Oxford Bus Company has launched its New Year’s appeal with ‘Make One Promise’ to car drivers, with hopes to ease congestion and pollution in Oxford.
The campaign encourages people to swap their car for the bus once a week for six weeks, incentivised through special offers on fares. City zone 12-trips for example have been reduced from £15 to £12 and PickMeUp 12-trips have been reduced from £30 to £24.
Congestion and Pollution are some of the biggest issues in Oxford.
In 2012 for example the Oxford Bus Company City 5 service between Oxford railway station and Blackbird Leys took 72 minutes to complete a round trip.
It now takes 88 minutes.
The Oxford Bus Company noted that, one bus can carry around 70 car drivers and the average large family car is 4.8 meters long, which means one bus could potentially save 300m of traffic queues.
Further research conducted by Oxford Bus Company’s parent company the Go-Ahead Group, revealed that four out of 10 people nationally have been late to work due to congestion.
Phil Southall, Oxford Bus Company Managing Director, said: “Congestion and pollution has a significant negative impact on the economy and well-being of the community.
We believe public transport can be at the heart of the solution to this growing issue and help ease congestion and improve air quality.
“Our ‘Make One Promise’ appeal can make a difference and we hope people embrace it.
“It also helps keep this issue on the agenda locally.
“To help people give buses a try we’ve introduced some fantastic ‘Make One Promise’ savings on 12-trip packages across our services for most of January.”
