Quotation for the day: Jeremy Clarkson

London Regional Transport admit that only about 1 million people use a bus each day.  This means that there are nine people in cars for everyone on a bus.  On that basis, it should be nine times harder for a bus to get around on our roads than it is for a car.

However, this is not so.  There are 45 miles of bus lanes in London which, at certain times, cannot be legally used by cars.  A majority, therefore, is squeezed into the resultant traffic jams and has to watch a minority whizz by in acrylic coats and plastic shoes...

So, I pay £100 a year for the privilege of sitting in a jam, caused by a bus lane which is being used by people who pay a few pence.  That is certainly not democratic.

Jeremy Clarkson, "Democratic Party," originally published in Performance Car; reprinted in Clarkson on Cars (London: Virgin Books, 1996; London: Penguin Books, 2004) 105.