Mayor of London

[Steve Crook]

Originally Posted by Harleybloke The Bike Lobby wanted Bikes to be allowed to use Bus lanes, Dopey Ken said 'No' safety didn't come into it...............

They only meant push bikes - not motorbikes
When did anyone on a push bike in London last obey a traffic signal?

Steve

[Harleybloke]

Originally Posted by Steve Crook They only meant push bikes - not motorbikes When did anyone on a push bike in London last obey a traffic signal? Steve

Push bikes argued against Motorbikes............................. a case of 'Don't do as we do, do as we say..........'

[orpheum]

Riding on pavements,cycling the wrong way down one way streets,you name it cyclists do it and all without any insurance.

[Mark O]

Originally Posted by orpheum Riding on pavements,cycling the wrong way down one way streets,you name it cyclists do it and all without any insurance.

Tell me about it, several years ago I was knocked down by a Courier Cyclist riding the wrong way down a one way street in Central London, before I crossed the street I just looked out for traffic going the one way, but I learned my lesson to look both ways there, even though it was the imbecile on the Bicycle that was in the wrong......the little bleeder didn't even apologise

[christoph404]

As someone who has done a fair bit of cycling around London over the years, one of my pet hates is the general disregard for the laws of the road, not to mention lack of common courtesy, displayed by the vast majority of cyclists in London, its quite appalling. I reckon that many accidents and fatalities involving cyclists are caused by the poor judgement or sheer stupidity of the cyclists themselves. Every now again the police carry out an enforcement blitz and just stand in a very visible position at a busy junction and stop and fine cyclists who run through red lights. Amazingly,as shown on a recent TV documentary on this subject, the visible presence of the police didn't stop people breaking the law, as many cyclists actually believe that traffic lights and signs don't apply to them! Jumping a red light and cycling on the pavement is illegal and cyclists can be fined on the spot, I think its £60. I think the worst offenders are the ones who race through red lights aggressively shouting at pedestrians to get out of the way when actually the pedestrians have right of way to cross. There are a fair amount of police patrols who are using bikes to tour around the streets, maybe there should be more and some kind of campaign to educate cyclists as to the error of their ways!

[1stas]

As cyclists are road users, (when they are not whizzing down the pavement!) why don't they take driving tests like other road users?

[RAREFILMFINDER]

If Boris wanted to impress me,he would have to employ an independent firm of accountants to find out where our money has gone in the last 8 years.Scrap a congestion charge where TLF dont even run it as Capita controls it(private company)friend of the Labour party.London voted more to get rid of Red Ken than for boris.Hopefully we may start to see where our money is going.
Power to the Peolpe

[christoph404]

Originally Posted by RAREFILMFINDER If Boris wanted to impress me,he would have to employ an independent firm of accountants to find out where our money has gone in the last 8 years.Scrap a congestion charge where TLF dont even run it as Capita controls it(private company)friend of the Labour party.London voted more to get rid of Red Ken than for boris.Hopefully we may start to see where our money is going. Power to the Peolpe

Profits from the congestion charge are supposedly directed to being spent on improving London's bus service. I think that is the official line, it certainly aint spent improving the tube! There has been a massive shake up of the bus service, Ken got rid of a London icon and popular brand identity that said "London" (im talking of the routemaster bus) and replaced it with a useless monstrosity known as a bendy bus. Total waste of money as they are now going to be replaced, at a cost of tens of millions with.....a modern routemaster!

[billy bentley]

I reckon you have to a twit, egomaniac, delusional or a masochist to want to be in charge of London (perhaps all four ?). An ancient city like London wil never be able to accomodate the never ending increasing demands of its traffic. Never ! Can't be done. Full Stop. End Of Story !

[christoph404]

Apparently getting around London was quicker in Victorian times using a horse and carriage! The average vehicle speed around London today is I think 10mph, in Victorian times it was something like 12mph, don't quote me on those figures but it was quicker in bygone days with a horse! So....why not more horses and carriages? what a loveley way to travel around, Boris could compulsory purchase all those pokey little mews houses around London and turn them back into stables. It would certainly do the tourist industry no harm You could even have horse drawn buses!

[CaptainWaggett]

Originally Posted by christoph404 Profits from the congestion charge are supposedly directed to being spent on improving London's bus service. I think that is the official line, it certainly aint spent improving the tube! There has been a massive shake up of the bus service, Ken got rid of a London icon and popular brand identity that said "London" (im talking of the routemaster bus) and replaced it with a useless monstrosity known as a bendy bus. Total waste of money as they are now going to be replaced, at a cost of tens of millions with.....a modern routemaster!

