Transport in London is shit

*pride*

Tube trains were delayed due to "soiled cars" on 801 separate occasions.

Maybe they should just have a 'soil car' on the night tube. A toilet, is what I'm saying. The drivers could offload the full tanks in Zone 5 somewhere, although obv. not in the parts where decent people live.

Sat two seats away from a copiously vomiting young woman on the Overground only today. This was only 7pm! She had a pal with her, thank goodness.

People in Birmingham paying in cash on the bus (and discussing various ticket options with the driver), it's like the dark ages up here.

They do have contactless but our main route is run by two different companies and only ones caps at the day pass price. Deregulation!

I had to pay cash in a bus in Leeds. That was odd

In Glasgow you pay in cash and the drivers do not give change back

That's what it's like in Glasgow, mate

Soft southern bastids.

turns out transport in london is not so bad

they do contactless on arriva in this bit of w yorkshire since a couple of weeks ago, although I've not seeing anyone using it. "whither be this witchcraft, take these cumbersome threpenny bits or i'll strike thee"

since I stopped commuting by bus (not in London) they've changed from only accepting cash with minimal chance of change available, to accepting contactless AND some sort of elaborate app where you pay in advance and activate tickets when you want them and give a secret code or whatnot

In Medway it’s basically impossible to guess how much the fare is going to be, when the bus is meant to leave or, for the most part, where it is going, without consulting a website approximately as complex as a 17th century farmers’ almanac but the recent addition of contactless has been useful.

Drivers can’t not give change, but they also leave the depot with zero cash - so if nobody has actually given them any coins before you get on, and you want to pay with a £5 note, they just refuse to take you.

sending a driver out without at least a basic float of £50 in coins is ridic, maybe not so much now but it has been standard practice for years before contactless.

they give you a token for yr change in dublin, you can go ten miles to the head office to collect it if you like

That is - or was until recently - the deal in Glasgow, you get a little piece of paper that you can go redeem somewhere lmao

Drivers can’t not give change, but they also leave the depot with zero cash - so if nobody has actually given them any coins before you get on, and you want to pay with a £5 note, they just refuse to take you.

drivers up here mostly let ppl on for free when they're out of change

Thats the common sense approach, especially if you are getting a day ticket. But some of these miserable fuckin drivers...

This can get all the way to fuck.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jun/18/woman-knocked-down-while-on-phone-wins-payout-from-cyclist

Disgraceful judgement.

Outrageous.

who works for a finance firm in the City of London and runs yoga retreats

Most people who run yoga retreats?

Ah wait I see now

Horrendous decision. I constantly see tourists moronically wandering into the road or fucking around blocking people from crossing safely - that’s the kind of unexpected behaviour I see most often and it’s so common. London continues to be shit for cyclists - if they weren’t forced to merge with traffic esp on overcrowded junctions, you’d remove this worry.

Fuck this. Cyclists should be prepared to turn sharply into the path of all the cars and buses going past them if some idiot steps off the pavement without looking?

she brought the case, waived her anonymity, and is about to suffer national wrath. worth it?

The audacity to sue for this is beyond belief. And tbh I doubt the wrath of the nation will be harnessed in defence of the universally loved and respected cyclists of London

yoga retreats can get you a shit-hot lawyer eh

It’s very difficult to judge court cases based on a 200 word newspaper summary.

If this happened where I think it did, pedestrians cross through the cycle lane constantly. The cyclist saw her, shouted a warning, blew his air horn and swerved when it was too late but didn’t slow down or stop when he had the chance. His assumption seems to be that she would hear and turn back in time, which isn’t what happened. Interestingly, the pedestrian witnesses seem to have sided with the cyclist and the cyclist witness sided with the pedestrian.

It takes a huge amount of brass neck to sue for this but idk if it’s legally wrong.

damn your even-handedness, we want blood

Cycling in London is genuinely quite dangerous, and especially during rush hour braking hard/swerving unexpectedly is not a good idea. Might not be legally wrong but it is fucking bullshit.

Oh look



Nice little detail at the end:

“A survey of Australian drivers earlier this year suggested more than half think cyclists are not completely human, making it easier to justify hatred or aggression towards them.”

bleurgh

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jun/18/sheffield-magazine-under-fire-after-call-to-razor-wire-cyclists

just wanna squawk about some of these wild bus re-routes that totally snuck up on me - 4 now goes to Blackfriars not Waterloo, 40 now Clerkenwell Green instead of Fenchurch St, 388 to Liverpool St instead of Elephant & Castle and a bunch of wtf others

Is this the Daily Mail comments pages. Case Law already states a pedestrian already established on the road has right of way. As she was. The Highway Code says something similar. Read the judgement. She was found to be half at fault. In the City of London there are some incredibly arsey macho and aggressive cyclists. He was likely going to fast to stop. Which is reckless.

He was going 10-15mph and the judge said he was ‘calm and reasonable’

Nearly got hit by two cyclists on a pelican crossing this evening so I have little sympathy with the guy.

xxp ah yeah, the daily mail famously a fan of cyclists...

i side with the scooterers

Fuck scooterers, cyclists should be allowed to chase them off the road and streets

what about longboarders

I was biking through Soho daily on a previous commute/job and can confirm peds with or without phones who step on the road without looking are still the most disgusting savages, peace

Who run these streets?

Rollerbladers>people on phones>>>>>addison lee>buses>cars>>>>>cyclists>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>scooterers

no they are nice pls go back to daily mail xp

You left out the worst species of all, zone 1 runners!

just wanna squawk about some of these wild bus re-routes that totally snuck up on me - 4 now goes to Blackfriars not Waterloo, 40 now Clerkenwell Green instead of Fenchurch St, 388 to Liverpool St instead of Elephant & Castle and a bunch of wtf others

― nashwan

AIUI this is part of a re-balancing that shifts some of the bus coverage out of central London (which is already very well covered with public transport options) into outer London, and in the context of falling numbers of people using the bus overall I haven't seen any that seems especially wtf but I haven't paid especially close attention.

(I've been noticing announcements for a few weeks on the 388 fwiw, which is the only one of the affected routes I use with any regularity)

was cycling in Soho/Mayfair this weekend which is something i would normally never do and yes tourists step onto the road as though they hate life. it is like playing crash bandicoot and I cycle like an elderly dutch grandmother.

if it’s anything like my tourist experience it’s because my neck does one thing thing while my brain is trying to work out the concepts of L-R, and my legs are going “just a road nbd”.

i always feel incredibly tense on oxford street not just because it’s usually hell but because the poor bus drivers both have to move the bus at a reasonable speed while also knowing at any moment a blithe young european (or whatever) will step out looking in entirely the wrong direction.

Don't get me started on poor bus drivers. There's definitely something about being a tourist which means they stumble about in a daze in a way they never would in their own countries.

tbf to tourists, they’re very often the only people waiting for the lights to turn green before crossing the road as well. It’s not something British people tend to do (vs crossing when you don’t see any cars coming).