Fitting the battle of life

I recently submitted a couple of photographs to be used in the rotating header images on the Ubuntu UK website, and they’ve made it onto the page!

This is one of St. Pauls from South Bank in London, and the other is an arty shot taken from a punt in Cambridge last summer. Check out the site and see if it pops up!

This one’s for Londoners: follow the tubinator for updates one which tube lines are currently playing up (updated every 15minutes). However, the short form of tweets means messages can be cut off, as in the current “Broken tubes: Circle (Part suspended), District (Part suspended), East London (Bus service), Hammersmith” - surely removing the ‘Broken tubes:’ bit would be sensible, as you’re reading the status for a reason. I might message the guy who created it; it appears to have surfaced earlier this month.

So, to recap my twitter treats:

• twitter from irssi,
• google calendar integration,
• follow the plotline of a short story (or at least, one strand of it),
• and now tube updates.

Is there anything twitter can’t do? Aside from make me another cup of tea?

I am at an utter loss to understand why two of London’s mayoral candidates have vowed to remove the bendy bus from our streets (background here). Reading the comments shows how silly people can become, pleading for the return of the Routemaster (which still operate on two routes, including the number 9). Since when did nostalgia overtake practicality as a primary factor in public transport policy? Idiots.

The bendy bus has had accidents associated with it, yes. But not so many as to pose a massive danger to public health. Plenty of other cities have been using them for years without the same outcry.

The bendy bus is long, yes. And? It means it can take more people. They make up 5% of the buses in London, but account for 9% of the passengers. I call that efficient, not an eyesore.

So people can get on without paying. They can also get on double deckers without paying, by sneaking in through the exit doors. Bendy buses are subject to more inspections than other routes - because of this fact. And since inspections now consist of the police surrounding the bus and its exits in a military-esque operation, it’s not exactly a pleasant experience to admit to not paying. (And not paying is how a lot of students I know tend to survive week to week.) The answer is not to get rid of bendy buses, it’s to create a system whereby more people are likely to pay. I imagine if TfL were making a horrendous loss, they’d do something about it, but it seems for the moment that they are in an equilibrium where those who do pay, pay enough to cover the ‘loss’.

Oh, they’re difficult to stand on, apparently. Rubbish.

The only concern I agree with is from cyclists (as an itinerant cyclist myself). But any concern about how they are driven is not to do with the vehicle itself, but the driver. Lorries are worse, anyway. And taxis, they’re pretty manic. Ban the lot?

I think that’s enough. Sod the critics, keep the bendy bus - don’t vote Boris. Brian Paddick’s suggestion of trams is at least creative, but with the volume of traffic in London I think is a little impractical (to say nothing of the cost). Seems it’ll have to be Ken…