in the foot is pretty high though.

Boris has done a fair bit of work on differentiating himself from Westminster so the coalition shouldn't really be much of a problem for him, but then I'm not really sure how much voters connect the mayoralty to national politics anyway - Frank Dobson couldn't win even when Labour were winning landslides, etc.

Also, people like the bikes, a lot.

so the coalition shouldn't really be much of a problem for him

I don't know about, I would say that's the main reason Ken has any chance at all of winning this

This has probably been said before but providing bikes without providing helmets seems borderline homicidal

I see tons of people who cycle in from zone 3/2 doing it without helmets. I see more people without them than with them, which seems insane to me.

providing helmets would be a logistical nightmare.

no-one wears helmets in paris and they had zero fatalities last year (allegedly). (nevertheless i am all for them.)

I don't know anyone who's warmed to Boris at all - he's been a bit of an embarrassment, and once the Boris Bikes start getting re-attributed to Ken, he'll be out on his arse, is my guess.

Do you know many people who are inclined toward voting Tory, or would at least consider doing so? If the answer's 'no' then you're not in much of a position to judge as your social circle is pretty self-selecting. As is mine.

The bikes are 'Boris bikes' forever now I think, no way are they ever being attributed to Ken.

I'm a bit surprised nobody has yet been killed using one of those bikes. (I've not heard of any fatalities.) Quite a few of the users seem not very competent. On the other hand, most of the deaths of cyclists seem to occur on main roads into London (where there are much larger numbers of vans and trucks), not in central London itself.

(xp) otm

I don't know about, I would say that's the main reason Ken has any chance at all of winning this

Maybe, maybe not. Seems to me that the people who do well in mayoral contests are self-styled maverick types who stand at odds with the leadership on key issues. Boris will be trying to distinguish himself from Cameron as much as he will from Ken, see a lot of posturing about "standing up for London", fighting national cuts in London etc etc.

I'm amazed that anyone thinks Ken has a chance in hell.

Yeah to both the last two threads but suspect a lot of people will turn out to vote Ken, who probably wouldn't have been arsed otherwise, because it'd be a bloody nose for the Tories, despite Boris' not exactly convincing efforts to distance himslef from the coalition

... last two posts not last two threads

<I>Do you know many people who are inclined toward voting Tory, or would at least consider doing so?</I>

Yeah, a few, but my point was more establishing that Tom D is not Speaking For London. The last election was quite close after all.

Also "They're popularly called Boris Bike but <I>actually</I> they're Ken's work" is the kind of quirky transport-based fact that Londoners eat up :)

I imagine everyone who benefited from the shrinking of the congestion charge zone will vote for Boris too!

multiple xps I used to cycle to school (not in London) and escaped serious injury after being tipped off my bike by a truck cos I had a helmet on. Interacting with buses and trucks in London seems terrifying to me, I don't understand it either.

The last election was quite close after all.

The people voting for Ken at that point were voting for a proven winner, not somebody who had lost an election to a joke novelty candidate.

There are some people who hold that helmets do you no good in most accidents and active harm in some - all the evidence I've seen has been fairly iffy and these are generally Live Free or Die types anyway.

xp that doesn't sound like an argument for re-electing the joke novelty candidate!

It's not supposed to be, but if you're looking for why there's a certain lack of enthusiasm for Ken this time around I think there's some explanatory juice to it

Tracer otm. I feel like Ken should be walking it and another, newer candidate probably would have. There has to be a reason and "London's kinda done with you, Ken" might be part of it.

Boris' enthusiasm for them is pretty much what makes them his bikes. Whether or not they were Ken's idea (which even if they were he copied from Paris/Barcelona/wherever) is irrelevant.

I'm actually not surprised that no-one's been killed on them. As bikes go, they're basically tanks - very visible and impossible to go quickly on. Plus most people that use them are doing so for puddle-jump trips on the kind of slow-moving, central London roads that accidents don't really happen on too much. Plus their (presumed) inexperience means they're the kind of cyclist who doesn't take too many risks.

Although I drunkenly took one from King's Cross to Kennington at 6am yesterday.

this is the first time i've heard about any connection between ken and the boris bikes! i think the link to boris is irreversible, whatever the truth - even left-leaning types give boris grudging credit for them.

it's possibly testament to how cannily boris fostered the general image of himself as a buffoon prior to the election, but his record in office being a non-disaster with even a couple of "accomplishments" prob means that his stock hasn't gone DOWN at least; there's the fare rises, of course, but i get the impression that discontent there is more general than aimed at a specific politician (given that neither ken nor boris seemed able to stop them rising). i also think he's been quite effective at distancing himself from the coalition over certain flashpoints (eg housing policy).

how the olympics turn out may change all of this, though of course given timing it may not at all - even if boris is re-elected and oversees a disaster olympics (and really it probably won't be a DISASTER), he has enough time to make back the ground.

would that a third credible candidate could shake things up, it's not as though ken enthuses me at this point either.

With the right timing and some luck I think Diane Abbott could take it

xp that doesn't sound like an argument for re-electing the joke novelty candidate!

does anyone really see him as a joke novelty candidate any more?

I don't know, but at the time people definitely did!

fucking wish diane would take it!

though actually, the timing of the olympics is prob a v good reason why we're stuck with the same-ol-same-ol ken vs boris snoozeathon choice this year - what brand new, untried candidate would possibly want to inherit the mayoralty on the eve of the olympics with all the potential for completely fucking up/getting fucked up? talk about having to hit the ground running.

I don't know, but at the time people definitely did!

yeah they did! the fact that they don't any more, not even those who loathe him, is testament to, um, ~how far he's come~

DIANE 2016~~~

god i forgot we could've had oona king

smh labour

Bad enough having to vote for Ken, but Diane Abbott?

But seriously, she must be thinking of it surely?

Yes, Diane Abbott >> either Ken or Boris.

Surprised that people have forgotten No Drink on Public Transport, or has that turned popular since?

I think no-one really drank on public transport before, and those that did haven't really stopped. Either way, it isn't/wasn't a problem and as a bylaw it's a bit of a nonthing.

Sure, but trumpeting it as a Thing seemed to really underline his pompous buffoonery.

that was years ago and people's memories are too short to care, particularly since it's never actually enforced

First run-out of the blunder bus is going teribly by all accounts.

If someone (GOD FORBID) gets knocked off a Boris bike by a Boris bus then I think he's in trouble.

The inaugural journey of the 'Boris bus', named after mayor of London Boris Johnson, saw it stall in Islington, north London, and experience a door that would not close, despite the driver turning it off and on again.

To compound matters, the bus, on the route 38 between Hackney in east London and Victoria station in the centre of the capital, was shadowed by a 'protest' bus hired by supporters of mayoral challenger Ken Livingstone.

ITV London Tonight correspondent Simon Harris - who was on the first bus journey - tweeted that a sticking rear brake was behind some of the bus' problems, possibly caused by overcrowding.

A Transport for London recovery vehicle was dispatched to follow the new bus as well after the problems it experienced.

That's okay, buses in London are never overcrowded.

I for one welcome our new CGI bus overlords

http://www.itsnicethat.com/system/files/022012/4f4b7add0731395a0e000d40/article_extended/bus-broadgate.jpg?1330346707

http://www.fashionfuss.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/alexander-wang-satin-jersey-one-shoulder-dress.jpg

Very nice but...

... oh, got you!