Take a New Routemaster to Romantic Clapton Pond on the 20th of February 2012
I’d thought that the new Routemaster was going to be introduced on the route 38 between Victoria and Clapton Pond and today it was confirmed that they’ll start on the 20th of February. Initially, they’ll just be eight of them.
I went to a presentation on the bus some months ago and I think it will be a good addition to London’s bus fleet.
The choice of route 38 is an interesting one. But in my view a correct one.
At the southern end, it starts at Victoria, which is a major transport interchange, where lots of visitors arrive. I hope that they make sure that the route keeps its prime stop in front of the station. I doubt anybody with any marketing nouse would do anything, except make it more obvious.
It then goes straight through the West End, past or close to, some of London’s most important places and landmarks, like Buck House, Green Park, Piccadilly Circus, many of the theatres on Shaftesbury Avenue, and the British Museum. The route in this area, is only a short walk from places like Soho, Covent Garden, Bloomsbury, and Leicester and Trafalgar Squares. So I think, if they get the hop-on/hop-off right in this section, I think it will be a very valuable addition to the transport landscape of this part of London. As I have experienced several times, getting a bus in this area at times is often a long wait because of all the traffic that shouldn’t be there. But at least with a hop-on/hop-off bus, you won’t have to wait for the stop. But even when it is working as a normal bus, it’ll have an extra door, which will mean that it unloads and loads quicker.
After Bloomsbury, the route does its more mundane work, through Clerkenwell, Islington and down the Essex Road to Dalston and on to Hackney and eventually to Clapton Pond. This is where I use the route a lot as none of the Underground or Overground lines, really get you from Hackney to Islington or on to the West End. Having seen the inside of the mock-up, I feel that the bus will suit this part of the route well, as passengers often have large amounts of shopping and cases and I have a feeling that New Routemasters might be better at handling, this type of passenger, as they have three entrances and two staircases, which will enable the more mobile and unencumbered passengers to get quickly and easily upstairs and out of the way.
As an aside here, it will be interesting to see if two staircases, raise the average loading on the top deck.
Hackney and Clapton are not really leisure destinations in London. But could putting New Routemasters on the major route to the area, help in that direction. Clapton Pond, may not sound romantic, but if you were say walking the Lea Valley, it is one place to start. Uniquely, the 38 bus terminus at Clapton is in the middle of a roundabout, which means it is easy to turn the buses back to Victoria.
If I was Hackney Council, I’d put a very small amount of work into the roundabout, as the arrival of the buses, will attract bus anoraks from all over the world, if the scrum in Trafalgar Square last night is anything to go by. Note the link is from the Belfast Telegraph.
Newt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich says he is pro-life with respect to abortion.
Does that mean that he is against the death penalty?
I doubt it!
He has one of those special mirrors so he can shave both of his faces at the same time.
I’m A Male Homo Sapiens
I have just sent Islington Council an e-mail giving them my views on the obstructions in Upper Street, I detailed here. What annoyed me was the details they required afterwards about me. About the only information they didn’t ask was questions on my size, but they did ask some very impertinent questions. I finished with this.
I object to this part of this form. That probably means you won’t take my comments seriously. Some of the questions are downright impertinent. Especially, as I’m a widow, who lost his wife to cancer and then had a stroke. So any questions about sex insult the memory of my wife.
They will obvious take no notice of what I said.
what is really needed is a short scientifically correct form, that will help the council plan services in the future, so questions about age, gender, drinking and smoking habits and height and weight are actually the most important.
I suppose it is deliberately designed to annoy, so that they don’t get too many people filling in the form.
Farewell Christopher Hitchens
I didn’t agree with everything Christopher Hitchens said, but at least he had it right about religion and was always worth reading.
The world will be a worse place without him.
Probably if he hadn’t smoked he’d still be here.
In some ways smoking is the most selfish vice, as it annoys all the people around you and then when it kills you, it leaves your family in total distress.
He was eminently quotable.
The governor of Texas, who, when asked if the Bible should also be taught in Spanish, replied that ‘if English was good enough for Jesus, then it’s good enough for me.
[Mother Teresa] was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction.
Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods.
To terrify children with the image of hell, to consider women an inferior creation—is that good for the world?
There are lots more like these.
The By-Election That Was a Disgrace
The by-election in Feltham and Heston yesterday was a disgrace.
After a record low turnout of just 29%, do they really deserve an MP.
Perhaps if the turnout is below say 40%, then the election should be rerun.
Smokers, Chuggers and Street Obstructions
I go to Upper Street in Islington quite a few times a week. I had to walk from Boots near the tube station to Carluccio’s, which is a few hundred metres towards HIghbury Corner.
It was the usual obstacle course.
For the first part of the walk, the road was lined by smokers trying to commit suicide, dropping litter and making life unpleasant for everybody else. Several smokers even had babies in buggies. If anything should be made illegal, it should be to smoke in the street within five metres of a child under five.
Then there were the chuggers, protesting this time against torture. I can sympathise with their cause, but whilst they continue to plague my life, they are just wasting their time.
and then there were the street obstructions like these.
Street Obstructions in Upper Street, Islington
My eyesight has got better now and I seldom bump into them now. You will see from the photograph, that Islington Council has improved the pavement, only for the banners and bicycle to be added to make it an obstacle course. I would think that a better idea might be to sell the advertising space on the side of the litter bins at the edge of the pavement. At least those are well out of the main walking route.
There was also this abandoned bicycle.
An Abandoned Bicycle in Upper Street, Islington
Or it certainly looks so. I’ll check tomorrow to see if it is still there.
We wonder why people flock to out-of-town shopping centres. You don’t get any of the annoyances of chuggers, smokers and unnecessary obstructions.
Why Security Vans Don’t Get Robbed So Much!
I took this picture yesterday of the warning sign on a security van.
Warnings on a Security Van
Surely only a idiot would rob it.
So why weren’t the shops with goods like smart-phones and plasma TVs protected this way before the riots? A smart water spray in the entrance and a warning sign might have made a lot of difference.
I hope these sort of systems are now in use.
The Anonymous Widower 