Buses

Following on from why people outside London need cars and why some of us need cars to visit them …

Britain’s Bus Crisis
Panorama

Across the UK, bus use has plummeted in recent years. Outside the capital, thousands of routes have been cut and bus pass use is down. The prime minister has pledged billions to revitalise the bus network, but is it enough?

Panorama’s Richard Bilton travels coast to coast across the north of England to see the reality of Britain’s battered bus network. From rising fares, congestion and abandoned services to hi-tech, green buses and overcrowding, Panorama finds out what people want to see changed.
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Release date: 16 March 2020

29 minutes
On TV
Tomorrow 20:30
BBC One except Scotland & Scotland HD

We have one bus on a Thursday. It goes past at 9am and returns at 2:30. That’s it. No car, no choices.

Every morning I cycle from London Bridge to the City. The worst vehicle to be stuck behind is a bus, chugging out huge diesel emissions, blocking my visibility and driving slowly and erratically (often pulling in or out without warning). London Bridge itself is a pinch-point for busses. I’m regularly trapped behind a queue of these awful vehicles on the bridge.

And riding on them is pretty awful too.

How wonderful that you’re not disabled then Chris. Many people would love to cycle but can’t.

But I don’t think you’d have the problem of getting stuck behind a line of buses outside of big cities, where there aren’t any buses or trains and where it’s too far for even the fit to walk or cycle to work.

At least the bendy buses have gone. I can remember those things trying to overtake me when I used to cycle through North London and that could be terrifying at times. They were hard to over take too.