Utrecht’s 25 metre buses — 7m longer than London’s — are so bendy they’re floppy.
Boris Johnson is half way through the fourth year of his term as mayor of London, approaching an election, and his great achievement in office has been to phase out the city’s bendy buses. A big justification for the policy is that the long vehicles are dangerous, especially for cyclists.
More than a third of journeys in Utrecht are made by bicycle. The big bendy buses don’t seem to be a problem. Why might that be?
Perhaps it’s something to do with having a city government that designs streets in a way that doesn’t put cyclists under large vehicles.