Commuter love: how transport weaves through our lives as well as our city

Please note: this post is 96 months old and The Cares Family is no longer operational. This post is shared for information only

This week, millions of Londoners will return bleary eyed from their festive breaks back to the daily grind of the commute. For many, train fares will rise again, strikes and delays will cause frustration, and we'll repeat for another twelve months the rotation from home to office and back home again. 

It's a reality of urban living.

But for many of our older neighbours, getting around our capital can be even more frustrating still. 7am-10am and 5pm-7pm are a no-go, even on the buses: those times are too busy with people rushing to work. The tubes, with their deep stairwells, gaps-to-mind and aggressive ticket gates can be intimidating, even totally inaccessible. 

Yes, there are Dial-a-Rides and taxi cards for those who can afford them. But for all the absolute necessity of those modes of transport, they're not the form of group travel that make urban living so exciting. And that raises the question: when was the last time you saw a community transport bus pulling up in Fitzrovia, or a group of 95-year-old bezzies tubing it to Camden Town?

The reality is that we're only as connected as our city infrastructure will allow us to be.

That's why, this January, as younger Londoners re-connect with their social and professional networks and make plans for the new year ahead we're working with our friends at the lovely Commute Blog to highlight some of the tales our older neighbours have built up over a lifetime traversing this city we all call home.

And it's why, toward the end of last year, some of North London Cares' older neighbours joined together with neighbours from our sister charity below the river, South London Cares, for a special joint social club at the London Transport Museum – to share memories of the tubes, trains, trams and buses that have weaved their way across London for the last 100 years, and the life stories that have weaved their threads with them.

Over the next few days, Commute Blog will be sharing some of those stories through their Facebook page, with inspiring quotes from Rosemarie, Maggie and their new friends below the river. We hope you'll check in every day to enjoy those vignettes – like Rosemarie's infectious affection for the big smoke:

"I love everything. The people, the diversity, the culture, the different languages. California is boring, all they have is sunshine and palm trees."

And we hope the series inspires even more people to connect to their neighbours – on their commute, in their neighbourhoods, and across London – in 2017.