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Kyoto’s bus drivers have a traffic lights protocol
• SOME time ago, I travelled from Euston Road (British Library) to Oxford Circus by bus.
The traffic was so slow, even though it was before noon, that it took me one hour to get there, while it would take only half an hour if I walked via Great Portland Street.
What is more, when I tried to go to Piccadilly by bus the other evening, the traffic came to a standstill around University College Hospital, so I abandoned the bus journey and decided to walk.
The most worrying thing is that, while the buses are stuck in the traffic jam, their engines keep running and producing fumes all the way.
The thought that my two children have been inhaling this polluted air since they were born makes my heart sink.
Meanwhile, when I visited Kyoto last year, I noticed that all bus drivers there switched off the engine while waiting for traffic lights, however short their stop was.
I actually saw it was clearly written above their head that they must switch off the engine when the bus is not moving.
I am not sure whether it was because that ancient city is the capital of the Kyoto Protocol and caring about the environment more than others.
The buses there are tiny, in fact.
I hope that our world-renowned capital city, London, will do something about it – sooner not later.
ATSUKO McCARTHY
Phoenix Road, NW1
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