(20 Aug 2021, 9:39 pm)Train8261 wrote Seeing it from both sides of the coin

Bus Postive, Use bus lanes instead of stuck in long queue of traffic, A quick change to other links like metro, Gets to places where its hard to park up, it's better for people who have been on the drink, comfortable (up for discussion), mainly for people like myself who are claustrophobic (another up for discussion)

Bus Bad Points, Doesn't get close to your home (say you live in an estate), Having to change buses to get to different places, long queue at bus stations, have a more chance of breakdown(again up for discussion)

Car Postive, gets you closer to your house, makes shopping trips easier, comfortable (same as bus up for discussion), listen to your favourite radio station and have a laugh if something funny is said, gets you to places a bit quicker

Car Bad Points, stuck in traffic jams, not being able to find a parking space at a shopping centre, Constantly having to fuel up, chance of break down (same as bus up for discussion), Can get annoying if someone cuts up in front of you

There's a lot of good and bad points for using a car or bus. One thing I left of was prices. Mainly cause what is cheaper. Using the bus everytime to go to work or shopping or paying of a car

As with everything, whether the bus works for you depends entirely on your situation. But I do believe that it can work for most people if they actually give it a proper go.

As I've said before, when I moved down to Bishop the number 1 priority for me was having good access to public transport. I overlooked nicer houses that were a longer walk from a bus stop.
So, for me it's literally a 1-2 minute walk to the bus stop. The best part is thanks to GNE extending the X21 to Tindale/West Auckland, I now have a direct service all the way to Newcastle, which is better than when I got the house!

For me, as someone who doesn't have a car, it makes perfect financial sense to use public transport. For the next year and a half at least, at most it'd cost me £68 a month for an All Zone GNE pass. I couldn't even insure a car for that never mind buy one. Even once I turn 26 it'd still only be £95 a month (which I used to pay anyway just to be able to use The Key!)

Obviously, for me the negative is that because of GNE's inability to run a full service for the entirety of the route on evenings or Sundays, I still have to pay for the odd Arriva ticket here and there and wait around in Bishop for half an hour for the X21 to turn up because I'm too cheap to pay for the Arriva 6 all the way to Durham, but it's not really that bad.

As for positives for the car, for me comfort is probably the main one. Obviously the bus is never going to be as comfortable as a reclining heated leather seat with the AC blasting (Yes, I have both on at the same time, shut up), but I'd personally take the ability to get work done over comfort.

Then there's also speed, for the journey that I used to do regularly (Bishop Auckland to Dunston), it takes pretty much spot on 2 hours by bus, but in the car it takes 40 minutes (it can easily be done in 30 minutes driving at 'the speed limit')