(Yesterday, 1:11 pm)Kimlfixit wrote Better route planning and adapting to changing travel patterns matters, no argument there. But you can't do that everywhere as the costs would be enormous for very little guaranteed return.

I'd actually argue Out-of-town business parks are a good example of where land use and transport planning have worked against buses for decades. For example, they are all built with huge car parks. If you get off a bus at Cobalt, you have further to walk to your office than a car user. Buses are already losing before a single business moves in! 

But that doesn’t negate the role of bus priority. Even where routes do serve major employment sites, buses still have to travel through congested corridors to get there. If those sections are slow and unreliable, people won’t switch, regardless of how well the final destination is served. 

It’s also worth recognising a behavioural factor: many car users value privacy, control, and not having to share space with strangers. That preference didn’t disappear, it’s been a constant since car ownership became widespread. To overcome that, buses have to be not just available, but clearly reliable and time-competitive. 

The Mayors fares have clearly helped to some degree as passenger numbers are 8% higher apparently, but that only helps so much.

Mode shift isn’t achieved by a single intervention. It needs viable routes, competitive journey times, and reliability. Bus lanes don’t solve everything, but without them, buses struggle to compete with cars even when the routes are well designed. See TfL average bus speeds!

I just wanted to highlight two elements of your reply. 

A number of these business parks, actually have a shortage of spaces. 
Competitions are held, for winners to access prime spots or even guaranteed spaces. 
Rainton Bridge had to build a brand new car park. 
Doxford International, have cars parked on access roads.

On the second point, Durham Road has bus lanes/priority measures between The Angel and the Tyne Bridge, since the early 90s.
Despite the A1 being widened and improved (to cope with the traffic which exists because buses don't) and the flow moving away from Low Fell, I see absolutely no major improvement in journey times over the last 35 years.
They're slow and probably more unreliable than they were.