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).

@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.

the tube was running during lockdown, for essential workers.

@OneTC

Attempts to decentralise London resulted in Croydon

Be careful what you wish for

Ah, but at least Croydon has trams 😉

No underground, and Southern trains which are still on a covid timetable (ie half the number of pre-covid trains), but we have trams.

For obvious reasons (lone female late at night) I don't want to post her exact commute but she managed to get part way on the central line this morning to uni. Her commute home is more tricky.

At the moment the central line is only running from White City to Ealing Broadway and from Liverpool Street to Loughton

So let me get this straight. You want to live in a big city because of the facilities, jobs, prospects a big city offers, but you don't want other people to live there or for it to be a big city?

@BitOutOfPractice

So let me get this straight. You want to live in a big city because of the facilities, jobs, prospects a big city offers, but you don't want other people to live there or for it to be a big city?

I live here because I was born here.

@AlternativePerspective

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.

This!

It really pisses me off. We're only just getting back to normal after the pandemic and they disrupt us all again.

Tossers.

It's not a prison though OP. If you are no longer finding the big city hub thing works for your family, I think moving would be a more practical solution than overturning centuries of city development. That's how big cities work. They have lots of people in them.

@BitOutOfPractice

It's not a prison though OP. If you are no longer finding the big city hub thing works for your family, I think moving would be a more practical solution than overturning centuries of city development. That's how big cities work. They have lots of people in them.

buy he a home somewhere else then

I live here because I was born here.

That doesn't mean you have to stay.

It's like living in the country and complaining about farm noise/smells or country lanes.

some of us live here - if you don't like central London, don't come here - stop whinging about it.

Welcome to how the rest of the country operates OP. This is why people don't like public transport. It's shit outside London.

@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.

tubes ran throughout lockdown pretty much? May have been a reduced service and a few stations closed, but employees can't all have been sitting at home - presumably there was a fair amount of sickness/isolation to factor into rotas.

I remember a man promising industrial peace in 2008, and then later on to limit strikes by legislation (minimum turnout, or the German minimum level of service).

A man who has done nothing about this. He has blonde hair.

Aaaah if you read Invisible Women you will discover that transport links that head to the centre were developed around male working practices. Women have more caring responsibility ( schools, care homes, elderly relatives etc) which are not served by these designs. So buses go towards the centre but not around the outside ( if that makes sense) which might serve your needs better.

@VelvetChairGirl because town planning was (is) designed by men. Have a read of Invisible Women. I found it fascinating!

@balalake

I remember a man promising industrial peace in 2008, and then later on to limit strikes by legislation (minimum turnout, or the German minimum level of service).

A man who has done nothing about this. He has blonde hair.

Was it the one that promised a garden bridge.

and promised not to close ticket counters or reduce the police, or reduce the fire service etc.

[quote thirstyformore]@VelvetChairGirl because town planning was (is) designed by men. Have a read of Invisible Women. I found it fascinating! [/quote]
I'll look into it.

@Divebar2021 cross post!

I am puzzled why you think the city layout is unreasonable rather than idiots behind the tube strike

@Iwonder08

I am puzzled why you think the city layout is unreasonable rather than idiots behind the tube strike

because its 1 thing just 1 and everything has gone to shit, wouldnt that indicate poor design to you?

we have tube, buses, cars, bikes/scooters/walking

all gone to shit because 1 of those is down.

and dont get me started on the buses they keep pissing around with the routes in senseless ways which mean buses which were once useful are now dead 90% of the time because they no longer go where people are/need to go. (changes to the 266, introduction of the 218 etc I am looking at you).

And tfl have the cheek to put the fares up today.
What is the strike over?
Is it a pay increase for those drivers on £50000 plus or the ex-ticket sellers/collectors who stand around at the top of the escalator doing nothing (supposed to be assisting travellers but will run away when a passenger goes near because they need to social distance still)

When there's a big tube strike like this, the traffic on the roads in London grinds to a halt. It's not really a surprise. At least it was well advertised so you could make alternative plans. When I lived in Paris I sometimes wouldn't find out there were no buses due to a strike until I'd been standing at the bus stop for half an hour!

I'm surprised that you tried to get the bus when it is a walkable distance (yes, you might not want your DC to have to do it every day but it's a manageable distance every so often).

I agree with your point though, that it's not ideal having the majority of transport heading in the same direction at rush hour.

In terms of Central London being the business hub, I'd think even bigger and, rather than moving more businesses to Zones 3/4/5/6 it would be good if businesses could think outside the box and set up offices in or around other cities.

Businesses feel the need to have a head office in London as though they'll be less credible if they don't.

London buses are full on any given day, tube strikes push these over the edge, sorry but yabu to assume a bus was going to be a realistic option when there are full tube strikes.

It may be that businesses locate to the outskirts - equally it may be that some businesses based in central london will relocate head offices to the continent. Many large international companies have already relocated head / main offices to more outer zones years ago.