Britain's Buses are Getting Emptier
In Britain, buses account for more public - transport trips than trains, tubes and trams put together. People love them, in theory: one poll by Transport Focus, a consumer group, found that 74% of young people think they are a good way of getting around and 85% believe it is important for a place to have a good bus service. There is just one problem. In practice, Britions are taking buses less and less.
Why are London buses emptier? One thing that has changed is young people's behavior. The young are heavy bus users when they travel. But, increasingly, they do not travel. According to Transport for London, the average 17 - to 24-year-old took 2.3 transport trips per day in the year 2011- 12 but only 1.7 in 2018 - 19. The National Travel Survey confirms that no group has cut back harder on travel since the early 2000s than teenagers. Young people are more diligent these days, and stay in school for longer. They can do the things that young people love to do on their phones, without going out.
The other big bus users are the poor and the old, especially outside London, but both are turning away from buses to cars. Lower lending standards have made cars easier to acquire; a fuel-tax freeze and fuel - saving engines make them cheaper to run. Cars are ever more comfortable and easier to operate, with parking-assist technology and lane-drifting alerts to help starters. Outside London, the average free bus pass was used 90 times in the year 2010-11 but only 74 times in 2018-19, according to the Department for Transport.
Finally there is the gig economy (零工经济). Online shopping and Uber probably substitute of bus trips as well as private car journeys. And they put new vehicles on the roads, which slows everything down. The number of light-goods vehicles in London has risen by 28% since 2012. Tony Travers of the London School of Economics points out that bus speeds have fallen slightly in the capital, even though private cars have almost been cleared up from the city center. The average London bus now travels at 9.3 miles per hour. Just as people become less inclined to run after buses, they are becoming easier to catch.
