Buses are safe and cheap, yet far less popular than trains, and councils often have dire bus services (many towns have no services at all on weekends). Yet they are a great way to remove traffic off our roads, and usually more local than train stations for rural areas.
It’s important to invest in good bus services that are clean, affordable and regular. Vote in councils who believe public transport is more important than cars. Read Better Buses, Better Cities for more ideas.
London’s double-decker buses are now all zero-emission, and carry around 6 million people daily across the city each day over the city. It’s rumoured that Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels were inspired by the number of the bus (007) that used to pass by his favourite pub!
Claim Your Free Bus Pass
If you’re of pension age, order a free bus pass (age 60 if you live in London, which lets you travel free on other transport). Disabled people can apply for Taxicard that gives limited free travel (including for carers) across the city.
Some councils give free bus travel in your birthday months, £2 ‘anywhere in the county’ tickets and discounted season tickets.
You can apply for a free bus pass if you are blind, partially sighted, deaf or unable to speak, can’t walk far due to disability, illness or injury, have a severe learning disabiity or don’t have or can’t use your arms. Also if you’ve been refused a driving license due to health reasons (not for drug or alcohol problems).
In London, you can apply for a Disabled person’s freedom pass instead. If you don’t qulaify you can apply for Dial-a-Ride, from Transport for London. This is for long-term disability and people over 85, and includes free door-to-door transport.
This operates from 7am to 11pm, with booking from 6am to midnight. You can carry up to 2 shopping bags and athough they don’t come into your home, drivers can help you on and off the bus. You can also bring one other person and children, as long as they are going to the same place. You must let them know of younger children, to needing car seats.
Royal Voluntary Service offers details on free community transport near you, just enter your postcode. Many hospitals also have volunteers to take you to hospital for appointments or visiting relatives.
Don’t Think of Bus Travel as ‘Inferior’
Bus travel is not just for people who can’t drive or who have lost their license. Before he became Pope Francis, Fr. Jorge Mario Bergoglio frequently took the bus as Archbishop of Buenos Aires.
A YouGov survey found that around half of people don’t like to take buses, due to them being noisy and uncomfortable. Bogotá’s former mayor in Colombia ripped up the car budget and used it to build bus lanes, pavements, bike tracks and parks (resulting in 50% reduction in road traffic):
An advanced city is not one where even the poor use cars. But rather one where even the rich use public transport. Enrique Peñalosa
Make Bus Timetables Easier to Understand
With talented graphic designers around, why are train (and bus) timetables so badly designed? It’s confusing for most of us, let alone people with bad eyesight or dementia. This Canva schedule could easily be adapted.
Install Solar Bus Stops and Timetables
Solar bus stops and schedules cost nothing to maintain once installed, and turn off when not in use (to stop light pollution). Solar bus stops also let drivers see those waiting at bus stop which is safer for women.
England’s First Solar-Powered Bus Fleet
The Big Lemon (soon to be renamed The Big Orange) is a privately-owned fleet of solar-powered buses. The company began by running the buses on diesel oil (from local chip shops who got free ads in return).
Today it has solar buses in Brighton, Bristol and Bath, and also hires out buses for trips and parties, and even has a college shuttle bus.
The Happy Bus is designed for giving back. Just nominate someone whose lives would be brightened up with a bus trip with friends, and the winners get a free trip. Limited to Sussex, so they don’t run out of solar power to take them home!
Ask Your Council for a ‘Wiggly Bus’
One idea for rural communities is a ‘wiggly bus’. This uses GPS software so the admin always knows where the bus is. Rather than ‘set times’, people can just ‘phone for a bus’ or hail it down, as the bus ‘wiggles’ through rural villages.
Wiggly buses operate a bit like on-demand rural taxis (but shared between a few villages to save costs, as only one bus and driver is needed). On-demand bus services are already operating in Surrey, Nottinghamshire and the West Midlands
Make Use of Local Community Transport
With big companies like Stagecoach cancelling rural services due to ‘lack of profit’, find local community transport. In Yorkshire, the axing of two local bus services, resulted in a man with skin cancer having to book a taxi to hospital (and no longer able to tend his allotment 2 miles away, to help him relax during treatments).
One local campaigner says that big bus companies ‘decide where buses go, how much to charge and what timetables look like’. When of course, buses should run according to community needs. Bus services have reduced by around 80% in the last 15 years or so in small communities.
Children are entitled to free school transport if there is no safe walking route, children have special needs or the school is 2 to 3 miles away (laws differ for age).
Free On-Demand Transport in Miami
A great idea from over the pond is Florida is free on-demand electric buses and cars, paid for by advertising. Local shops offer deals to encourage people to ride to their area (many people don’t visit out-of-town due to traffic, petrol prices or poor public transport). And friendly dogs ride for free!
The World’s Best Public Bus Service?
Another idea in Portland (Oregon) is Trimet, regarded as the best public transit system on earth. Resident gets one cheap ticket to ride the bus, tram and trains (veterans, seniors and disabled people often ride for free). And volunteers take blind and other vulnerable passengers around the system, until they feel confident riding alone. All platforms have Braille timetables.
And at night, you can ask the bus operator to stop anywhere on the route, as long as it’s safe.
Each Feb 4, the company offers free travel, in memory of Rosa Parks (who refused to move from her seat, and began the civil rights movement).
