flaneurs | Entries tagged with themes: public transport

My notebooks fell off my shelf and I started looking through them and there were journeys I'd been on by bus written in some of them, that I never got around to writing up. Here is one such journey:

I did June Challenge I.(c) Buses, but which June I did it in, I am unsure now. Maybe I have photos and tracks to accompany it somewhere. Anyway, for this challenge, I got on the first bus that came along, then got off after 9 stops.

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nou

Like we did in 2016, in 2014, in 2013, and in 2012, bob and I made simultaneous attempts at Theme I: Buses, subtheme (c) (get on the first bus that comes along, stay on for n stops, get off, repeat), starting from the same stop, with me taking n=5 and him taking n=6.

This year we did it from a different stop, since I was fed up of going up and down London Road on buses. We chose Poplar Walk, which is just around the corner from our old stop.

bob went on a very loopy journey which involved going to Purley twice (we coincided on the first visit, and broke for lunch at Cafe Blue) and through West Croydon bus station at least twice. My journey was rather less loopy, and ended up at a featureless roundabout just over the Surrey border.

So my London bus flânage actually extended outside London. It wasn’t enormously exciting, though — the only place it took me that I hadn’t been before was the roundabout at the end, which was quite boring. Hopefully next year will be better!

Here is my map.

bob

We did a bus flanage again this year and started from somewhere new but kept our numbers the same.

The map is very loopy

bob

Hello,
As is customary I did Flaneurs bus challenge I. (c) from the same stop as before with an unchanging n of 6.
In exciting news I managed to finally cross the river and in fact ended up at Tottenham Hale. I covered about 30 miles on buses on the hottest day of the year. The routemasters were hellish.

* Map
* Google Photos or Flick Photos depending on what you prefer. Includes lots of video.
* Twitter thread

I'm currently uploading the videos to youtube and may make a longer video of them.
Talking of which I often post videos of my bus journeys on my youtube channel

Current Mood: accomplished

nou

Londoners and those within reach of London may be interested to know that the Tube Walks community, formerly only on LiveJournal, now has a presence on Dreamwidth at tubewalks.

The aim of Tube Walking is “to visit every station on the underground network and Docklands Light Railway at least once, either as a starting point or as a destination. [...] The station which you walk to must be connected to the starting station by a tube, or DLR, line.” Walks are generally quite indirect, taking in points of interest in the area. We generally end up in a pub after (or, occasionally, during) the walk, and in the past there have also been post-walk curries, though it’s been a while since the last one of those.

The next walk is on Saturday 6 May, from Richmond to Kew Gardens. Meet at Richmond Station from 2pm for a prompt 2:30pm start.

spiralsheep

I saw and can recommend the film Paterson, by Jim Jarmusch, which is a loving tribute to the art in everyday city life as found through walking, public transport, sitting and being with the city and its inhabitants (and also through home decor, popular music, and baking), and is highly relevant to flaneurs' interests.

Rotten Tomatoes is currently rating it at critics 95% positive and audience 78% liked:

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/paterson/

spiralsheep

I completed challenge III. (c) random pub to the Gunmakers Arms in Birmingham's Gun Quarter. Post including a one paragraph report with one photo inside the Two Towers brewery.

I did a second III. (c) random cafe to Wolverhampton Art Gallery cafe. Post including a one paragraph report with one photo of art in the cafe.

I completed challenge I. (a) and investigated an interesting thing seen from a tram window in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter. Post including a one paragraph report with one photo of Key Hill Cemetery.

I did II. (a) following a tram line in Birmingham city centre. One paragraph with five photos, from Grand Central to Snow Hill.

I also did a semi-failed II. (c) Local council walk in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Full report with a dozen photos, circular walk along the River Avon.

nou

Like we did in 2014, in 2013, and in 2012, bob and I made simultaneous attempts at Theme I: Buses, subtheme (c) (get on the first bus that comes along, stay on for n stops, get off, repeat), starting from the same stop, with me taking n=5 and him taking n=6.

In 2012 I ended up in Cheam, which is a few miles southwest of Croydon out towards where London stops being London; in 2013 I ended up in Putney, which is several miles northwest of Croydon and very nearly on the other side of the Thames; and in 2014 I actually crossed the Thames into north London. Unfortunately 2016 was much less exciting.

It was so unexciting, in fact, that I can't actually bring myself to do a full writeup. My buses took me along a road that I'm thoroughly familiar with, out to a bland shopping mall, then (thanks to a one-way loop with a stop served by buses in both directions) all the way back along the same route to my starting point, then along residential streets to Crystal Palace (a 9-minute train ride from my house), then through Sydenham (a 12-minute train ride from my house, and a place where I spent an entire day the other week; indeed, one of my stops was directly opposite the cafe I had lunch in), and finally terminated at Elmers End, which is a place that has nothing in it aside from a direct tram back to my starting point. Four hours, to get basically nowhere.

