The case of a useless bus lane in London

Sometimes you wonder if the people at Transport for London ever use the buses they provide. Living in South East London, I understand the frustration of being someone who is very dependent on public transport and yet resigned to the fact that Transport for London will never improve the infrastructure here.

If you have ever taken a bus through Brockley Road between 7.30am and 8.30am, and between 5pm to 7pm, you will be aware of how much this road sucks your life. It takes about 20 minutes to cross a half mile stretch of Brockley Road before the buses reach the bottleneck that is Brockley Cross.

But what about the bus lane? Shouldn't that help with moving buses along. It should in theory, and this is where Transport for London's utter incompetence and collective uselessness is highlighted for the world to see.

A two year old can design a better road layout than TfL

Despite having a clear bus lane, bus drivers has been unable to drive down this bus lane. Why? Because some idiot at Transport for London, and the jobsworths at Lewisham Council has decided to allow parking on the left side, which means buses can't get through! In the event of a traffic jam, a bus lane is designed to allow buses to cut through the traffic, but in this stretch, buses are unable to do so because of a persistent poor design flaw that Transport for London has been unwilling to fix because South East London.

London is a growing city, but planners has been unwilling to invest in improving the infrastructure in parts of London that isn't north of the river. I love London, but if you think London has a world class transport system, I will tell you to go and visit any major European to experience what a properly integrated public transport system is like.

Well at least there's the train.

Oh