I am not being unreasonable London is

[VelvetChairGirl]

so tube strikes today, went out half an hour earlier to get to school, roads leading towards central london packed, going out from central london not so bad, buses going out looked ok not full, rather a lot of them.

buses heading into central packed, absolutely packed, 4 buses went past packed, walked all the way to school in the end (1 and a half hours) and bare in mind the buses are meant to be every 10 mins and we saw a total of 4 in the packed traffic.

and when I say heading to central, I dont mean we were going in to central I mean all the buses heading that way, this is still outer london, none of the buses actually go into zone 1 (I.e further then hammersmith) but it was everything heading that way screwed.

now it wasnt this bad at the last tube strike, I think it goes to show how many people were working from home, today was absolute chaos.

why does everything have to be in, towards central london, why does everyone in the morning have to commute in, why isnt there a equal amount of businesses and schools etc in the other direction so you get a equilibrium of vehicles in and out.

one thing not working (the tube) and everything is fucked.

might as well do the vote

YABU its a good idea to have work and schools etc in the centre and homes outside so rush hour is everyone trying to head in the same direction twice a day.

YANBU homes, schools and work places should be evenly spaced out around the city so people go in all directions at rush hour thus equilibrium across the roads and public transport network at all times (pretty much).

It would be quite difficult to organise meetings between professionals all working a two hour journey away from each other. Hence city centres have developed the way they have to accommodate business need, and services develop in close proximity to support them.

Virtual and hybrid working will mean some companies feeling able to take premises in less central locations, but it won’t completely eradicate the need for most businesses and services to be close geographically.

It's 1 March not 1 April

when i lived in London we had local schools within walking distance....why is yours so far away?

That's not how life works though

My dd has cycled from Ealing to White City today but she then has to get into central after uni finishes for work and home again. Its going to be a nightmare for her. She can't even get a bus home because the bus routes don't work for her. It would apparently be 4 or five different buses to get home!

I see the reason for business in centres, but we totally need to find ways to get more ordinary people able to live in city centres so they can easily walk/cycle/bus to work and thus not add to tube/train packedness. And also, as COVID has shown, so that city centres aren't so totally dependent on tourists and office workers.

London is not actually a particularly densely built city - there could be 10,000s more homes created just by 'infill' of small sites, or adding extra stories to roofs. I mean, at the heart of it is a seemingly insoluble problem that central London values are so huge that there's no way you can build 'affordable' housing on it, but someone needs to find a way to do this. But imagine if you could have 10ks of keyworkers and their family living in Zones 1 and 2? It would be a better balance for everyone - at the moment I've heard nurses working in central London are often making huge commutes from the outer reaches of places like Kent because there is absolutely no way they can live even on the outskirts of London. It's nuts.

@GirlInACountrySong

when i lived in London we had local schools within walking distance....why is yours so far away?

because there are way less secondary schools then primary and who gets into their first choice? no one.

There are schools all over the place. I highly doubt the closest school is a 90 minutes walk away in almost any part of the country, and especially not the capital city.

@Comefromaway

That's not how life works though

My dd has cycled from Ealing to White City today but she then has to get into central after uni finishes for work and home again. Its going to be a nightmare for her. She can't even get a bus home because the bus routes don't work for her. It would apparently be 4 or five different buses to get home!

you what?

the 207, 607, should do it as far as bush then something else, do you mean central or The City?

You walked for an hour and a half to collect a secondary aged child?!

What that? 4 or 5 miles? Are they Y7?

I feel like I’ve missed a bit.

@girlmom21

There are schools all over the place. I highly doubt the closest school is a 90 minutes walk away in almost any part of the country, and especially not the capital city.

actually its a 43 min walk for me, nearly an hour for him.

but thats just walking not deciding to wait for buses in vain and take a slightly different route walking along two bus routes in hope.

I will be taking the wheelie bag thing out later so he can stick his massive school bag on it to wheel home. sod trying to get buses this week, wheelie bag for the next 3 days.

@ThymePoultice

You walked for an hour and a half to collect a secondary aged child?!

What that? 4 or 5 miles? Are they Y7?

I feel like I’ve missed a bit.

yes Y7 and I took him this morning I'll be heading out later to collect him. he doesnt goto school on his own he's SEN.

