Guardian visualises London buses' slowdown
this felt incredibly vindicating as someone who mostly takes the tube anyway but has recently been trying to avoid taking the bus in London as much as humanly possible because you're often basically better off skipping alongside it www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-i...
Marie Le Conte84just so good to know I've not been growing madder and more impatient with age! London buses really are slower than they used to be!!
Ed Jefferson15buses should simply be allowed to vaporise cars if they get in the way
Richard11"Oh, no bus for 8 minutes, I'll just walk to the next stop. Oh, still no bus till 7 minutes, I'll just walk..." all the way along Edgware Road.
CJMaill9True. Not helped, of course, by 'this bus has been instructed to wait to regulate the service...' and 'this bus will wait for a change of drivers...', two of the most infuriating announcements ever. It's all a plot by Big Tube (subs please check)
Mutable Joe9blame cyclists, it may not be true but it would be terrific discourse
Anna Hollinrake 🌤️7If I can't take the tube to get to a place I will simply Not Go. Going anywhere that requires a change between two bus journeys is basically asking the gods to pull cruel jokes on you.
Lottie17It should be actively torturous and financially ruinous to drive a car anywhere in zones 1-3 (minimum)
Nilo17"Passenger journeys in London have already fallen by more than 300m a year, or 16%, since 2013, despite the city’s population growing by almost a million people"
Jonny Singer4My route to work is either to walk (60 minutes) or to bus (45 minutes). It's the same route, more or less, and the only tangible benefit of the bus is that I sit down during it...
Cam Vargas2Thank god I haven't been going mad. As a SE Londoner all my life and bound to bus travel, this has been so noticeable.
Possibly longest thread I've ever written. Once again, despite all evidence, some folks, closely related to the 'bus industry' want to blame cycling for slowing down London buses. tl;dr: this is a lie & it's cars wot done it. It is not buses v cycling v walking or wheeling. It's all of us v cars...
STC6Tired of this. It seems everyone with an iota of power has decided it’s easier to blame cyclists than to effect changes to the system that would improve bus times *even though there is low hanging fruit* eg around 24/7 bus lanes and loading and parking in bus lanes, let alone bus gate and priority
Eccentrist Dad6And maybe some cars more than others. Larger catchments for both pupils and staff (state schools are bad enough there, I personally know some *daft* car commutes on that account, but private schools draw on HUGE areas for the latter): disproportionate impact on the roads. bsky.app/profile/cris...
ambrosen1I would be interested in cars vs delivery vans, too.
Buses v cycling? A 🧵... Too often, the bus 'industry' defaults to attack cycling as cause of buses (in London) getting slower & slower. Good to see that somewhat countered here: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-i... by @theguardian.com data team. 1. Bus speeds dropping is a "global problem"... 1/13
Richard Leeming5Glad to see this thread. I thought the claim that reduction in bus spends being partly due to cycle lanes was unjustified and spoiled an otherwise useful article.
Pharmacist on a Pushbike2🧵 Written about London, but relevant to every single place/conversation where cycle lanes are blamed for slowing down buses.
Sylvia2Very much this and #CarSpreading
Fascinating piece this, but odd to see a bunch of charts showing this is a global phenomenon and then have loads of City Hall officials with London-only explanations:
Rob Priest7I found even odder that the comparative charts also suggested that it isn't much of a phenomenon in London, anyway, compared to pretty much all of the other examples.
🌐🗽🏳️⚧️🏙️🏦🔰1>no bus lanes >no transit signal priority >congestion tax is both way too low in value and covers far too little of the city by area >restrictive land use policies that strangle dense, mixed use development >no LVT if only there were some way to fix this
Reasonably balanced but inexplicably fails to consider the impact of ever-larger cars, which surely must be relevant especially when you see how declining bus speeds are so international. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-i...
Paul Allen5Looking at the map, the biggest slow downs are at the edges of London, supporting your larger car theory.
Paul Allen4"And if you’re putting in more cycle lanes, it means it’s harder for bus passengers to travel. Dance resists this interpretation. “Mainly there are just too many cars. So moving people out of cars to more efficient spaces such as public transport, buses and bikes is part of that solution,” he says."
Paul Boldrin1The international comparison is slightly complicated by the fact that it shows London bus speeds haven't actually decreased! Purely anecdotally from cycling round London I'd say the increase in smaller supermarkets with no loading yard must also be a big factor.
