(01 Feb 2025, 11:26 am)Andreos1 wrote Just as a point of reference, I learned to drive just shy of 30 years ago. 
The reason: per mile it was cheaper than taking the bus longer term, once I was no longer eligible for my Teen Travel ticket 
It also offered me flexibility. I could go where I wanted, when I wanted. Both in the short term and longer term. 

Where I lived, there was a direct bus to college and I could get a bus to work too.

Fast forward 30 years later and despite not living there and the parents having moved a long time ago, I look at the services there and they're pretty much the same, other than some slight tweaks to the numbering and routes. 
The Newcastle link has gone unfortunately. 

Despite all the bus priorities that have appeared since, if I was to move back there, I'd not be using the bus. 
It's still cheaper per mile in the car and the network hasn't adapted for what I currently need. 

If I look back to the houses I've lived in since I moved out and the network around them, all I can see is a reduced number of destinations and services with the GNE network. 
I spent a short period of time living in ANE land 20 odd years ago and other than renumbering and tidying, the routes which passed the end of the street are as is. 

My current house is in ANE land and it's slowly deteriorating in that the two routes are timed to follow each other and take an age to get anywhere. 
That's partly because of the location. Partly because the routes are now longer and slower. 

The issue isn't the car. 
The issue is the bus not being attractive and not doing what people need or want. 
No amount of bus priority will change that. 

If I was needing to head along Shields Road and bus priority got in the way, slowed me down or caused an inconvenience, I'd not switch to the bus. 
I'd simply look for an alternative route.

Yeah that's some fair points, see I don't actually agree with putting jackhammer on cars but arguably they shouldn't be where some of them are like personally North of the Tyne I'd be looking at a major network that works something like this:


Which is designed for cars to be using the red roads to get around the bus priority and punishments are in the purple areas. Yes, cars would have travel a little bit further in some cases but if you designed the roads well then it'd be quicker anyway. The big problem is the car routes are an absolute shambles with serious bottlenecks on the all X's which then results in people rat running through the likes of Gosforth.

If you had a network like that and everyone hypothetically was driving from further out the way suburbs would it really be an issue? The bigger problem imo is people in the likes of the Great Park driving into Newcastle via Gosforth punishing everyone when there's no excuse for it. imo there's absolutely no reason why anyone needs to drive on the purple corridors, providing the red routes were free flowing and well ran.

Low Fell is much of the same really and similar for the likes of Shields Road etc.