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Walking quicker than the bus journey

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infobleep

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How often is walking in London quicker than a bus?

Whats the longest bus journey you've done where walking would have been quicker?

Due to a burst water main on Esher High Street, which I didn't know about in advance, walking for an hour today would have got me to my destination more quickly than my bus journey. That's because I had to wait some time for the bus and when it did finally arrive or I should say three of them arrive, so many people were getting on, it got further delayed. Then once it reached another point, there was a gap of 6 minutes or more between three buses and whatever was in front, at a point where 6 routes converge I might add! With students getting on here it further delayed. It then got delayed as they all got off.

That's not the first time where walking for an hour would be quicker but it is unusual. More common is where walking for 20 minutes is quicker, as quick or not much slower.

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infobleep

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How long are those journeys?

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miami

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Due to central line problems one day I had to get off the tube at east acton, I was heading for euston. Got a bus to ladbroke grove. About 15 minute wait and the bus seemed to take forever. Looks like the 2 miles is a 35 minute walk, I suspect

I've always regretted taking the bus from White City to Hammersmith in the past. In rush hour it's certainly slower than walking.

SMWBO always reminds me of the time I told her to get the #49 from Clapham Junction to Shepherds Bush. Took her over 90 minutes for a 4 mile trip.
 

the101

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Someone told me that the average speed of the 100 route in London during peak hours has been calculated at 3mph, hence all able-bodied people should be able to walk faster than buses on it during rush hours. Incidentally, this is one of the reasons why the flywheels on the E200s used on the 100 has no effect on fuel consumption.
 

infobleep

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This evening the bus was quicker than walking but if I'd left in time to catch a bus when it should arrive, the chances are I may have missed my train. Leaving earlier would have meant the bus wasn't much quicker than walking if at all, as I'd just be hangijf around at my destination. I did that anyway for a few minutes but it was still less time.

The walk was just a short 20 minute one.

Or course this then leads onto the point, at what point is a walk no longer considered short. Is 20 minutes short? Be in mind that is a walk at a reasonable pace for part of the walk, not average Google maps directions pace.

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Busaholic

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I can provide an instance when, indubitably, a bus journey took exactly the same time as walking would have done. It was on the 160, from Catford to Eltham, still the same journey now as it was in the early 1960s when this occurred. We'd somehow got to school that morning (I think it was the time when 5 of the scheduled 9 buses on the route arrived together!) through the smog, which lasted all day. My school didn't do wimpish, so we didn't get let out a minute earlier than the scheduled 4 p.m. My school mates and I were quite pleasantly surprised when a 160 turned up quite quickly, even more surprised that its destination was Welling i.e. the whole route. We crawled through the fog along the Brownhill Road but when we got to Westhorne Avenue it had really become impenetrable. The driver and conductor had a conflab, the next thing the conductor produced a flare from somewhere and proceeded to walk in front of the bus, including across the A20 roundabout. When we got to Eltham Green, the first recognised emergency turning point on the route, the bus stopped for a while and I got mentally prepared for a walk, but no, the bus driver and conductor made the decision they'd get the bus to Eltham, Southend Crescent, often used as a late-running terminus, BUT they'd avoid the Middle Park Estate and go straight up Eltham Hill, which may have been the first and (possibly) last time that a 160 in service has done that. I believe that was the last 160 that got through to Eltham that evening, and the bus was driven out-of-service back to Catford Garage. So the bus was driven at the conductor's walking pace, and it was a route that traditionally was worked by older crews. I have since seen a piece written by someone who had the same experience with a 75 bus, almost certainly on the same day, and that shared a garage and some of the route with the 160.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Someone told me that the average speed of the 100 route in London during peak hours has been calculated at 3mph, hence all able-bodied people should be able to walk faster than buses on it during rush hours. Incidentally, this is one of the reasons why the flywheels on the E200s used on the 100 has no effect on fuel consumption.

