Blaming it on cycle lanes is a bit rich, considering we hardly have any outside central London. Don’t we think that absolute gridlock caused by more and more, and ever-larger private cars is the more likely culprit?
Roadworks in my area are chronic now. Usually Thames water or a private gas company. It’s not just the volume, it’s the fact that they last for weeks and the workers seem to be invisible.
People may complain about the buses but it’s a good place to have sex and smoke crack
Surely the main problem is busses having to share the road with cars. London should implemented fully segregated bus only roads – like in Brisbane – on tracks above ground level.
On the roadworks front there seem to be an endless stream of temporary traffic lights when there are roadworks, often 3 or 4 way encompassing very small roads, where once vehicles would have been trusted to manage the situation as per other temporary hazards.
Never mind that half the time this covers bits of road coned off with no visible work being done which is incredibly frustrating.
Issue is roadworks
The issue is so obvious around north west london I don’t know how any operator can say otherwise. It’s parking, both illegal and legal. Even in the bus lanes. Sure roadworks don’t help but being constantly stuck every few yards due to illegally parked cars along the A5 means you are often stuck waiting to use the free bus lanes regardless of traffic or roadworks.
Is 9mph a bad average speed for buses?
The speed limits are all 20mph, the buses have to stop to let people on and off, and stop at traffic lights.
I wouldn’t have expected much more than that.
My local area FB groups will say it’s the cycle lanes, forgetting they’re the ones in a 20 car deep, single occupancy SUV traffic blocking the bus getting through
The real issue is private vehicles. The day we collectively accept that cars shouldn’t be allowed to drive through city centres, (except for essential needs like construction, tradespeople, or disabled access) is the day things will actually improve. Until then, I don’t see much hope. Most journeys in London are under 5km
My uber took 40mins to take me 4 miles yesterday. That’s 6 mph. I should have taken a bus.Â
It’s a mixture of roadworks, the crazy amount of PHVs (Private Hire Vehicles) and perhaps taxis and the removal of bus lanes for oversized cycle lanes which has caused the speed to drop so much.
Roadworks always get in the way. But road closures for LTNs have made some bus journeys ridiculously slow. All traffic is now funnelled into the same road and our streets are already tiny as it is.
The amount of times I caught on and overtook a bus I lost just by walking (not even a fast walker at that)
What’s the maximum theoretical average speed a bus could achieve when limited to 20mph and stopping every few hundred metres?
Where I live in outer NW London, what can be a 10 minute bus journey to a tube station takes 20 when there’s traffic. This used only be the case in the morning during term time (so basically all the traffic was school related). Unfortunately, and I hate to sound like a NIMBY, but ever since they built a massive housing estate right next to what was already the most congested part of the route, the traffic has been bad round there pretty much 9-6.
In the Hammersmith area it’s absolutely road narrowing and LTNs that are the source of the issue. I’ve seen this slowdown take place live over the last 5 years. Complete disaster. Jordan Poole, the Principal Traffic Officer of Hammersmith and Fulham should be fired. I’ve seen endless bad decisions made around LTNs and road narrowing with no care about keeping traffic moving for anyone other than cyclists.
17 comments
Blaming it on cycle lanes is a bit rich, considering we hardly have any outside central London. Don’t we think that absolute gridlock caused by more and more, and ever-larger private cars is the more likely culprit?
Roadworks in my area are chronic now. Usually Thames water or a private gas company. It’s not just the volume, it’s the fact that they last for weeks and the workers seem to be invisible.
People may complain about the buses but it’s a good place to have sex and smoke crack
Surely the main problem is busses having to share the road with cars. London should implemented fully segregated bus only roads – like in Brisbane – on tracks above ground level.
On the roadworks front there seem to be an endless stream of temporary traffic lights when there are roadworks, often 3 or 4 way encompassing very small roads, where once vehicles would have been trusted to manage the situation as per other temporary hazards.
Never mind that half the time this covers bits of road coned off with no visible work being done which is incredibly frustrating.
Issue is roadworks
The issue is so obvious around north west london I don’t know how any operator can say otherwise. It’s parking, both illegal and legal. Even in the bus lanes. Sure roadworks don’t help but being constantly stuck every few yards due to illegally parked cars along the A5 means you are often stuck waiting to use the free bus lanes regardless of traffic or roadworks.
Is 9mph a bad average speed for buses?
The speed limits are all 20mph, the buses have to stop to let people on and off, and stop at traffic lights.
I wouldn’t have expected much more than that.
My local area FB groups will say it’s the cycle lanes, forgetting they’re the ones in a 20 car deep, single occupancy SUV traffic blocking the bus getting through
The real issue is private vehicles. The day we collectively accept that cars shouldn’t be allowed to drive through city centres, (except for essential needs like construction, tradespeople, or disabled access) is the day things will actually improve. Until then, I don’t see much hope. Most journeys in London are under 5km
[https://content.tfl.gov.uk/technical-note-14-who-travels-by-car-in-london.pdf](https://content.tfl.gov.uk/technical-note-14-who-travels-by-car-in-london.pdf)
My uber took 40mins to take me 4 miles yesterday. That’s 6 mph. I should have taken a bus.Â
It’s a mixture of roadworks, the crazy amount of PHVs (Private Hire Vehicles) and perhaps taxis and the removal of bus lanes for oversized cycle lanes which has caused the speed to drop so much.
Roadworks always get in the way. But road closures for LTNs have made some bus journeys ridiculously slow. All traffic is now funnelled into the same road and our streets are already tiny as it is.
The amount of times I caught on and overtook a bus I lost just by walking (not even a fast walker at that)
What’s the maximum theoretical average speed a bus could achieve when limited to 20mph and stopping every few hundred metres?
Where I live in outer NW London, what can be a 10 minute bus journey to a tube station takes 20 when there’s traffic. This used only be the case in the morning during term time (so basically all the traffic was school related). Unfortunately, and I hate to sound like a NIMBY, but ever since they built a massive housing estate right next to what was already the most congested part of the route, the traffic has been bad round there pretty much 9-6.
In the Hammersmith area it’s absolutely road narrowing and LTNs that are the source of the issue. I’ve seen this slowdown take place live over the last 5 years. Complete disaster. Jordan Poole, the Principal Traffic Officer of Hammersmith and Fulham should be fired. I’ve seen endless bad decisions made around LTNs and road narrowing with no care about keeping traffic moving for anyone other than cyclists.
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