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I live in London, however I think other cities like Paris are better prepared or should I say have a better Mayor/policy towards city/street managent.
What I mean, is that street management in London is the worse I've seen, I can enumerate a few things:
1. Streets full of holes, bumps, grooves, very low/high manholes.
What an unconfortable ride is to drive in London, I even thought to buy a 4x4 with adjustable suspention to compensate the poor state of the asfalt.
2. Some pavements are wider than the road itself.
This I never understood, you drive for years on some roads, next thing you know there's roads works, and what are they doing? Widening the pavement, even thou it was more than enough for the pedestrians that use it, so you end up with a pavement twice as large and a road with half it's width, generating more queues, maybe that's the idea to say there's too many cars lets charge them :|
3. Un-managed trafic lights.
This is most annoying, you stop at a traffic light, it opens, and you stop immediatly at the next one. Why not do like most cities in Europe where in the main road, when one traffic light opens the ones ahead open accordingly so you go the whole avenue non-stop? Also in Europe (specially in Portugal) they have what they call smart lights, this are normal lights installed at minor streets that cross with major streets, the main street is always green, as long the minor streets have no cars waiting, this smart lights have sensors that can detect 3/4 cars in a queue waiting to go, what a nice idea.
4. Anti-car approach from the top.
Mr. Ken don't drive, so what better man to dictate about traffic issues in London, tottaly anti-car, thiner roads, full of holes and we even pay for fuel more than any one else, not to mention all the taxes that come with a car.
5. Too many buses.
Some streets are just simply red, they even block them- selves up, and every one else, they also have priority when pulling out of bus stoppes, and most in London, just indicate and acelerate, totally negleting whose next to it, this law, just makes me wonder if it is to facilitate the passengers in the bus, or is it to make us car drivers to stop again next time the bus stops at a bus stop (if not in the middle of the road), or to make us bread their smoke when they pull out?
6. No lane markings.
In many places there's no lane markings, so you have to apply the jungle rule, specially on curves where 2/3 lanes suddently have no marks, everyone cuts the curve going on top of the car next lane, what a mess.
This is mainly about the streets in London, but I could equally comment on public transport (high prices = bad, smelly, full, not on time, and trains have a nasty tendacy to crash), not to mention that we Londoners pay more for everything, and they nominated London for the Olympics?
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