One thing Barcelona does better than London

Litter bins in the metro, or rather, clear plastic bags on a simple stand - one every few yards, so that no-one has any excuse for not taking those few steps. Granted, in this case it seems to have worked only with those people who had a bag right beside the bench; but rather proves my point - it's got to be better to have that much provision than, as we do, having to call in the station cleaners to build-ups all over the place.

It's not as though Spain has any the less to worry about in terms of security, but I suspect TfL's argument (if it bothered to make it) would be that it's actually more cost-effective to do without bins and just clear up as and when. The problem with that, of course, is the wider social effect of people getting used to just leaving litter wherever they like: who's costing that? (Is that what economists mean by "externalities" - making things someone else's problem?)