Probably one of the reasons why the 100 is proposed to be cut back from Elephant to the Barbican next year.
 
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Ant158

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Fulford Road in York can be another one where it's quicker to walk i.e. Especially when First decide to abandon Fulford road residents and divert the 7.

I have tried the, I'll try and beat the next bus by walking from bus stop to bus stop, looking over my shoulder every few mins.
 
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fgwrich

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Quite a few routes around Basingstoke can be quicker to walk around and into town than on the bus. Such are the mess of the routes these day's that it people are starting to find walking is quicker.
 

ValleyLines142

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Whilst certainly not a long distance anyway, walking from the Broadmead/Cabot area in Bristol to the harbourside is generally quicker than a bus which will get stuck in traffic on Rupert Street.
 

Deerfold

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I was in London a couple of months ago. I was on Oxford Street, and was due to meet someone at Kings Cross for lunch. I had 90 minutes to get there and had already spent much of the morning walking, so jumped on a 73. An hour later, I was the last but one person on the bus to finally give up on it. It was still on Oxford Street. I just made my lunch date on time.
 

Busaholic

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I was in London a couple of months ago. I was on Oxford Street, and was due to meet someone at Kings Cross for lunch. I had 90 minutes to get there and had already spent much of the morning walking, so jumped on a 73. An hour later, I was the last but one person on the bus to finally give up on it. It was still on Oxford Street. I just made my lunch date on time.

A good illustration of why passenger numbers are declining in central and inner London. TfL cited the 73 recently in their 'consultation' proposals (the 73 to be cut west of Oxford Circus)
 

nw1

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From where I am in Southampton (near the BlueStar 1 route) it's quicker to walk the 35 minutes into town if you want to get into town for dead-on 0900. This is because buses actually get _less_ frequent at this time, with one 20 or 25 minute gap while the normal gap is 15.

A side effect of extra timing for traffic, and (I suspect) no extra vehicles being used in the peak hour compared to the off peak.

Evenings is another example... for a large-ish city bus frequencies are not great on many routes in the evenings and if the bus is at the "wrong" time to get to an evening event, a walk can be quicker.
 
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6Gman

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On the M93 Conwy to Pant-y-Tan service passengers for the Gorlan / Pengarth Estate used to get off at the bottom of a hill because they could walk up the hill faster than a Bristol SC in first gear.
 

SCH117X

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It takes me half an hour to walk, the bus is meant to be every 15 minutes and takes around 10 minutes but once past 3.30 reliability typically goes out of the window and walking is far quicker even if passing the bus stop when one is due.
 

Busaholic

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From where I am in Southampton (near the BlueStar 1 route) it's quicker to walk the 35 minutes into town if you want to get into town for dead-on 0900. This is because buses actually get _less_ frequent at this time, with one 20 or 25 minute gap while the normal gap is 15.

A side effect of extra timing for traffic, and (I suspect) no extra vehicles being used in the peak hour compared to the off peak.

Evenings is another example... for a large-ish city bus frequencies are not great on many routes in the evenings and if the bus is at the "wrong" time to get to an evening event, a walk can be quicker.

In some areas fewer buses run in the peaks because they and their drivers are being used on school services instead. There is then little incentive for people with a feasible choice to opt for the bus.
 

Ianno87

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Is it? I find the 59 reasonably quick.

Agree - the buses along Kingsway are probably the highest average speed of any Central London bus in all but the worst of traffic.

Meanwhile, forget any bus between Liverpool Street and London Bridge during the Tower Bridge/Tooley Street closure at the moment.

Edgware Rd southbound in the evening always used to get pretty jammed up too - faster to walk Paddington to Victoria!
 

Busaholic

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Edgware Rd southbound in the evening always used to get pretty jammed up too - faster to walk Paddington to Victoria!

