Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Waiting for Godot - and the Wightman Bus
In a recent 'Irish Times' piece columnist Fintan O'Toole slates planned bus service cuts as affecting mainly areas with large numbers of elderly residents for whom Dublin Bus receives a fixed State subsidy: since those areas are not a potential source of extra revenue they have a low priority for the bus company.
"Leave aside the bare necessites of life like food and shelter. Leave aside the tangled emotional thickets of love and affection. Otherwise, what is the single biggest cause of mundane misery for (Irish) people? Buses. Or rather the absence of buses.
Waiting for the bus that doesn't come isn't traumatic. It doesn't cause you physical pain or leave you emotionally scarred. But, repeated over and over, day after day, it is a powerful source of cumulative depression. Standing there in the (Wightman) weather, with a hypodermic wind injecting a metallic chill in your bones, you feel wretchedly, desolately forlorn.
The misery isn't just about the waiting, though there is something peculiarly unpleasant about the combination of tension and stasis. It is about the casually contemptuous message of powerlessness.
This is a public service that you're paying for twice, through your taxes and your fares. It is, literally, a connection to your city, your society, your country. And when it doesn't function, your society is telling you something. It is reminding you that you don't really matter, that even in the small, apparently banal things of life, you are a person of no importance. Public transport, in this respect, is a function, not just of an economy, but of a democracy. A decent service is a form of public respect. A bad one is a form of public disregard . . . ." And a non-existent one? Ah for that, my friend, you must reside on Wightman Road!
Yesterday, on my way from the corner shop, I was chatting to a couple who moved into their present Wightman home in 1957. They were told then by "some chap from the Council" that there would be a bus on Wightman within the year. She is in her 70's, her husband some years older and suffering the results of a fall from scaffolding about twenty years ago. They are delighted to have the W5 for regular trips to the Whittington. 'But tell "them"', she said, 'that we've been waiting 52 years for that bus on Wightman Road.'
Well, as Sam Beckett suggests, Godot may never arrive - but there again, s/he may well be on the Wightman Bus. Unlike Vladimir and Estragon (and indeed that elderly couple) most of my wightmaniac neighbours may not have been waiting together for half a century: it just feels like that. We meet daily opposite Mattison or Duckett or Pemberton, never sure whether we're just waiting to cross the road or for something more metaphysical, like the W1. In our joint exercise of fond hope to stave off bleak experience we stand and fidget with our orange covered badges of shame and identity.
'At least we have these,' says Neighbour 1. 'Vlad and Estragon would've been glad of these.'
'Oh yeah, our effin' Freedom Pass. Sure if they'd had their Freedom Pass Beckett might never have reached Act II - that's if an effin' Freedom Bus had ever turned up.'
'"Paid for by Your Local Council"', reads Neigbour 2. 'Isn't that very good of them?'
'No, it bloody well isn't. We're paying for it. £207.50 a month from me and the missus. But maybe you're one of these scroungers, on a state subsidy from my Council Tax?'
Neighbour 2 shifts uneasily and drifts off into a discourse on the concept of freedom.
'Well,' offers Neighbour 1, 'they give us the wheelie bin and the green crates ... And then there's Glyn and a couple of CPSOs and the odd chubb lock for free. That all costs a bit.'
'So, that still leaves £200 a month for this bloody pass. What use is a Freedom Pass if you're not free to use it on your own road? I'm off to look for a 29 or 141.'
[Exit OAE in an easterly direction. Neighbours 1&2 look after him nervously, then retire to the safety of their front rooms, gloomily content with their state of stasis.]
"Leave aside the bare necessites of life like food and shelter. Leave aside the tangled emotional thickets of love and affection. Otherwise, what is the single biggest cause of mundane misery for (Irish) people? Buses. Or rather the absence of buses.
Waiting for the bus that doesn't come isn't traumatic. It doesn't cause you physical pain or leave you emotionally scarred. But, repeated over and over, day after day, it is a powerful source of cumulative depression. Standing there in the (Wightman) weather, with a hypodermic wind injecting a metallic chill in your bones, you feel wretchedly, desolately forlorn.
The misery isn't just about the waiting, though there is something peculiarly unpleasant about the combination of tension and stasis. It is about the casually contemptuous message of powerlessness.
This is a public service that you're paying for twice, through your taxes and your fares. It is, literally, a connection to your city, your society, your country. And when it doesn't function, your society is telling you something. It is reminding you that you don't really matter, that even in the small, apparently banal things of life, you are a person of no importance. Public transport, in this respect, is a function, not just of an economy, but of a democracy. A decent service is a form of public respect. A bad one is a form of public disregard . . . ." And a non-existent one? Ah for that, my friend, you must reside on Wightman Road!
Yesterday, on my way from the corner shop, I was chatting to a couple who moved into their present Wightman home in 1957. They were told then by "some chap from the Council" that there would be a bus on Wightman within the year. She is in her 70's, her husband some years older and suffering the results of a fall from scaffolding about twenty years ago. They are delighted to have the W5 for regular trips to the Whittington. 'But tell "them"', she said, 'that we've been waiting 52 years for that bus on Wightman Road.'
Well, as Sam Beckett suggests, Godot may never arrive - but there again, s/he may well be on the Wightman Bus. Unlike Vladimir and Estragon (and indeed that elderly couple) most of my wightmaniac neighbours may not have been waiting together for half a century: it just feels like that. We meet daily opposite Mattison or Duckett or Pemberton, never sure whether we're just waiting to cross the road or for something more metaphysical, like the W1. In our joint exercise of fond hope to stave off bleak experience we stand and fidget with our orange covered badges of shame and identity.
