(03 Sep 2023, 6:39 pm)Adrian wrote Is the Fire Station a long trek from Park Lane? It's only a 5 minute walk straight down and through the Bridges. Nandos, a little less so, but not a great distance at all. If you absolutely can't manage it, then there's a whole host of services from Park Lane/Stockton Road to Fawcett Street, which cuts the walk right down.
As I've said time and time again, you're never going to win the battle against cars for shoppers. Buses aren't designed to cater for shoppers; they haven't got any space for shopping, for a start. Leisure trade, then I think it's fair game, as unless you've got someone on soft drinks willing to drive, then the bus is the most effective and can be the cheapest option.
In the years ahead, I think we'll end up seeing more and more town and city centre streets become pedestrianised, in the long battle to improve air quality. Buses with renewable fuels have to be part of the solution to that, but the Great British public are also going to need to get used to using their feet more.
Even Leeds bus station, by the argument presented on here, is in the completely wrong place and at the bottom of the hill to all the shops. It doesn't seem to stop it being really well used.
Bridges shuts earlier, it's quite a detour through some pretty unpleasant areas in an evening when arguably you want to be there.
Leeds is a really bad example btw, quite a lot of buses don't serve the thing at all and do the Leeds loop instead. Leeds is actually one of the better examples of buses serving more areas. The only buses which serve the bus station mainly come from the West, so already serve the city on the way. Not to mention there's quite a lot of cross city links.
https://bustimes.org/services/163-castleford-leeds#map - See the 163 for an example.
https://bustimes.org/services/x98-sky-cl...eeds-2#map - or X98 from Wetherby.
Like, if stuff like the E1/E2/E6/56 served the bus station there that's fair play as they already serve the city but stuff like the 60 etc would be better doing a loop still imo. Maybe serving a stop nearby so people can still change there if needed, it's the best of both worlds like Leeds.