(Yesterday, 9:41 am)Andreos1 wrote Take cars off the road and the bus lanes dont need to exist. 

Making life difficult for car drivers doesn't encourage the modal switch. 

If operators can get the basic, fundamentals right, then passengers will make the switch back to public transport. 

The reason people switched to cars, was because buses didn't work for them. Not because there wasn't a bus lane. 

Ridership has been declining for decades. And it's not because there wasn't a bus lane.

The correlation between increase in car usage and decline in passenger numbers is clear to see. The introduction and growth of bus priority measures hasn't stemmed the decline.

Not sure I totally agree here mind, cars will always be quicker than a bus so unless you have some punishment for using them, then a lot of people will not make the move across. 

The reason people moved across is because cars became affordable and ironically at the same time public transport didn't. 

The problem is the bus priority measures are a load of crap; Cowgate being a prime example, runs for miles but the buses don't use it because they can't get across. The lights at Wardley, Centrelink, Silverlink Bus Link, Great Park P&R and so on being others - just a complete waste of money.

See personally I'd be more ruthless personally, but I'd do it in a way that prioritises a main corridor for cars so it's not just punishing them for punishing them.

Like the Heworth area I'd do something like:


With the red areas being areas if you go in a car, I'll make your journey absolute hell because I don't want you going down there but the green routes I'll make every effort for it to be freeflowing. 

If you got that working, why does anyone need to be in the red bits? In the end it means everyone wins, instead we have Heworth which is a shambles so everyone goes on a rat run along Sunderland Road, through Wrekenton or what not and everyone is punished as a result and no-one wins. The orange bits being access to the hospital.