Kmflett's Blog

Memoirs of a London transport user

As a Londoner I neither own a car or know how to drive. Indeed I declined an offer from my employer 40 years ago to take free lessons and a test on the grounds that public transport was quite good enough. I agree entirely that the present crisis should mean a focus on less car use and more walking and cycling. I still do a good bit of walking, although demonstrations are out currently, but at 63 my knees are not what they were and riding a bike would put both myself and others in danger.

At the moment, public transport is rightly restricted but it too must form a key part of the future. The key issue at the moment is the personal safety of the workers who run London’s transport system and of course the safety of those who use it, either because they are key workers or because Johnson’s return to work ‘strategy’ has forced them to do so.

I can work from home and don’t anticipate much if any use of public transport for a bit though.

One sees social media comments from various hard right types who one suspects wouldn’t recognise a London bus even if it ran over them, that travel should be more expensive or that the ‘freedom pass’ for over 60s should be stopped. Indeed like everything else London’s transport is all about class

Not everyone, these days myself included, can simply rely entirely on walking and cycling, even if Boris Johnson says so. Cycling lobbyists have their moment and rightly so but care must be taken in a few cases not to echo Johnson’s ableism. Inviting people of my generation to get on their bikes would be an alternative version of Cummings herd immunity. No doubt the fittest would survive the rigours of the Capital’s roads (which will be there for a bit yet even with hopefully much increased cycling space and lanes) but that mostly would not be people like myself.