Jon Bright (London, OK): The probability of Boris Johnson securing the conservative party nomination for Mayor of London is now so overwhelming that his primary campaign is becoming virtually indistinguishable from the election campaign proper. And he's beginning to stake out his battleground.
But transport - with a particular focus on his loathing for 'bendy buses' - feels like an unusual choice. As anyone who makes regular use of them will know, London's bus network is superb. Bendy buses, in combination with the Oyster card, have done away with the maddening, infuriating wait at each stop where the usual incompetents fiddle with their change or ask obscure questions about the destination. Their sheer frequency sometimes beggars belief - only at the dead of night in the most obscure backwater will you wait longer than half an hour. So what's his problem?
In the Telegraph today he outlines it:
It is one of the most tragic sights of the London streets. There she is, exhausted, in high heels, weighed down at either hand with heavy shopping.
And suddenly there is her bus, steaming past her to pull up a hundred yards ahead...just as she limps up to the door, wheezing, on the verge of collapse, the system performs one of those acts of inexplicable malevolence on the consumer. The doors hiss shut in her face and the bus moves off.
Of course, he grasps something that we've all had to face - running for the bus only for it to drive off at the last minute (even if I don't often do it in heels). And of course it's always when you most need the bus - laden down with shopping for example - that it so egregiously thumbs it's nose at you: sod's law, as it's known. Oh for a leader who could fix these annoyances! Perhaps Boris could come round and find my keys tomorrow.
He's not stupid enough to insult London's bus drivers, so instead he blames the system: the bus companies aren't incentivised to pick up passengers. If they were, they'd wait for the ones legging it at the last minute. This is idiocy masquerading as economics. Just because she's missed the first bus doesn't mean poor Mrs. Heels now gets to drive home - she'll have to wait for the next one (which, as previously advertised, won't be that long away). So the bus network still gets the fare.
If, on the other hand, buses were told for wait for everyone they see sprinting towards them, they'll fall further behind schedule at each stop. If companies are just incentivised to pick up all passengers - rather than run a regular, fast service - there would in fact be no incentive to drive on at all until the bus was full. Anyone who has used public transport in poorer parts of the world will have seen this in action.
Doesn't Boris know this? He probably does. I suspect if he did get in he'd make only minor alterations to what is already a pretty good service: he's just trying to stake out some ground. But a mayoral campaign hinging around the idea of making life less irritating is bound to be seen through by an electorate. Isn't it?