I'm not a fan of bendy buses but undoubtedly buses are a huge success story for Ken. There really are a lot more of them (and kids travel free in contrast to when I was young and children were counted as adults at 14 - why?) and they are accessible to people who could never use Routemasters ie the disabled and people with young kids. It was never going to be practical to replace Routemasters (quite possibly, with DDA legislation it wouldn't have been legal) so it was inevitable they were going to have to go. Plus, there really were a lot of accidents with people thinking they could leap onto them, graceful as a mountain goat and falling flat on their face!

Ken vs the Last Routemaster

[Steve Crook]

Originally Posted by christoph404 Apparently getting around London was quicker in Victorian times using a horse and carriage! The average vehicle speed around London today is I think 10mph, in Victorian times it was something like 12mph, don't quote me on those figures but it was quicker in bygone days with a horse! So....why not more horses and carriages? what a loveley way to travel around, Boris could compulsory purchase all those pokey little mews houses around London and turn them back into stables. It would certainly do the tourist industry no harm You could even have horse drawn buses!

There's an aspect of horses that you're not considering. It would certainly count as pollution and the old horse drawn rag & bone man used to collect it with a shovel and bucket and then offer it to people for the roses

If everyone in London rode a horse we'd be up to our necks in it - literally

Steve

[christoph404]

Originally Posted by CaptainWaggett I'm not a fan of bendy buses but undoubtedly buses are a huge success story for Ken. There really are a lot more of them (and kids travel free in contrast to when I was young and children were counted as adults at 14 - why?) and they are accessible to people who could never use Routemasters ie the disabled and people with young kids. It was never going to be practical to replace Routemasters (quite possibly, with DDA legislation it wouldn't have been legal) so it was inevitable they were going to have to go. Plus, there really were a lot of accidents with people thinking they could leap onto them, graceful as a mountain goat and falling flat on their face! Ken vs the Last Routemaster

Routemasters were not ideal for people with a disabilty thats true, perhaps keeping one third on the roads and replacing the rest with modern double deckers with wheelchair access would have been better, so there would be wheelchair access on every second or so bus to come along and also some preservation of a design icon that has been so much a part of London. Those bendy buses are just too long for the streets of London, as far as I can see they create more congestion by blocking junctions and watching them trying to get around some of the tighter corners of central London is an entertaining spectacle for all the wrong reasons,and considering there size there doesn't actually seem to be many seats in them! To replace a design icon and London brand symbol like the routemaster with such an ugly impractical vehicle is generally considered a mistake. I think if Ken had said in his campaign, " we made an error in introducing bendy buses, as it turns out they are not the ideal solution we thought and we will be replacing them with an alternative and more London friendly vehicle" he would have probably garnered a lot more support for having the humility to say that, but then admitting errors is not on the agenda of politicians at any cost!

[Steve Crook]

Originally Posted by christoph404 Routemasters were not ideal for people with a disabilty thats true, perhaps keeping one third on the roads and replacing the rest with modern double deckers with wheelchair access would have been better, so there would be wheelchair access on every second or so bus to come along and also some preservation of a design icon that has been so much a part of London. Those bendy buses are just too long for the streets of London, as far as I can see they create more congestion by blocking junctions and watching them trying to get around some of the tighter corners of central London is an entertaining spectacle for all the wrong reasons,and considering there size there doesn't actually seem to be many seats in them! To replace a design icon and London brand symbol like the routemaster with such an ugly impractical vehicle is generally considered a mistake. I think if Ken had said in his campaign, " we made an error in introducing bendy buses, as it turns out they are not the ideal solution we thought and we will be replacing them with an alternative and more London friendly vehicle" he would have probably garnered a lot more support for having the humility to say that, but then admitting errors is not on the agenda of politicians at any cost!

How many routes have bendy buses? I only ever see a few of them. Most routes seem to be still using the same one-man-operated buses that they've used for the last 10+ years

There are still a lot of routemasters to be seen in London. A lot of the tourist companies use them

Steve

[penfold]

Originally Posted by christoph404 Those bendy buses are just too long for the streets of London, as far as I can see they create more congestion by blocking junctions and watching them trying to get around some of the tighter corners of central London is an entertaining spectacle for all the wrong reasons,

As was the regular sight of seeing the bottom half of Routemasters being extracted from under railway bridges.....less entertaining for those on the top deck, I would imagine....