London, England 2018

Forward: Please note that this is an older essay being republished on urbanbyline. It has been slightly tweaked in 2023.

To me, London is a pocket universe. It’s still 2014 there. Scotland just chose to stay. The Brexit vote is yet to come. I’m studying at LSE for a year, discovering my passion for environmental economics and trying to understand the black box that is the EU Parliament. I get to walk to school every day by crossing the Thames via Blackfriars Bridge. The museums here are free and I begin to know paintings on sight at the Tate Modern. We are fast friends.

The weather in London is startlingly sunny but can be bitingly cold. The clouds move at a such a rapid pace, you feel like you’re watching someone spin the sky like a globe above you. It’s a labyrinth of a city. As a New Yorker completely reliant on the grid as my compass, I was intimidated by London’s twists and alleyways. But over time the logic of the city became clear to me and the Thames acted as guide. I could write a book on London (probably painfully cliche and overwrought) so to keep myself succinct I have three main points I want to ruminate on that I noticed on my most recent trip back.

p.s. I compare New York and London a lot in this piece. What can I say, they are my two great loves.

1. ) Double Decker Buses

As a public transportation nut, the double decker buses of London give me a particular joy. Part of it probably has to do with the fact you can pretend you are not a tourist but still get a tour. They are a feat of engineering: so rotund, elephantic, yet somehow squeeze onto the tiniest streets and glide through the sharpest turns. I always try to grab the top front seats to get an aerial-like view of the city. In those seats, you almost forget you’re on a bus. It’s here you notice the trees on the sidewalks have outlines of the buses that zoom past them. I’ve never figured out if that’s a manmade policy to trim the branches or if the trees over time learned not to grow in the way of the bus route. The bus fare is £1.50. Compare that to the tube, whose fare varies enormously depending on how many zones you travel. The bus is the egalitarian mode of transport.

This isn’t to say that these buses are perfect by any standard. If you’re not careful, you can fall rather stupidly in the tight stair corridor — the lurching stops and starts of the bus make you realize how inconsequential you are against gravity.

2. ) Bike Lanes

Both New York and London have made significant headway in the last 5-10 years to encourage and accommodate bikers of their respective cities. Both cities have bike sharing schemes (both sponsored by financial institutions coincidentally), separated bike lanes (albeit not complete in all areas), and have placed barriers to protect bikers (not enough or everywhere).

This is entirely subjective but the bike cultures between the two cities seem markedly different. I think in New York, there an entire underground economy run on the bikes. This isn’t to say people don’t get deliveries in London but ordering in Thai at 10pm was born and perfected in New York. What I can glean from London’s bike culture is something rebellious and all consuming. Makes me think of the punk scene in the 1970s for some reason. Probably because I’ve seen a commuter biker (distinct with their neon pinnies) viciously kick a double decker bus to avoid getting hit. And to the all consuming part, biking has increased by 210% in Central London from 2000–2016.

3. ) Air Quality

So with the two points I mentioned above, waxing on about car alternative transportation, its probably a bit surprising to find out that London has a huge air quality issue. Since 2010, London has had illegal levels of air pollution — specifically in nitrogen dioxide. Unlike the splashy photos of smog in Beijing or New Delhi, nitrogen dioxide is not visible to the human eye, making it an invisible problem that people don’t deal with till kids grow up with smaller lung capacity or lung disease. It’s like the Great London Smog of 1952 has come back smarter and with a vengeance. How do we keep our cities safe from something we can’t see, therefore easily rally against?

Cities, in general, don’t have great air quality. New York City has pretty bad ozone pollution. It’s something I think about when I have these random horrifying coughs that make my whole body spasm at the office. I have since been diagnosed with asthma, yay. These cities, these magnificent places that I would never want to stop appreciating, are they slowing suffocating me?

ps.

Further reading if you’re curious:

London's Congestion Charge Is Showing Its Age

After 15 years of existence, London's method of congestion charging is dated. It needs to be bigger, longer, and…

www.citylab.com

Air Pollution: Why London Struggles to Breathe

Travel In London — 10th Report