Bus Stops in South Camden

 

Camden and TFL pride themselves on promoting active travel and discouraging personal car use. But why are bus stops being removed? And why is their design so impersonal and unwelcoming?

 

Gray’s Inn Road (which links Kings Cross with Chancery Lane) has many fewer bus stops: it used to be 12 – now it’s only 7. 

 

Anyone who lives near Grays Inn Road knows what this means:

 

• Bus stops are no longer located near the junction of a cross street. This used to give people their bearings within the immediate area.

 

• Bus stops were often outside a local convenience store, which made for a safe and friendly wait and drew neighbours together. Now the backdrop tends to be an unfriendly office or empty building. The shelters are draughty and impersonal.

 

• There is now a much greater distance between bus stops. This makes life more difficult for the elderly and disabled, for those with buggies and children, for anyone carrying bags of heavy shopping.

l

• Having to cross a cycle path to reach the bus stop can be an unpredictable and sometimes unnerving experience.

 

BRAG would like to compile a survey of bus stops in the local area: some may be better; some worse. Does the current provision help or hinder bus travel? Please let us know by feeding back comments to info@brag.org.uk. Thank you.