Ah, the bendy bus… now I work in London and the no. 38 bus goes pass our office. This used to be one of the old Routemaster lines until they were scrapped and replaced by the bendy bus. Now for those who don’t know what a bendy bus is – it’s a very long bus and bends round corners. For a better description there is a good wikipedia article on them. They get a lot of bad press in London, apparently everyone hates them but I can’t see what is wrong with them. I think it is the press who hate them because it was Ken Livingstone who brought them in and cyclists hate them for being too long. Now I never drive around London so I would either walk or get public transport and have many times got a bendy buses – nope can’t see what the problem is. My only bugbear with walking around London is cyclists who have to always jump red lights and go through crossings while the green man is showing. I don’t think they know how dangerous it is!
I got a bendy bus today to purchase a birthday present for a colleague of mine and the best bit about it (apart from not getting wet – where has all this rain come from) was listening, couldn’t actually avoid their conversation as the lady in question was quite loud, to a couple in their 50s who were having problems with paying for their trip on the bus. On a London bendy bus you have a pre-paid ticket, you can’t pay the driver so hearing them talking about Oyster cards, not being able to pay (the driver let them on anyway) and the gentleman finding a saver ticket after much talking was done by his wife. After all of this the poor man had to listen to her go on about getting a sandwich before they got somewhere – I think I heard him say about two words on the whole trip and that was to agree with her. Poor sod, in a few years time they will have Freedom Passes and will be travelling around London on bendy buses with her talking very loudly at him while he is most probably trying to find a way of losing her in the crowds.
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