Dangerous bendy buses
London is a strange place. I’ve been living here for nearly five months now and still am struggling to adjust. It’s big, noisy, dirty, green, spectacular, aloof, lonely, entertaining and exciting. But above all it’s overcrowded.
Large overcrowded cities need good transport. London has a pretty good network of trains, tubes, trams and buses, though you would be forgiven for thinking it’s awful if you ever get stuck in a rush-hour tube dash during a signal failure. But recently I have become aware of a new hatred spreading throughout the town. Metropolitan commuters have something else to complain about: the bendy bus.
Bendy buses were introduced on a few key routes in 2004 and replaced the old Routemaster buses; you know, the ones you hopped on at the back while swinging your umbrella and doffing your bowler hat. It seems that a bus that’s double in length but half the height is cheaper to buy and maintain and holds more people than the diesel belchers of old.
On paper, bendy buses seem to be a good idea, but it seems barely a day passes that someone isn’t blogging a rant about these articulated demons or penning a complaint to the guardian about Ken’s misguided transport upgrade.
The main issues seem to be:
- They catch fire
- They cause more accidents, especially for cyclists
- They block junctions
- They kill people
That last one should be enough to alert even the most cynical of transport planning big-wigs. But while the incident linked to above is awful and tragic, who’s to say the same thing couldn’t have happened with a Routemaster?
I’ve been on a couple of these buses and the only issue I’ve seen first hand is junction blocking. It seems as if drivers forget they are driving 18 metres of steel and are happy to enter a box junction on amber. That’s not the fault of the bus, it’s either basic stupidity or lack of training. I suspect the former.
As a modern form of transport, bendy buses are surely a good option? They are more accessible and have lower emissions which is a pretty good start. I think the only real problem is the fact that they are badly designed for many of London’s winding streets. Thus the fault lies with bad decision making: putting unsuitably long buses into an old capital city is quite stupid, but this doesn’t mean the buses themselves are evil as many would have us believe.