Goodbye bendy bus

You will never need to dodge another bendy 38 again.

Thing is I can't help thinking how as a ped, as I sometimes am, I quite liked bendy buses. You could slip on anywhere along, stand at the kink and watch it swivel around you...

if you were a bit short on cash hish you could shamefully hover by the bibber looking out for an inspector stepping on...

it's become bit of a political football, but perhaps got more of a bad press than it deserved.

Good fucking riddance.

^that cracked me up a bit

The closest I've ever been to being in serious shit happened on the 38.*
fucking TFL cunts.
good riddance.

I might buy one of these

wouldn't you love to be the ticket inspector who caught bojo hovering at the bibber only to find he had just 78p left on his oyster?

no, that would mean i'd be on a bus all day

i'd happily spend all day on the 38 route to catch boris frantically rubbing his wallet on the magic yellow pad, only to be greeted by the red light and the 'boo boo' sound of death.

I'd say something like: "it's all become something of a cheap political football to get you elected this bendy bus lark" and then go all fraud on his ass. Likke poor eyebrows seems to have had to endure judging by the *

bendy bus AKA the free bus

Frankly, there wasn't anything wrong with the bendy bus at all, just the poor route planning that the bus weren't design for.

and it was free

I wonder if a conductor would solve that problem.

i miss conductors. used to catch the 73 when it was a routemaster. if you knew how to play it then it also would be free. Simply sit on the top front seat at the far left or right.

There was one dude though who would give a little commentary on buildings and points of interest we bussed by and used to make me feel my £1 was money well spent.

I must warn you though that lamenting the loss of conductors throws you in with Daily Mail columnist Quentin Letts who asked last week:
Could bringing back bus conductors be just the ticket to save us from the faceless technocrats who haunt Bog Standard Britain?

I wonder if a conductor would solve that problem.

on all 3 doors? he would need a good memory to remember who has payed and who hasnt lol. You could solve it i suppose by having 2 conductors :p

only two doors, remember the driver is also a conductor.

A midget walks onto a bus..

Then peds say YAY. Let's play the midget tossing game.

Anyhoo, I do like the idea of bringing back conductors. I do miss the 19's with the step on bit on the corner, and the amazing swirly stairs. Fun as a child.

I used to love jumping on and off moving routemasters when the conducters weren't looking; if you only wanted to go a bit down oxford street you could jump on the platform, and then jump back off 50 metres later. I was fatter back then...

The bendy buses are on their way to Swansea. Apparently they are changing the whole one way system to accommodate them.

There might be some practical routes for a bendy bus, but the 38 route was not one of them.

I hate the bloody things, and will be glad to negotiate Grays Inn Road/Rosebury Ave traffic lights without having to ride into oncoming traffic because one of them has blocked the entire road.

I used to use the 38 all the time. Never saw what was so wrong with them really. Those interviews show that, unlike the way the media presented it, there was never any real popular desire to get rid of the bendy buses. Just a populist tactic by Boris Johnson, which is likely to impact London more because of the expense of replacing them.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/davehillblog/video/2009/nov/17/bendy-buses-removed-from-route-38

Warning: This bus is 18 months old

...and will be glad to negotiate Grays Inn Road/Rosebury Ave traffic lights without having to ride into oncoming traffic because one of them has blocked the entire road.

Pretty much it really, it's more due to the poor design of that section than the bendy bus itself, even double decker bus can blocked the road, althought not entirely enough for you to not go round it on your bike.

As you'd expect, I've done a long post on articulated buses somewhere else. No need to repeat it here:

http://www.londonfgss.com/post849898.html