Looks like Boris is going to allow motor-bikes to use bus lanes. May be worth going there now
on the bike !
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Watch out, he might let buses use the bike lanes, then we'll see how bendy they are!
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But surely he is going to replace them with a "modern Routemaster", isn't he?
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As a self-confessed former London bus spotter, I recognise the Routemaster as being a masterpiece of design for its time. Lightweight, dimensions ideal for the narrow roads of the city and really easy to drive. These buses could have lasted for ever as they were taken up to Aldenham works where the body was lifted off the chassis and both were reconditioned independently. It meant that virtually any body would then be united with any chassis, with the exception of the RML, a slightly longer bodied vehicle.
Eventually Aldenham proved too expensive to maintain and reconditioning the buses at the garages could not be as thorough.
To design, from scratch, a new "Routemaster" for London where the fleet size would be only a few thousand would be impossible with modern vehicle development costing many millions. I admire Boris but a new Routemaster is a mere dream. He is stuck with off the shelf rear-engined, front entrance buses from the big manufacturers in the same way that London Transport were from the late 1960's onwards.
However, in London, a shorter wheelbase double-decker must make more sense than the long, single-deck "bendy buses".
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The new generation of long-overhang forward control double deckers are quieter anyway than those earlier ones with the engine under a rump. But they aren't quite as London-friendly as Routemasters with their short front overhang. Open platform is good for London too.
Of course articulated buses are a completely idiotic and offensive idea for London, although there were always ordinary single deckers and now there are more of them, mostly smaller than they used to be.
I still miss the silent, rattly, violently-accelerating old trolleybuses that were still here into the sixties, just I think.
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CTC (not sure what that stands for) don't like it.
Heh.
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Did you read about the collection of 100 bottles of fine wines that he found in Livingstone's former office.
Quick, think of motoring link, er, diesel will soon cost more per Litre than those wines. Phew!
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Allowing powered two wheelers in bus lanes may be good for the motorised brigade, but I reckon it'll be much less safe for cyclists.
There are a lot more cyclists in central London since the congestion charge. Will safety concerns from bus lane use drive the cyclists to get a powered bike ? Is that environmentally friendly ?
Please don't give me the "all cyclists deserve to die 'cos they don't obey the rules" spiel. Some cyclists break the rules - and those are the ones that get noticed.
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A while back, Transport for London (at that time still under Ken's leadership), authorised an experiment which allowed motorbikes to use bus lanes on a small number of roads. The A13 where it is called East India Dock Road is one of the routes.
tfl monitored the experimental routes for accident statistics. The result was a reduction in accidents. This wasn't the result that tfl wanted, and Ken denounced the experiment as flawed, even though his people had set it up.
This argument that motorbikes are a danger to push bikes is specious. The majority of motorbike riders are adept at weaving and avoiding other users. The danger to cyclists in bus lanes is usually buses. A motorbike can easily get past a cyclist in the same lane - it's the bendy bus that will get the push bike....
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I remember walking by the side of the old A46 going south out of Leicester (near the Post House if anyone knows it). It was fairly early in the morning in Winter and just getting light. I heard a motorbike coming from behind me and then a tremendous thud and rattling noise. A motorbike had driven, from behind, straight into a much slower-moving pushbike. The two machines were locked together somehow. The pedal cyclist was covered in blood from what seemed to be many wounds (presumably from being thrown along the road). Fortunately, despite appearances, he was not seriously injured. Still needed an ambulance though. The motorcyclist seemed uninjured. I spoke to the motorcyclist afterwards and he claimed that with the poor light, his visor, and vibration from his machine, that he simply hadn't seen the cyclist (who had the rather poor rear light most cyclists seem to use).
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Hope they don't waste the fine wines!!!!!
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Of course they won't. They'll get hog-whimperingly plasterado on the first few bottles and pour the rest over each other's heads, just like they did in the old days at Bullingdon Club dinners.
Better than the last lot who used to smash them and then jam the broken ends in each other's faces. Bit robust, what?
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