My first thoughts on London Transit

One of the main reasons for starting this blog is because there has been increased interest from my Twitter followers, who would like me to expand on some of my thoughts on the LTC (London Transit Commission).

I have been riding the bus in London since 1991, when I first moved here. I drove a car back then, but decided not to continue payments on the Hyundai Pony that I was eventually going to buy out from my mom at the time. I realized that London was a pretty easy city to navigate by bus or bike, and that a car was an expense I didn't need.

Today I am a bit of a self professed expert on the LTC, as to route coverage, frequency etc. I get around pretty easy in this city on the bus network and rely on it for work and play. My biggest complaints are that LTC shuts down far too early for a city the size of London, and most of the buses aren't very comfy.

The main problem with our buses is that they're old, outdated and uncomfortable. The windows are drafty, many of them are not yet fully accessible, the aisles are too narrow and people don't know how to use the buses properly.

I know what you're thinking, "What's to know about using a bus? You pay your fare, you take your seat. You pull the stop indicator. Done deal!" Well, it's not as simple as that. There's a bus culture that can be as big a part of the lack of comfort as the hard seats themselves, and I will touch more on that later.

One of the problems with the older bus is an abundance of sideways seating which leads to people not sharing seats.  Grocery carts, strollers, wheelchairs and backpacks clog the aisles which are ultimately narrower because of the seat orientation. Solution: Aisle facing seating. Some of the newer LTC buses are addressing this problem, specifically the "accordion" buses, but these newer buses are few and far between.

So what's the issue with people and these seats? With sideways seats you will see many people sitting on the outside seat with backpacks etc on the inside seat. With a full bus, and many people standing, some people will give up the spare seat but many young Londoners wouldn't dream of it. Somehow they think it's their right to occupy both spots!

I have asked riders in the past, "Did you pay one or two tickets when you got on the bus?". Of course, the bulk of riders are Canadians and are either uber polite or passive aggressive, so they'll relent or say "What's it to ya?". Sure, there are signs that say "please put your back packs and bags on the floor or in your lap", but who does that and who reads signs on the bus anyway? (I do of course).

The issue with the narrow aisles is that moms these days are buying what I call "SUV strollers" which are two to three times the width of the classic "hammock" style stroller your mom had for you. Essentially they become the shopping cart and carry all for the mom and take up 3 seats, minimum. Plus they don't pay any extra which I think is wrong. This is where I am gonna piss a lot of people off and I guarantee it'll be moms; but I believe that anybody taking up space more than one ass width should have to pay a premium to ride the bus. It's fine that moms don't have to pay for babies on the bus, but you can have them in a Snuggy or a small stroller and not inconvenience the bulk of the ridership. When you take up 3 or more seats and a chunk of aisle space, and there's 3 more of those damned things about to board, this pisses me off.

LTC was complaining about budget issues this year? Threatened that they might have to raise ticket prices? Here's one solution to top up their coffers: No more free rides to the seat eaters.

Over sized strollers pay an extra buck. But don't stop there: Bike racks on the front of the bus are an awesome idea but is their expense paying off? I see maybe a bus a week being used to transport a bike. Again, there should be a premium for this service, a ticket for you and a buck for the bike. You certainly don't want it so high that it discourages use of the service but why should bikers get a free ride for the bike? It's a service that costs the LTC more to implement and maintain, right? It should be paying for itself and not my ticket price paying for it to exist.

Another issue I see regularly on our bus system is "bottle necking". This is where a nice polite Canadian bus rider gets on the bus and half way up the aisle some kid with a giant back pack is facing a wall (looking away from people coming on the bus), and clogging the aisle. One problem with that is that the nice Canadian person cannot see around the giant pack to see that there are many empty seats available at the back and, being the nice Canadian that they are, they are far too polite/passive to ask said kid with giant back pack to move so that they can find a seat.

They stand there, poking their head around wondering how they'll ever get to a seat, or maybe give a resigned sigh that it's their lot to be a bus stander today. Add on a few stops to that, and 5 or 6 more polite Canadian riders, and you have a bottle neck which extends right up to beside the driver and near the front door. Add to that an inattentive driver who doesn't communicate to the ridership the needs of the bus and you have an uncomfortable situation for many.

Newer and smarter designed buses will solve many of these problems. A small batch of LTC's newest vehicles solve some of these issues with length wise seating that increase aisle capacity, and have more retractable seats for the strollers and wheelchairs and mobility scooters etc.

As mentioned in the link to an article on the TTC, I also believe that the LTC needs a culture change. The mindsets of both the driver and the rider need altering. Perhaps a program of bus policing where drivers become riders for a spell and teach people to be more attentive to the needs of fellow riders would be an idea? Or how about some secret riders with hidden cameras to document peoples behaviors and put it up on Youtube? (blacking out faces to protect people of course). Either way, there are solutions to the issues facing the LTC and the ridership. My number one worry is that the people making these kinds of decisions aren't really part of the ridership. I invite those people to spend a full week riding the 80 minutes a day that I put in and watch what goes down from day to day as I do. Perhaps then they'll see where the real changes need to be made.

One more thing I'd like to encourage people to do is go to other cities and check out their transit systems. One that has impressed me any time I visit  is Hamilton. The buses are better laid out, the route frequency is incredible, and the cash fare price is at least 20 cents cheaper than London, and they get the ridership to support it!