(02 Feb 2020, 10:19 am)Rob44 wrote Coming down hard on the car driver is never going to work.  The carrot and stick approach is the way forward.
I've mention this loads of times before but I'd rather run a car then pay 68 quid a month on the "appt" for unlimited travel.  It seems like a good deal at just over £2.50 per day but its no good if the bus your hoping to travel on doesn't turn up. Make buses more reliable, and ALOT cheaper than my car and this will cancel out the negatives i've got about getting bus to work ( noisy passengers, dirty buses, waiting around for a connection etc etc)

Have to agree with this. I'm hugely critical of Newcastle CC's decision to punish bus operators and let car drivers off scot-free with their plans to combat emissions, but there needs to be an incentivised way forward to *encourage* people to use public transport instead of their private cars.

Where I live and work in Durham, there is a problem with emissions and an even bigger problem with congestion, especially through the Elvet area of the City. But despite that, I'd struggle to try and sell it to people to use the bus instead of their car. At the times people need to travel, buses are often late, don't turn up or when they do, they're full. I get and agree with the arguments that less cars would mean less congestion, and therefore improve the running time of buses.

Something has to give first, and I cannot see it being car owners on a voluntary basis.