Also many fewer scheduled buses since last month's route change to the 436.
 

quarella

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A Friday late around 4.30pm before Christmas I was walking Shadwell to Limehouse. I expected it to be busy but it was worse than expected. A bus driver taking the opportunity for a cigarette told me he should have booked off over an hour earlier and he had never seen it so bad. Near Limehouse station a message board advised that the A13 Canning Town Flyover was closed. I turned up Burdett Road towards Mile End and in the twenty minutes it took me not one bus passed on any of the 3 routes with 7-8 minute headways.

When Worle Parkway Station as it was then called Avon County Council subsidised a bus service from the housing development of North Worle. If weather was bad I sometimes carried one or two passengers in the evening but was usually empty as I would be sat in traffic on Queensway when those who walked passed me.

The route revisions caused by the housing at North Worle has created the situation where, if you miss the First number 7 at Sainsbury's you can now walk to Madam Lane and catch the same bus.
 

sk688

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Walking from Barnet Hospital ( next to our school ) to High Barnet station is often quicker than the buses ( 263.,107,384.307 )
 

Deerfold

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Any bus in London yesterday as a result of the tube strike!

I don't know - although I wasn't in London yesterday, I've found some routes surprisingly quick during previous tube strikes - I've planned to walk fairly large distances but then caught a bus once a few have passed me.
 

Busaholic

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I don't know - although I wasn't in London yesterday, I've found some routes surprisingly quick during previous tube strikes - I've planned to walk fairly large distances but then caught a bus once a few have passed me.

I spent a few minutes yesterday using the technology from afar to observe how buses were operating in central London (late a.m. as it happens) and the intervals between buses, although not what they should have been, in most cases were not much different from normal.
 
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The TWM 74 from Dudley at least as far as Dudley Port, and maybe great bridge must be a contender too. Could really do with an extension to the Midland Metro ;)
 

OneOffDave

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When I used to go from Euston to Waterloo daily I could frequently match the bus from Euston to Aldwych but crossing over the strand to Waterloo Bridge would normally see them pass me
 

Busaholic

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When I used to go from Euston to Waterloo daily I could frequently match the bus from Euston to Aldwych but crossing over the strand to Waterloo Bridge would normally see them pass me

You could have tried walking through the underpass to give yourself a better chance.:)
 

neilmc

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A (fairly fit) friend who regularly travels on one of the Cumbria Fellrunner services declares that if he thinks he has missed the weekly bus at Kings Meaburn, a brisk walk to Morland should see him in time to catch it up there, since in the meantime the bus has had to traverse another five villages, including one reversal, and no doubt has had an encounter or two with a tractor on a narrow road, covering less than two miles as the raven flies in around forty minutes.
 

infobleep

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On train yesterday. See bus due in 15 minutes. Get to bus stop and shortly before it might turn up, if previous predictions was correct, I see it's due in another 13 minutes. I then start walking as I have no information on the bus being late. Last time I waited it was practically as quick or quicker to walk for an hour.

I walk for 20 minutes and then broad the bus further along the route. Then 20 minutes on the bus followed by a few minutes walk to my destination.

Had I done the walk I could have done it in about an hour, so naturally 15 minutes longer than it took me by bus.

Whilst on the bus we passed about 7-8 people standing at one bus stop. We couldn't stop for them as we had no space. Next bus stop some got off and less wanted to get on so we could stop.

Now let's assume the people we couldn't pick up were waiting 20 minutes for a bus. The next bus after ours wasn't for another 15 minutes, assuming it arrived at its predicted time. Hopefully that one would have space. So that could be a 35 minute wait for some or longer., if they had got the bus stop earlier than the time it was predicted to have left.....

No information as to why the bus was so late. I tweeted TfL bus alerts to let them know but heard nothing back. No wonder more and more passengers are not bothering with London buses.

There are also health benefits to walking, which buses don't give. Whilst the same is true of other modes of public transport, many of those are faster than buses or are longer journeys, for which walking wouldn't be so practical.

The London Mayor has said he wants to involve the flow of information to passengers.
 
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