Darren Johnson, has responded to the announcement that articulated buses on routes 38, 507 and 521 will be replaced by larger numbers of conventional double and single decker buses.
Darren Johnson said:
"I want to know what the mayor is hiding. I’m shocked by the fact that the mayor has given no information on the impact that all these extra buses will have on air quality, congestion, CO2 and cost. I have been pestering the mayor for this information since September and there is a Freedom of Information request to bring the environmental costs of this into the public domain. I’m a big fan of buses, but you can have too much of a good thing. A bus every two minutes in the rush hour will guarantee that we have more bus jams, more pollution and more frustrated drivers and passengers.
"The London mayor can not say that improving air quality in London is a top priority and then spend large amounts of passengers money on a gimmicky idea which will actually make things even worse for asthma sufferers and other people with respiratory problems. The least the mayor can do is delay getting rid of bendy buses until we can replace them all with hybrids, but even this wouldn’t solve the additional problems of congestion."