It would be much better if there wasn't such a massive over concentration of everything in London. It really is ridiculous.

@girlmom21

There are schools all over the place. I highly doubt the closest school is a 90 minutes walk away in almost any part of the country, and especially not the capital city.

There’s an awful lot of selection in London, leading to cross cross school runs. My youngest was bullheaded and took about six different selection tests (music, art, languages aptitude as well as more traditional 11+ style entrance exams). It’s a lot and it’s a stupid system. I didn’t let the older two take so many.

Still, a 3 hour trip to collect a secondary student is a lot.

yes Y7 and I took him this morning I'll be heading out later to collect him. he doesnt goto school on his own he's SEN.

Ah I see. We had taxi transport for one of ours but it’s a very gappy system. There’s a limit to how many days you’ll be able to do this, though. Nightmare.

Your school is really a 90 minute walk? I can walk from East to West London in that time.

@Echobelly

I see the reason for business in centres, but we totally need to find ways to get more ordinary people able to live in city centres so they can easily walk/cycle/bus to work and thus not add to tube/train packedness. And also, as COVID has shown, so that city centres aren't so totally dependent on tourists and office workers.

London is not actually a particularly densely built city - there could be 10,000s more homes created just by 'infill' of small sites, or adding extra stories to roofs. I mean, at the heart of it is a seemingly insoluble problem that central London values are so huge that there's no way you can build 'affordable' housing on it, but someone needs to find a way to do this. But imagine if you could have 10ks of keyworkers and their family living in Zones 1 and 2? It would be a better balance for everyone - at the moment I've heard nurses working in central London are often making huge commutes from the outer reaches of places like Kent because there is absolutely no way they can live even on the outskirts of London. It's nuts.

well maybe we need more buses, or trams bring back trams that the cars cant get in the way of and that would be like having a back up tube network.

we have tonnes of empty homes, they keep building more, luxury apartments everywhere which you can clearly see no ones living in, no idea if they are owned or not as investments or for airB&Bs but they just keep building them and they are never filled, 400k+ for a 1 bed flat.

@daimbarsatemydogsbone

It would be much better if there wasn't such a massive over concentration of everything in London. It really is ridiculous.

agreed and I was born here if things were spread out across the country more our rent and house prices wouldnt take the piss

I mean the west end. She's not comfortable with waiting at bus stops around midnight so will probably cycle to Paddington then try and get an overground train from there. She usually misses the last train to West Ealing but should hopefully get to Ealing Broadway

Attempts to decentralise London resulted in Croydon

Be careful what you wish for

Well I think a better question to ask is how exactly RMT has the gall to set up a strike when they've been sitting around at home on full pay whilst the services aren't required. Now they are required, and they want to blackmail us all into retaining 1950s transport technology just to preserve jobs that for some ludicrous reason pay 70k a year.

@daimbarsatemydogsbone

It would be much better if there wasn't such a massive over concentration of everything in London. It really is ridiculous.

It is exactly the same with every capital city. Hardly a surprise or ridiculous. It's probably the same to a lesser extent with other cities in the U.K. too.

@Comefromaway

I mean the west end. She's not comfortable with waiting at bus stops around midnight so will probably cycle to Paddington then try and get an overground train from there. She usually misses the last train to West Ealing but should hopefully get to Ealing Broadway

central is running from liverpool street to ealing broadway I noticed when I was checking the oyster card, at least at the moment.

The last strike didn’t close down the whole tube system - central, circle, district etc were largely running. This one is much worse.

The entire network is down though. That didn’t happen in the last tube strike.

Personally I’m more pissed off at RMT who throw their toys out of the pram at every opportunity and hold the city to ransom. Meanwhile their drivers earn around £50k a year, and a huge number of staff sat on furlow at home while the service was reduced to a minimum during the pandemic.

@Cherryblossoms85

Well I think a better question to ask is how exactly RMT has the gall to set up a strike when they've been sitting around at home on full pay whilst the services aren't required. Now they are required, and they want to blackmail us all into retaining 1950s transport technology just to preserve jobs that for some ludicrous reason pay 70k a year.

Dd was assaulted (groped) whilst trying to make an alternative way home from work during the weekend tube strikes recently. I'm afraid I have no sympathy for the RMT members.