(29 Sep 2021, 9:57 pm)stagecoachbusdepot wrote Agree with all of this and especially the last point.  Congestion is going to be made much worse by reducing car lanes (increasing congestion) to create bus priority measures, without fundamental changes to the way operators work (which is not going to happen when profit is king and providing a public service is secondary).  Martijn has been clear in a recent briefing that the future for buses is on high usage, mass transit - so run from X to Y and if you happen to live in Z or A to W, tough/walk/change potentially multiple times or modes of transport.  Improving journey times might result in marginal gains by tempting more people who live on or close to the X to Y route that is sufficiently profitable for the operator to service, but will do nothing for the majority - those people making the myriad other journeys which will continue to be made in the car, just crammed into one lane instead of two.  The danger is the extent to which this stupid approach of making the bus more attractive relative to the car only really by deliberately worsening car journey times is pushed, risks breaking the entire transport system (so-called public, as well as private).

Going back to the days of One North East, it was always a massive problem getting any sort of cohesive strategy agreed between Newcastle and Gateshead councils, nothing has changed. The whole area has to be involved in effective route 'cleansing' , it is pointless doing bits and bobs, the cycle network is clear evidence of that. Nobody seems capable of looking at the infrastructure of the region as one, for decades the trend has become set for commuting much longer distances than were the norm say, 60 years ago. Every time a new road was opened it was hailed as a congestion busting enterprise, within a year it was a car park, the western bypass was a prime example. With the regime banging on about carbon zero all councils should be looking at how to tackle the future..