One aspect of corona that I find difficult to deal with is being told to avoid public transport.

It's not that I use it that often normally, work is a short cycle from home in North London and the bike is mostly how I nip about . It's being told to avoid it that is so strange and the fact that so many bus drivers have lost their lives.

I realised the other day when I saw my Oyster card that I hadn't used it for the longest time ever .I grew up in North London and have lived here all of my five decades. One of the reasons I 've always been a Ken Livingstone fan is that he transformed public transport in this city , both in the 1980's and later as the first ever mayor of London.

He invested and improved so heavily that it's the go to option for millions rather than a sub standard service with buses covered in graffiti and three an hour which is how it was when I was growing up.

At the end of my street now, the buses arrive in minutes and I really like the reimagined Routemasters too.

There's a funereal feel for me to the pictures of deserted tube trains with passengers wearing masks . Ditto the buses.

I hope there's an eventual return to the full use of public transport, subject of course to millions of people working from home and not needing to use it !