'At least we have these,' says Neighbour 1. 'Vlad and Estragon would've been glad of these.'
'Oh yeah, our effin' Freedom Pass. Sure if they'd had their Freedom Pass Beckett might never have reached Act II - that's if an effin' Freedom Bus had ever turned up.'
'"Paid for by Your Local Council"', reads Neigbour 2. 'Isn't that very good of them?'
'No, it bloody well isn't. We're paying for it. £207.50 a month from me and the missus. But maybe you're one of these scroungers, on a state subsidy from my Council Tax?'
Neighbour 2 shifts uneasily and drifts off into a discourse on the concept of freedom.
'Well,' offers Neighbour 1, 'they give us the wheelie bin and the green crates ... And then there's Glyn and a couple of CPSOs and the odd chubb lock for free. That all costs a bit.'
'So, that still leaves £200 a month for this bloody pass. What use is a Freedom Pass if you're not free to use it on your own road? I'm off to look for a 29 or 141.'
[Exit OAE in an easterly direction. Neighbours 1&2 look after him nervously, then retire to the safety of their front rooms, gloomily content with their state of stasis.]
Tags for Forum Posts: Freedom Pass, TfL, W1, W1 Bus, Wightman Road, buses, public transport, traffic
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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Pozzotively!
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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I am a peasant, but not such a peasant that I do not recognize your plagarism. Lucky me (and you!).
Really, honestly... we have more chance of getting some kind of bus thing than we do anything else. The W1, could run from the Morrisons carpark at Wood Green to the Waitrose at Holloway Rd and back via the Odeon.
So dear Haringey council, W1 or raised intersections?
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Right, John. That extension to Holloway Road would make for a really valuable route for loads of people at all hours. I wasn't suggesting in the above that what we needed was just a service for the old and infirm. I really think this bus proposal has more legs than it's got credit for so far.
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Permalink Reply by StephenBln on
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John & OAE - of course I'm really pleased that others here also think that the idea of a W1ghtman Bus might be a way foward. You are obviously more able than me, to take the idea forward. I'm sure that those who still have reservations about the idea, could be convinced that a W1bus could be part of plan to cut traffic on Wightman Road.
I've been trying, not very successfully, to find some information on 'bus stop caps' in English - these would ensure that when the bus stopped that other traffic would come to a standstill.
I think we are basically agreed that the route should connect the Wood Green 'shopping area' with Turnpike Lane, Wightman Road and the continue towards Stroud Green, destination still not confirmed. Finsbury Park? Nag's Head? Crouch End? Archway?
I would warn against making the route too long, as the longer it is, the more unreliable it would become. Also, to presume that Wood Green Garage could be the terminal is also a bit premature. The garage is I think the property of Arriva Buses and they would only agree to use, if they operated the route - which might not be the case. I think another terminus somewhere else in the area needs to be considered. Perhaps somewhere near to the Civic Centre?
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I was looking to copy the W5 and have the supermarket's carparks be the termini.
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Permalink Reply by Anna T on
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I am absolutely 100% in support of this idea. This area needs a bus connection, particularly for people who do not own a car but also for people, like me, who would prefer not to use a car but have to because there is no adequate public transport.
Once the route is available people will definitely use the bus to get to the shops, the tube, the park, and to visit local areas.
I agree with Stephen that for this route to be successful it cannot be too long and want to throw some ideas to think about:
• Use Finsbury PARK for exclusive bus access to the park, Finsbury Park station and Lidl supermarket – bus stop could be located at the back of the park by the gates near the station. This would avoid buses getting stuck in the traffic towards Stroud Green/Finsbury Park using main routes.
• Bus route suggestion – have two routes instead of one
o short shopping & tube route - linking Wood Green, Wightman Rd, Finsbury PARK (for access to
the park, the station and Lidl) and Sainsbury’s
o longer route: linking local areas – perhaps Crouch End and Muswell Hill?
• Make it FREE for local residents
I know it’s a long way before, and if, anything happens...but will keep my fingers crossed.
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I've just been doorstepped by a Lib/Dem councillor seeking my signature in support of incorporating Wightman Road into the 20mph Zone. As she was from Muswell Hill (was it Gail or Sheila?) I welcomed her on board the good ship Wightman20, with just a modicum of irony. As she's a member of London Traffic Watch I suggested she include our Bus Route as well.
I take it Lib/Dems are canvassing us en masse, then? Dear Brian and Gina, please hop on board lest you miss our 20mph W1. You've got just over 12 months, you know.
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Sorry John, I was on my way out when she called so I didn't take time to engage her in details.
Yes, the lady in question was Gail Engert, Lib/Dem cllr for Muswell Hill who is also a committee member of London TravelWatch(LTW) (not 'Traffic Watch' as I wrote above.) - as indeed is Lorna Reith, Lab. Tottenham Hale & Dep.Leader.
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OK, does anyone know how to apply for a new bus route? My google foo is bad in this respect it would seem.
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John, David Schmitz made an offer to progress an application for us through LTW, following the Cyprus Kitchen meeting on Traffic & Transport. I have delayed getting back to David on this simply because I wanted to see what backing there might be for the sort of route proposed by StephenBln, or even as modified by your own recent suggestion.
I'm off on holiday tomorrow morning until 17th, but if you would like to raise it meanwhile with David, and indeed with his Lib/Dem colleague Gail Engert mentioned above, I'd be very happy.
I am conscious that a bus via Wightman is not everyone's priority, but I know enough people on my own stretch of WR who would have it high on their list - but without prejudicing any of those other improvements we've been discussing.
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