Now city bus trackers can tell us how late they are running - Susan Dalgety
Hurrah. Edinburgh’s joke of a bus tracker is now up and running and has been for a week. Or so council official Hannah Ross told the council’s transport committee last Thursday. “It’s working” she declared of a service that has been dogged by problems for three years.
I have still to find out whether the screens really are on track. Frustrated by their uselessness, I long ago turned to Google Maps to tell me when the number 10 is due to arrive at my usual stop on Princes Street – handily just across the road from Uniqlo and M&S.
So, in the past few days I have not bothered to even look at the tracker. I simply don’t trust them. And I am usually too busy trying to fight my way through the crowds milling around any bus stop to worry about whether Lothian Buses have finally got its GPS working.
Forgive me for sounding like a stereotypical grumpy old woman, but why do young people no longer know how to queue for a bus? I can forgive tourists for their inability to form an orderly line, but I get very frustrated by the city’s youngsters who treat a bus queue like a free-for-all at a Primark sale.
And even when you do manage to get on a bus, it seems to take twice as long as it should to get to your destination. Edinburgh’s traffic is more gummed up than ever before.
It took me five minutes by car to my local supermarket last Thursday, but 25 minutes to get home on the same road, albeit driving in the opposite direction. And a friend of mine was late for an important meeting recently after getting bogged down on the same stretch of road on the west side of the city.
Does the LEZ scheme not work? Are there more road works than usual? What is the new transport convenor Cllr Stephen Jenkinson going to do about it?
I don’t envy him his new job. Edinburgh city centre was not designed for cars and people still seem reluctant to give up their vehicles for public transport. But at least now we will know exactly how late our bus is going to be.