Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Boris cuts bus capacity in London

I was pleased to see that the GLA's Labour Assembly members agree with my concerns about Mayor Johnson's decision to start taking bendy buses off London's busiest bus routes. This was picked up by yesterday's Evening Standard.

I'm worried that this gimmicky policy hasnb't been thought through and that the consequences for London are manifold:
  • Longer journey times: buses will take longer to board so will spend longer at stops
  • More blockages at bus stops: spending longer at bus stops means buses will block spaces at busy stops, such as those at Angel, creating more congestion
  • More carbon emssions: using smaller buses than at present means more buses on our streets to keep the same capacity, this means more emissions
  • Higher costs: more buses and more staff will be more expensive
  • More overcrowding: smaller buses on the busiest routes will mean less pleasant journeys. The bendy buses are already full, so replacing them with smaller buses seems a lunacy

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