Armed with his knowledge from behind the wheel, North West of England driver Busman Bob airs his views on Government transport policy – and bemoans the lack of traffic enforcement by local authorities, even on high-profile bus priority infrastructure
As a bus driver, one of the biggest headaches I face in East Lancashire everyday is parked vehicles. I’m sure lots of bus drivers all over the country will have an opinion on this.
Whilst you would expect the biggest problem to be on housing estates, I fear that local authorities need to do more on a lot of main roads to make bus routes more accessible as the ever-increasing number of cars and vans habitually slow down buses several times in a very short distance. As you know, millions of pounds has been spent on the Pennine Reach Scheme (which was featured in CBW earlier this year in the Transdev Blazefield superfeature) – only for cars to be often dumped in bus lanes, especially in the evenings – but nevertheless still causing obstructions to buses. As local authorities have suggested reinstating some services that were cut, I fear that unless more is done to police parking offenders, some routes will become so problematic that in another decade you won’t get a bus around them.[wlm_nonmember][…]
By subscribing you will benefit from:
- Operator & Supplier Profiles
- Face-to-Face Interviews
- Lastest News
- Test Drives and Reviews
- Legal Updates
- Route Focus
- Industry Insider Opinions
- Passenger Perspective
- Vehicle Launches
- and much more!
Educate motorists in SAFED
The next point is that I have seen a lot in the press regarding pollution and how bus and haulage operators are doing their bit to help with aid of telematics for drivers and cleaner vehicles.
Let’s be honest, most of us who work in the transport sector drive a car. Perhaps someone should educate car drivers about the importance of Safe And Fuel Efficient Driving (SAFED)?
As professional drivers, we are taught how to drive defensively and generally in doing so, we are being kinder to our vehicle and the environment alike.
Being on the road everyday, I can safely say that the drivers of a lot of private vehicles are sinking to an all-time low and bringing driving standards down by putting pedal to the metal constantly, thus causing more pollution and having to brake harder, causing more wear and tear on their vehicles. Again, more needs to be done to manage these speeding offenders. In my opinion, the fines could be ploughed back into the local public transport systems, which might go some way towards bringing our road and fuel taxes down, helping the economy in the process.
My next point is, if the Government is going to put a ban on all new vehicles from running on petrol or diesel in the years ahead, does that mean parliamentarians will lead by example and ditch their cars and take the bus for local journeys? Again to reduce pollution, surely it would have been more sensible to put a limit on the numbers of vehicles being produced per annum?
I find it strange how hard-pressed tax payers’ money is spent on high speed rail links and some high-profile bus schemes, yet still there still seems to be an obsession with mass producing more and more cars to clog up our roads, which then slow the public transport systems down.
Maybe the question should be asked at a national level about which is more important – the economy or the environment?
I’m sure a lot of people in our industry will have mixed views on my thoughts, but sometimes when you spend time out in the real world as part of your work, it’s clear to see how much more needs to be done to our infrastructure to make people change their attitudes towards public transport. In a lot of ways, we are still very backwards in this country.
To name one example, we seem obsessed with making roads narrower, but vehicles wider and longer. We reduce speed limits, but make cars that go faster – yet how many people can really drive them? Maybe it all starts with the driving test because in my experience, very rarely would it seem nowadays that a learner driver is actually taught to let a bus pull out.
Conclusion
Being on the road most of the week, I would like to think I have an understanding of the problems faced by drivers – and I do believe that the Government in Westminster has a lot more to do before it starts banning new petrol and diesel vehicles.
Most operators are making buses more appealing to customers with new ticketing and contactless payment options for example, but when are local authorities going to start thinking of making getting a bus from A to B easier for the drivers and route planners? That is surely the starting point.
[/wlm_ismember]
