Transport in London is shit

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).

tbf to tourists, I was nearly in the path of a car the other day because a cluster of them decided the edge of the pavement was a fine place to stop suddenly, blithely unaware of anyone who might have been still crossing behind them.

Campaign for the glowering at people who stop at the end of escalators / just inside tube carriage doors.

Or the people who stand by the exit doors of the bus. If you're getting off at the next stop, fine, but any further, at least turn so you're facing the road and squeeze yourself up against the glass panel by the seats. And take the fucking backpack off while you're at it.

Just saw a scooterer sailing down a bus lane, fuck’s saaaaake

Or the people who stand by the exit doors of the bus. If you're getting off at the next stop, fine, but any further, at least turn so you're facing the road and squeeze yourself up against the glass panel by the seats. And take the fucking backpack off while you're at it.

― Bloody Snail, Wednesday, 19 June 2019 07:49 (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ah, the greater-spotted Fjallraven Wanker

After two decades as a London resident, having to commute frequently via Shepherd's Bush was my first real taste of folks barrelling onto a Tube train without letting people off. I was ready to blame West Londoners en masse for this garbage behaviour, but, tbh, this might be the first time in 20 years where I'm regularly fighting the flow. (Change from eastbound Central to southbound Overground/National Rail at SB around 7pm, but greater numbers are getting on my Tube to go into town).

On one of the Boris buses rn and the top deck is sweatier than Raab being asked a question he doesn’t like

I tell you what's great - my kids going basically anywhere they want, off-peak, for either nothing (buses, trams) or 75p single (rail, Tube). What's not great - they don't ever want to leave the house.

(This is 11-15 Oyster photocard).

(xp) Just off one. I had the added annoyance of sitting in a seat where the window had been left open and so was wet, I then moved over to the 'aisle seat' and then had to tell a succession of slack-jawed dumbos: "The seat's wet" *uncomprehending look* "It's wet", "The seat's wet" *uncomprehending look* "It's wet, see?", "The seat's wet" *uncomprehending look* "Wet!". Eventually a guy decided to sit on it anyway - if he gets piles it's not my problem. Also, a young kind of homeless looking guy couldn't find a seat on the upper deck so decided to sit at the top of the stairs and so landed himself the task of telling yet more slack-jawed dumbos, "There's no seats", "There's no seat, mates", and after someone was still advancing up the stairs, after he'd told him twice, "There's no seats! Why'd you think I'm fucking sitting here?"

I had a similar experience at embankment the other day. I almost never take the tube and was reminded why - there were legit 12-deep clusters of people all standing where they’d stopped (just off the stairs) and ignoring a TfL worker with a megaphone exhorting them to MOVE DOWN THE PLATFORM. Many parts of the network would be improved by some kind of gentle crowd shovel to disperse people more efficiently. As it was, I shoved my way through the mass and found an empty space literally seconds further up.

I seem to recall the Tory press going nuts about Red Ken's GLC cutting the child bus fare to 5p in the early 80s. Now it's free and no one seems to think it's a communist plot.

That’s the death of local print journalism for you. Gideon must be asleep at the wheel.

After two decades as a London resident, having to commute frequently via Shepherd's Bush was my first real taste of folks barrelling onto a Tube train without letting people off. I was ready to blame West Londoners en masse for this garbage behaviour, but, tbh, this might be the first time in 20 years where I'm regularly fighting the flow. (Change from eastbound Central to southbound Overground/National Rail at SB around 7pm, but greater numbers are getting on my Tube to go into town).

― Michael Jones, Wednesday, June 19, 2019 1:18 PM (ten hours ago) Bookmark

Confess I've been one of those in the past — if you're trying to go Westbound in the evening peak, you can't easily get to the first arch because the eastbound platform has everyone bunched at the end -- so you're better off going down the up corridor.

(And those people bunching up aren't tourists, they're commuters staying at that end because that's the carriage you want to be on for Oxford Circus. This causes a similar problem at Victoria for the Victoria Line both north and southbound, and no amount of platform staff shouting people down the platform are going to convince commuters to get on a carriage that leaves them at the "wrong" end of Victoria or Oxford Circus.)

Exile the railway companies on pain of death and enforce British Rail

mobikes. bloody everywhere.

Cunts on scooters in the cycle lane, fucking whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

*bus! Clearly my last interactions itt left a mark

Scooter wars are only just getting started here. We're behind the curve.

You still have Mobikes! Melbourne chucked out ‘Obikes’ in there river and ran the company out of town.

