Open Letter @BetterBuses - A New YouTube channel focusing on Human Factors impacting TfL Bus Safety Performance - Open Letter to Elly Baker AM, Chair, London Asse

By email and blogpost

Elly Baker, Chair
London Assembly Transport Committee
City Hall
Kamal Chunchie Way
London E16 1ZE

16 January 2026​

cc: London Assembly Transport Committee Members; CEO, London TravelWatch; Transport Commissioner; Deputy Mayor for Transport; Deputy Mayor for Social Justice and Communities, London Victims' Commissioner; TfL Walking and Cycling Commissioner; TfL Board Secretariat; TfL SSHR Panel Secretariat; TfL Chief Safety Officer; TfL Director of Bus; TfL Head of Insights and Direction; TfL Chief Operations Officer

Happy New Year Elly Baker.

I thought you, your fellow London Assembly Transport Committee Members and all of the TfL senior officers copied here might like to scrutinise, and, if of interest, perhaps subscribe to a new free YouTube channel called @BetterBuses.

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https://www.youtube.com/@BetterBuses​

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The channel has been established by London Bus Drivers who support the grassroots volunteer Bus Drivers Bill of Rights Campaign and will focus on the Human Factors impacting Bus Safety Performance that make TfL’s contracted bus operation “institutionally unsafe” for Bus Drivers and Londoners.

In addition to featuring speeches in support of the Bus Drivers Bill of Rights given by your fellow Committee Members Keith Prince, Neil Garratt and Caroline Russell at the 5 November 2025 Protest at TfL Headquarters, the channel now features thoughtful videos from London and UK Bus Drivers that will:
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(a) evidence how—in contrast to other safer transport sectors—TfL does not place a high priority on Human Factors in how public services are contracted, managed and controlled in London, and;
(b) offer evidenced-based suggestions as to how TfL's known ignorance of Human Factors that negatively impact Bus Driver Working Conditions can be mitigated. ​

The first three episodes have been published:
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Episode 1: Human Factors and the Future of Bus Safety — “If a system allows you to make an error it is a bad system. If a system induces you to make an error, it is a really bad system."

Episode 2: Londons' iBus Radio System: Fit for purpose? — Bill of Rights No. 8. ⁠"The Right to drive without being forced to answer radio messages and texts from Controllers whilst in motion"

Episode 3: Worse & Better Communication - “You can either blame—or learn—it’s very hard to do both"​

I understand that some new episodes addressing—
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(a) TfL’s failure to consider Human Factors in how Bus Door Controls are designed that makes Driver error inevitable, and
(b) how to fix these known problems.​

— will soon appear on @BetterBuses, and subscribers will automatically be notified when each new episode becomes available.​

Yours sincerely,


Tom Kearney
#LondonBusWatch

E: [email protected]
Twitter: @comadad
Bluesky: @comadad.bsky.social
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BetterBuses and https://www.youtube.com/@tomkearney955

Blog: www.saferoxfordstreet.blogspot.co.uk
Bus Services [No. 2] Bill Evidence Submission [July 2025]: https://bills.parliament.uk/publications/61937/documents/6837
London Assembly Transport Committee Investigation [April 2024]: https://www.london.gov.uk/about-us/...rom Tom Kearney received 15 December 2023.pdf

2018 Winner, Community Hero Award — The Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association
2016 Winner, Transport – Sheila McKechnie Foundation SMK Campaigners Award

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Source: https://saferoxfordstreet.blogspot.com/2026/01/betterbuses-new-youtube-channel.html
Auto-imported from Tom Kearney’s blog.