Here's a map of my journey, and here's my photoset on Flickr.

spiralsheep

I completed June challenge Ia, get off the bus when you see something interesting, on the 360 in Coventry. The 360 is a 31.5mile/50km long circular bus route around the suburbs of Coventry. There's a report with three small images at my journal.

03 Eduardo Paolozzi prints at Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry 06-15

ridicully

Yesterday I decided to give one of the bus challenges a go.

I could possibly have timed my trip a bit better, I stopped after the fifth bus not because I had enough of waiting on bus stops or had to be somewhere else but because it was late afternoon in the city and my busses were just not moving at all any more.

I started at Finsbury Park Station and the first bus that came by was the 106 to Whitechapel. I'd picked the number 7 but stop seven was a one line stop so I continued on to the first stop that had multiple lines serving it. That was Stoke Newtington Station.

Five minutes later I was on the next bus, this one a 149 to London Bridge. South it went, past the Aziziye Mosque (originally built as a cinema as wikipedia tells me) and the 7th stop was at the Rio Cinema.

Busses kept coming really quickly and less than a minute later I was on the next one, the 76 to Waterloo. This one changed destinations after three stops and instead was only going to go to Hoxton, but my 7th stop was before that at Downham Road. The next bus coming along was a 76 to Waterloo *again* but I got on anyway.

Short bit along the Regent's Canal, across and the seventh stop was City Road/Leonard Street. Traffic was getting a bit slow already, but I decided to try one more bus. 21 to Lewisham Shopping Centre it was.

But that one was winding its way through the city before even getting close to crossing the river and after getting from Liverpool Street Station to Bank took nearly 15 minutes I decided to stop my excursion at the 7th stop - King William Street/Monument Station.

It was a fun trip, but possibly not the best time xD

secretlondon

I was slightly sad that the challenges are the same as last year so I planned to do something different, however it turned into IIIa, but started out as IIIb. I think IIIa is broad enough to cover any travel starting at work that you haven't done before even if your motivations are different. I apologise in advance for not knowing dreamwidth as I don't live here any more. I also apologise in advance for the Ingress.

This is also a follow up to last year's challenge. Then my job was new, today it was my last day. I may do this from my new job next week.

The challenge:

III. (a) Travel to or from your workplace one day using a completely different route to any you've ever used before.

which started out as:

III. (b) Travel towards home from your workplace using your usual method, but stay on the first public transport vehicle that you use until either it reaches its terminus or you're about to reach a point where your ticket/pass is no longer valid. Navigate home from here.

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Total time - 4 hours.

Current Mood: accomplished

squirmelia

I decided to attempt challenge I.(c) again - get on the first bus that comes along, then get off after n stops, and then get on the next bus that comes along and get off after n stops, and so on.

I have done this challenge before, and decided to use the same conditions I have three times before: My start point is opposite Westminster Cathedral in London, and n is set to be 9.

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spiralsheep

Looking at an A-Z of Birmingham, I discovered that the first road listed, Abbess Grove, and the last road listed, Yoxall Grove, were within walking distance of each other. So I incorporated them into a "circular" walk through an area I’d never previously visited, navigated as a derive with only three fixed goals: a railway station for arrival and departure, and the two streets.

Report at my journal, with twelve small images. Enjoy!

spiralsheep

Thirteen images of a cable car ride across the Thames (at my journal). Spot the GIANT red wheel inside the terminal, and the plane from London City Airport in the last cap.

09 View from cable car across Thames to Dome and Isle of Dogs, London 10-14

Or click through the image to flickr. Enjoy!

spiralsheep

nou’s excellent suggestion I spent a couple of hours pootling through east London on Docklands Light Railway "driverless trains". Report with 7 small images at my journal. Enjoy!

06 Driving the DLR, tunnel, London 12-14

nou

Like we did last year and the year before that, bob and I made simultaneous attempts at Theme I: Buses, subtheme (c) (get on the first bus that comes along, stay on for n stops, get off, repeat), starting from the same stop, with me taking n=5 and him taking n=6.

In 2012 I ended up in Cheam (map), which is a few miles southwest of Croydon out towards where London stops being London, and in 2013 I ended up in Putney (map), which is several miles northwest of Croydon and very nearly on the other side of the Thames. I wondered if in 2014 I would actually cross either the border of Greater London, or the Thames.

( Report with four photos under the cut. )

Here's a map of my journey, and here's my photoset on Flickr.

spiralsheep

From 1926 until 2013 the circular number 11 bus route (click tab for "map view") around Birmingham was Europe’s longest urban bus route at 43km (27 miles), and only the 360 in Coventry is now longer. The 11 takes 2-3hrs to complete a circuit, depending on traffic, and there are over 260 bus stops along the route. Surely this is the ideal bus on which to attempt

flaneurs challenge I. (a) investigate an interesting thing seen from a bus.

Report with 14 small images at my journal.