This graph shows how Londoners freaked out during last month's Tube strike, and the best time to avoid travel
City folks who braved the last 24-hour strike in July should have some idea of what to expect during their morning and evening commutes. However, to ease your journey, transport planning app Citymapper has again released a handy "strike safe" section to help you get around the city using anything but the Tube.
The journey planning app also prepared a graph that reveals some trends about last month's strike. The graph below, which represents activity for July 7, July 8, July 9, and July 10 shows that the app's usage was much higher on strike day than on days when trains were running normally.
More people used the app than normal on the night of July 8, when the Tube strike kicked off, but activity really shot around 8-9 a.m. on July 9, the first full day that trains were not running. This means everyone was scrambling to figure out how to get to work in the morning, despite ample warning ahead of time that travel would be disrupted. There's also a little spike during the evening rush hour on July 9.
The drill will be the same as July's 24-hour strike: All Tube lines will stop running at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 5 and there will be no Tubes on Thursday, August 6. The only lines that you can still use are the ondon Overground, the DLR, and TfL Rail.
In sharing some lessons from last time, Citymapper says the Tube actually ran later than 6:30 p.m. and that cycle hires were snapped up very fast from the city center and other busy locations.
As before, the Citymapper website will provide updates to service, including information about disruptions as it streams in from users.
Tube workers from four different unions are striking to demand a pay increase for the new all-night Tube services that will begin in September. So far, the unions have rejected an offer that includes a 2% salary increase this year and a £500 bonus for night Tube staff when the service launches, the BBC said.
Visit this TfL page for the latest information on the strike.