The planners dreaming up the temporary footpath have made a big mistake. This is where the 709, the main public transport conduit between Piaseczno and Warsaw, terminates - a bus that at peak times runs once every five minutes, each bus carrying over 170 passengers. Nearly 2,000 people per hour are disgorged from this one, single bus line. And this is one of 15 bus routes that finish or start their journeys from Metro Wilanowska.
Below: this, the newest Google Earth image of the area (from September 2016) shows how public transport planners believe passengers will walk from the Metro station to the head of the 709 bus stop (red line). The short yellow line shows how passengers actually do walk.
Rather than yield to the convenience of passengers, they are forced to make an 110-metre long detour, snaking south-west then back east to get to where the 709s start from. The planners ensure compliance by erecting metal barriers along the proscribed path.
Will the people listen? No. The demolish the barriers, knocking them down. The authorities put them back up again. The passengers knock them down again. The authorities should take note - lay some temporary paving slabs making the shortest distance between Metro and bus stop. But no - they keep putting the barriers back up again. And then the passenger knock them down again.
Below: this evening, the barriers are down. And there's plenty of people going this way, rather than the long way round. If the bus is about to depart shortly (and the 715, for example also starting from here, runs once an hour), you don't want to be making a 110m detour.
Below: overnight, the barriers were put up again. They get in the way. People climb over them, knock them down. This is just stupid.
Surely the authorities can learn from this. Simply connect the buses with the metro with some temporary paving slabs, lift them up when the building work's completed, and lay the grass back down again... Otherwise, passengers will get the impression that they are ignored and despised by the very people that should be aiding their mobility.
Same thing at W-wa Okęcie station. I've written about this before. Ten months after the completion of the new foot bridge, it is still blocked off pending final approval by the building inspector. 'No entry! Construction Site' says a sign on a wire mesh fence. Which has been summarily demolished by passengers, angered at the alternative - walking a longer, more dangerous route, over live railway tracks.
Below: the barrier ignored. I admire my compatriots for their refusal to bow to the laziness and stupidity of officialdom.
Planners, builders, administrators - THINK!
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Zloty symbol - your suggestions
This time two years ago:
The future of Warsaw's public transport
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(on the superiority of Polish schools to British ones)
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