I like scooters and used to go out on the local streets with my kid on them until it became increasingly dangerous. One of the "dangers" used to be teenage girls laughing loudly at the sight of me on a scooter and giving me an ironic "gangsta!" shout out! But this was a sensory activity with my kid with autism. Never actually used one just to get from a to b.

I am confused over the scooter talk. Are people talking about those razor scooter things, the bigger, electric version of those, or the transport preference of the mods?

There was an initial council pushback on the bikes because one company seemingly dumped hundreds on the street one morning but they've crept back. My main gripe now is that people are idiots and will leave them in the worst places.

You still have Mobikes! Melbourne chucked out ‘Obikes’ in there river and ran the company out of town.

I mean, you say this as if you want a cookie, but I'm not entirely sure what the cookie is for..

More of an interesting observation. Sydney still has various dockless bikes including electric ones and Brisbane has dockless e-scooters. Melbourne, especially Melbourne city council, took against them, partly NIMBYism, partly because they end up footing the bill for fishing them out of the Yarra.

Also several of the operators went bust.

I like the concept, even if most of the bikes end up hurting my knees because they are too small.

e-scooters in the bike lane - micro-mobility - is where shit's going to get real on the streets of London. Apparently...

I'd be interested to read something about that, if you've seen anything good?

e-scooters better in the bike lane than on the pavements (says the pedestrian) given they are capable of 15mph.

(i've seen a bloke on one of those monowheels around here as well. must have a deathwish)

i did read something recently about the escooters for hire (in the us) being charged by ordinary people and them getting paid for it and the scramble that produced.

it wasn't this, but it was something similar: https://www.inc.com/magazine/201902/will-yakowicz/bird-electric-scooter-freelance-gig-collector-watcher-charger.html

There’s quite a bit on the escalation of e-scooter tension in San Francisco and Paris in the media recently.

There’s also quite a bit on e-scooters and ‘micro mobility’ as the next big VC tech area with fortunes to be lost and made.

I already know one failed e-scooter entrepreneur m.

I mean, as I understand it the first problem with e-scooters is that they're illegal on the road and on the pavement.

But if they offer an innovative and eco-friendly transport solution, you may want to change the legislative/regulatory framework to accommodate or even encourage them.

Alternatively...

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/electric-scooters-ban-uk-france-brussels-paris-trottinettes-lime-a8990396.html

ah ok, mobike is different from obike. and obike, ofo and urbo have quit

> But in January, ofo followed oBike and Urbo to become the third dockless operator to withdraw from Britain in just over a year.

probably after this:

> In Hammersmith and Fulham the local authority placed obstruction notices on some oBikes parked on the public highway or "littering" the city

(it certainly felt like that that first morning when they were dumped every 10 yards along goldhawk road)

Lime e-bikes i see a lot of too, although probably only 10% as much as mobikes.

I've used Lime bikes a few times and support a dockless scheme (but maybe focused on the outer zones) tho they're cynically expensive. The battery powered boost you get from the first few pedals is particularly useful once the red lights turn. Haven't noticed scooters in the cycle lane as much of a problem yet but Jon Stone currently has a Twitter thread showing them badly blocking pavements.

And Uber have introduced (bright red) bikes too but fuck that.

my regular reminder that i was once nearly knocked down in upper mare street by a bearded hipster on a unicycle as i went into the post office and he cycled out

hoverboards routinely burst into flames under the hoverer so they have that in their favour; the rare occasions i've spotted a segue IRL the entire scene has been a recreation of an HMBateman cartoon, which is also on balance good not bad; cyclists on the pavement are still a bigger menace in this part of london than veihcles that can't get up the same speed, i'm not against machines but till the rise (may it be soon!) pavements are for ppl not engines of death (= unicycles)

the mobike and lime things appear to be specifically targetting west london (just left of the zone covered by the barclay bikes). urbo seem to be NE which is why i'm unaware of them.

my kids are at the age where i don't yet trust them on the roads on their bikes but they are also big and fast enough that they're a bit of a menace on the pavements. feel kinda bad for ppl but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

tracer hand is cancelled

i have also been actually literally knocked down by a child on a bike (for the crime of not having 360° vision while standing at a bus stop) (= on the pavement bcz that's where many bus stops are)

when i suggested (perhaps a little urgently) that she be more careful in future, i was denounced as a paedo, so everyone's a winner

jeez, i thought i had it bad getting ironically denounced as a "gangster" on the other side of the scooter/pedestrian divide!

Trying to walk a very wobbly Kenny one day in N16, I got belled by some tween Jolyon riding on the pavement and almost did a child abuse.