To Deptford Bridge, my bus back when I lived in Deptford, on the rare occasions when a bicycle or train wouldn’t do the job. This week, local blogger Darryl marks the end of the 453 bendy bus. The bendy buses have been one big political pantomime, introduced as a conspicuous symbol of Ken’s commitment to public transport, and scrapped as a conspicuous symbol of Boris’s commitment to, er, taunt Ken.
The friday photo theme is just an excuse to plug my photography site.
Ken Livingstone has picked Val Shawcross as running partner. Val chairs the assembly transport committee and has experience with both the outer and inner boroughs, so from a transport perspective, she’s probably the best person for the job. She wants people to get out of their cars (including Olympics VIPs). It’s worrying, though, that despite commissioning the cycle superhighway survey and stating that she “wants to know what what would get you cycling”, she hasn’t quite acknowledged yet that the result of the survey was a massive call for proper cycle paths.
The Scottish Transport Minister, Stewart Stevenson, resigned for his slow response to the snow. By his criteria, Boris would have resigned several times over by now. Truck drivers in Scotland have been allowed to work overtime — because safety rules matter less when it’s icy? Of course, making sure that petrol stations have supplies is more important than preventing overworked truckers driving into a fuel tanker.
And according to BBC News, SouthEastern management have made up for all their snow-related customer service failings by, erm, turning up to their long-scheduled recurring meeting with passengers. No resignations (or franchise forfeit) there, yet, then?
There are no drink-driving TV adverts this year — after all, the government has ended the War On The Motorist! In Oxford, the annual police operation has caught twice as many wannabe killers as last year. (I’d be cautious about concluding that one caused the other on such a small and non-controlled sample, though.)
Absurd innovation of week: yet another device to allow Motorists to pay less attention.
South Yorkshire are “trialling” a speed camera switch off. Uh, haven’t we done enough “trials” to know what happens there?
And in South Wales, Motorists demonstrate their contempt for the lives of the people who are building roads for them.
There are record numbers riding the railways in London — but for how much longer?
While it’s hard to give a damn about car parking charge increases when you don’t have a car, it does seem unfortunate that the rising price of station car parking (at the same time as 13% p.a. fares hikes) appears to be making people give up the train rather than the car — one in four say they’re considering switching.
And a government adviser’s report suggests that we can cut overcrowding, by, erm, charging much more to use overcrowded trains.
Labour are reconsidering high speed rail, while the Tories are promising to keep those Tory voters along its route happy with fabulous cash payouts.
The Campaign for Clean Air in London are threatening to challenge Boris in court over the removal of the Western Extension Congestion Charge Zone. Waste of public money if it goes to court? No news outlet I can find mentions the massive EU penalties for poor air quality (many times the cost of a court case), or the vast numbers (much greater than direct road deaths) of otherwise economically-active people who are disabled and killed by pollution-related diseases. Meanwhile our own Green MEPs are encouraging the EU to reject the mayor’s application for an extension to the deadline for complying with those air quality laws.
That runaway Northern Line train was both human error and faulty equipment.
The Met are looking at thousands of people’s Oyster records behind their backs.
Having cut back on customer services, SouthEastern are looking for more staff savings: look forward to strike action in the new year.
Somebody’s stealing the pavements in Camden.
Apparently a couple in a ridiculous chauffeur driven car got viciously attacked by a mob of rioting thugs? They should have ridden inconspicuous hire bikes to their appointment…
“Grannies don’t like being thrown around”: cuts to pensioner bus travel will mean dedicated crap bus services for them.
(I’m late to this story, but had to post it.) Ferrari driver who “unwittingly” drove around at 100mph is allowed to continue driving because he is reliant upon the car for his hospital treatment. Apparently ferrari owners can’t afford bus fares, and they don’t have taxis in Devon…
And for some reason not allowing blue badge holders to use the olympic lanes is considered an outrage too far. How will builders get to their jobs now?
The RV1 riverside bus has gone hydrogen powered, in order to test the technology. The hydrogen production requires electricity, and the electricity is still mostly generated by burning coal and gas. It might at least reduce the particulate pollution given off by these vehicles (or shift them back to the out-of-town power station, anyway).
Here’s an updated tube map for the day London goes under the waves.
I don’t often cover news outside of the UK, but: this is just how they drive in China; and this story from NZ made me giggle — they seem surprised that building a new motorway caused congestion. Has NZ learned nothing from the mistakes that Europe made forty years ago?
Your moment of zen: the mayor’s Christmas card:
I took the opportunity to pen a few lines on this occasion.
We three kings of Orient are,
One in a taxi, one in a car,
One on a Boris Bike beating the tube strike,
None of them getting far.
It was budget week, and the nation is up for sale bit by bit — before the bailiffs can get to it. Starting with High Speed 1.
The government can’t even make money by bleeding the poor hard-done-by rule-breaking motorist dry. The BBC reports that 1.5 million drivers could have been illegally fined for breaking no-right-turn signs. This is an outrageous act of war on the motorist, and as the BBC article rightly intones, we should feel sorry for those who are innocent on a technicality. There’s nothing more dignifying for a driver than being not-guilty of a crime on a technicality.
Olympics organisers are fretting about how they could hold cycling events without — horror — inconveniencing other people who might be trying to use London’s roads. Olypics organisers have never before shown any sign of caring about the lives of those living in the cities that they descend upon. We suspect that this spontaneous display of sympathy is actually cover for a more vexing problem: how to deal with all the athletes who would be desaddled by the potholes along the route chosen.
Stats say: cycling miles up 4.4%, driving miles down for the second year running — a historic first — cycling deaths down 10%, but injuries up. So cyclists are no less likely to “collide” with vehicles, they’re just less likely to kill themselves in the process.
We were wrong: “Superhighways” will have specialised engineering features — mirrors for truck drivers to see people passing on the left at traffic lights. This initiative assumes that truck drivers stop at traffic lights, rather than at an angle just beyond the advance stop line, where they will be unable to use the mirror. Still, it’s not really about anybody being able to see anything: it’s to remind cyclists that “they should not be on the left-hand side of vehicles.” And what could be a better reminder? A one-metre wide green strip with a bicycle icon running to the left of the vehicles leading up to the lights, perhaps?
Hurrah! Boris will run for another term. We can only guess at what fabulous fantastical and revolutionary ideas for fixing London’s transport he would come up with in a further four years. No need to guess his rival Ken’s policies, though. He’d fix it with an iphone app for parking spaces — a sure solution to the problem that most people driving in central London are supposedly looking for one.
Meanwhile, in the regions…
In Buckinghamshire, Peter Silverman has become a local hero for restoring a great national beauty spot — the M40. Fed up with the litter lining the once pleasant chocolate box motorway, he took none other than our old friend Phillip Hammond to court to force him to go and pick it all up. The Guardian article even provides a helpful picture of the great piles of rubbish blotting the roadside — presumably taken by Mr Silverman stopping on the hard shoulder and exiting his vehicle for the shot. Possibly while having one of his M40 picnics.
In Devon, killer has weapon confiscated for two years; sentenced to community service. It was all just an accident that occurred in two seconds of distraction. The Cycling Layer ponders on the law that says it’s fine for people to put themselves within two seconds of killing somebody.
Gunman on rampage in Kent.
Dog arrested for driving while intoxicated.
And finally, via els76uk on twitter, the traffic cam for the Strand near Charing Cross during last night’s Critical Mass:
At War With The Motorist 