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See also: Transportation
Articles
London’s Covid-Safe Commute Idea: Open-Air Buses
With many in London leery of public transportation, one U.K. tour bus company plans to use open-topped sightseeing buses to help workers get to the office.
By Feargus O'Sullivan - July 24, 2020, 8:58 AM PDT
A London-based company is offering an alternative mass transportation mode that addresses some fears about coronavirus infection risks on public transit: a commuter service using open-topped buses. On-demand bus company Snap is currently testing a new offering that would ferry Londoners to and from work in some of the city’s 233 roof-less tourist buses. These are those double-decker vehicles with an open-air upper deck, used in cities worldwide to ferry sightseers about on “hop on, hop off” routes. Most of the London fleet is parked due to an absence of visitors; Snap is hoping to redeploy the open-topped tourist buses as Covid-safe pop-up transportation for locals, extending the pandemic-era trend of outdoor living to public transport.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-24/will-london-commuters-opt-for-open-air-bus-rides
London council worker's bus odyssey sparks Twitter storm
When Jo Kibble, a 39-year-old council employee from Greenwich, set out to travel as far as he could from London in one day only using public bus routes it was supposed to be a personal project. But he ended up sparking a Twitter storm, causing a debate about how to build a fairer country along the way.
Sam Francis, BBC News, London - 22 August 2021
“I like travelling by public transport and by bus; I think it's a great way to see the country,” Mr Kibble explains.
“I also really like timetables and I like the logistics of putting things together.”
After “the last 18 months of having exciting travel plans cancelled”, he decided to work out how far he could get from the centre of London in 24 hours on public bus networks.
“It was just a paper exercise to keep me occupied,” says Mr Kibble, who is head of the Leader's Office at Ealing Council. “I had some fun doing that on commutes to and from work.”
Mr Kibble figured the furthest he could get in one day would be Morecambe in Lancashire - some 260 miles from Charing Cross, the geographical centre of London.
Privacy / Surveillance
Public Buses Across Country Quietly Adding Microphones to Record Passenger Conversations
Transit authorities in cities across the country are quietly installing microphone-enabled surveillance systems on public buses that would give them the ability to record and store private conversations. The systems are raising a number of privacy and security concerns.
Kim Zetter - Dec 10, 2012 4:46 PM
Transit authorities in cities across the country are quietly installing microphone-enabled surveillance systems on public buses that would give them the ability to record and store private conversations, according to documents obtained by a news outlet.
The systems are being installed in San Francisco, Baltimore, and other cities with funding from the Department of Homeland Security in some cases, according to the Daily, which obtained copies of contracts, procurement requests, specs and other documents.
The use of the equipment raises serious questions about eavesdropping without a warrant, particularly since recordings of passengers could be obtained and used by law enforcement agencies.
It also raises questions about security, since the IP audio-video systems can be accessed remotely via a built-in web server (.pdf), and can be combined with GPS data to track the movement of buses and passengers throughout the city.
https://www.wired.com/2012/12/public-bus-audio-surveillance/