The Atheist Bus Campaign is up and running again, the BBC report thusly:
Stephen Green of pressure group Christian Voice said: "Bendy-buses, like atheism, are a danger to the public at large. I should be surprised if a quasi-religious advertising campaign like this did not attract graffiti. People don't like being preached at. Sometimes it does them good, but they still don't like it."
Dude, WTF!
Is he blaming atheists for the lousy safety record of bendy buses?
Is he condoning vandalism?
"People don't like being preached at"???
Pots, kettles?
So What Will Be Done About The Officer?
27 minutes ago
10 comments:
I wonder what he had to say about the pro Christian preachy adverts that were pasted on London buses a few months ago.
I suspect it was quite different.
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Toby
http://toblog.bryans.org/
No idea what Stephen Green's trying to get at. However, it's worth remembering that bendy buses don't actually have a bad safety record at all - this is a made-up Boris lie.
JB, if true, I'd update the post but that link doesn't seem to work.
Mark: bother, sorry. here.
Julia: the fires have nothing to do with the buses' bendyness. When the first batch of Citaros were introduced, there was a problem with hose siting that made fires slightly more likely. Post-2005, they have the same rate of catching fire as other buses in London - i.e. very low but it sometimes happens. But because of the OMG BENDIBUSES WILL KILL US ALL!!!! narrative that Ken's opponents spread and that idiots believed, they get reported slightly more than other bus fires and idiots view said random coincidences as a pattern.
As a cyclist I have to say I despise them.
I don't like going on them either.
They can't burn quick enough.
"Julia: the fires have nothing to do with the buses' bendyness."
Did I say that they did?
Frankly, I don't care a great deal what it was that made them catch fire - the fact is, they did catch fire with appalling regularity.
But why should little Kenny have worried? It's not like he ever rode buses with the ordinary people, unless there were cameras around.
But I see, now that you've fixed your erroneous link, that you were simply trotting out the hackneyed 'Boris is a tory who hates cyclists, OMG, OMG!' line anyway.
I tend to steer clear of bendy buses when I'm on the bike too. Mostly because they don't seem to have passed their driving test as regards yellow box junctions and other signals. Same goes for Post Office vans, for some reason - one just learns to stay well away. I didn't know there was a rumour the buses could catch fire too. It's like an obstacle course. What's more, with this new campaign, presumably there's now also an added danger of the bus being struck by lightning. Which makes it all the more important for us cyclists to stay well clear.
@juliam I'm by no means a fan of Ken but he did regularly use public transport: I know because I have seen him myself on the tube and no, there were no press around.
To sum up, I prefer double deckers to bendy buses because:
a) With a double decker, you have a choice - go upstairs and get stabbed or stay downstairs with the mums and the pensioners. With bendy buses the whole thing is a war zone.
b) As a pedestrian, bendy buses area nightmare because they stop you nipping across the road.
c) Routemasters were outlawed in favour of bendy buses by the EU because a European bus manufacturer gave the then transport commissioner a handsome bung (and I have that first hand).
d) Cyclists hate them.
e) Everybody hates them.
"you were simply trotting out the hackneyed 'Boris is a tory who hates cyclists, OMG, OMG!' line anyway."
no, I first linked to a new quote from Boris admitting that bendy buses have never killed any cyclists and have injured an average of one cyclist per year. only then did I moved onto the hackneyed anti-Tory ranting...
"With a double decker, you have a choice - go upstairs and get stabbed or stay downstairs with the mums and the pensioners. With bendy buses the whole thing is a war zone"
This might be true in Mogadishu. I've been on plenty of buses in London; maybe two or three *ever* have even gone past the 'mildly irritating yoofs' to the 'a bit scary' mark.
"Routemasters were outlawed in favour of bendy buses by the EU because a European bus manufacturer gave the then transport commissioner a handsome bung (and I have that first hand)."
I've read the directive linked to by Brooker. Yes, it bans open-platform buses; if you're seriously claiming you're worried about the safety of bendies, then you're pretty much bound to accept that's a good thing. It doesn't ban rear-entry (fnarr) buses with conductors, nor does it ban double-deckers. It even allows bendy double deckers, which would be fun.
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