Beating the bus

To the funeral directors' yesterday to pick up my father's ashes and take them home to be reunited with the ashes of my mother. Again, a big thank-you to Artur Galla, whose services in respect of the funeral were faultless. The modest receptacle fitted into my rucksack and soon I was on my way home. There were two large bottles of left-over medication to be disposed of responsibly at a pharmacy round the corner on South Ealing Road.

From there it was two and a quarter miles  (3.6km) home. But two buses are needed for the journey: an E3 (six stops from South Ealing Road to Dean Gardens), then a hop across the Uxbridge Road and an E7 (five stops from Drayton Green Road to Cleveland Road).

It was around half past five, dark, drizzling and peak rush hour. Roadworks on Little Ealing Lane and the traffic is standing still. I start walking. I reach Northfields station, the second stop, pass the third and fourth, then at the penultimate stop (Occupation Lane), an E3 finally catches up with me. No point of boarding just for one stop... in any case up at the end of Northfields Avenue the E3 grinds to a halt at the traffic lights. Every now and then I am conscious that I, a man of 62, am a thousand miles from home, walking the streets of my childhood with the physical remains of my dead father's body in a wooden box strapped to my back. By the time I reach the Uxbridge Road, the E3 pulls away and turns right towards Hanwell and Greenford.

Crossing the road, I glance left and there's the E7 I need about to turn into Drayton Green Road. But there's roadworks ahead, more stationary traffic. Maybe I can beat the bus on foot to the next stop? I pass West Ealing station. I reach the second stop - no sign of the bus (or any other northbound traffic - still stuck at the lights). I pass the third stop, looking round, no E7 in sight. The fourth stop comes and goes; just as I approach the Cleveland Road roundabout the bus finally passes me. But I'm home already, having covered the equivalent of 11 bus stops on foot in exactly the same time it would have taken me by bus.

London is getting so congested that road-based public transport moves at walking pace. My regular journey to Ealing Broadway station during the rush hour is more predictable on foot than waiting for a bus that in any case grinds to a halt for the last two stops approaching the motorised morass of Haven Green.

London transport is so expensive. The capped daily fare is £8 or 40 złoty; in Warsaw, that's good for two week's travel across both zones. OK, I'm not comparing like with like as that's my quarterly travel card, but I'm in London irregularly, so the contactless capped daily fare is my best option.

Health matters too - I walked over 15,000 paces, with 78 minutes of moderate- to high-intensity walking. Sitting trapped in a stationary bus fuming at the fact that it's going nowhere fast is stressful. Walking past stationary buses is a good feeling. Incidentally, the 'moderate- to high-intensity walking' is a feature I recently discovered on my Huawei Health app. It breaks the day into hours, so I can see that this two- and-a-quarter mile walk took 42 minutes, a pace of over 3mph. This is how fast buses go in rush-hour London.

London's narrow streets preclude the provision of bus lanes on all but the most important thoroughfares. Frequent roadworks, gas pipe repairs and burst water mains with single-lane traffic held in contraflows frustrates road uses.

Cities should be planned around pedestrians and rail transport - trams, Metros and suburban rail. London has become dysfunctional because of the ubiquity of the car. The car has significantly impaired the quality of city life. Nudge yourself away from using it. It can be done.

Less than two weeks before he died, my father and I attended the funeral of a fellow Batalion Odwet soldier, Jerzy Kowalski. We did the journey to the church in Hammersmith and back from the wake by public transport with wheelchair; walk - bus - walk, return walk - Tube - walk. If we could make such trips without the use of a car, I'm sure many other journeys could also be car-free if more minds were put to it.

This time last year:
Magic day in and around Jakubowizna

This time two years ago:
Warsaw-London-Ealing

This time four years ago:
With my father and brother in Derbyshire

This time seven years ago:
In praise of Warsaw's trams

This time nine years ago:
Setting sun in the mountains

This time ten years ago:
That learning moment