Driving urban prosperity
Successful towns and cities rely on buses to move high volumes of people efficiently to their places of work, education, to shops, and to local services such as hospitals whilst reducing the congestion and pollution created by car travel. But bus services require supporting infrastructure and priority measures if they are to efficiently and effectively meet the demands of customers and the objectives of local and national government.
Congestion
Congestion is a continuing major challenge in our towns and cities, constraining growth and contributing to poor air quality. The economic costs of congestion are at least £11 billion per year in urban areas in England.
Unblocking the city
partnership working
The implementation of bus priority measures and infrastructure to support improved bus services requires action by LTAs who have a statutory duty to manage their road networks with the aim of ‘securing the expeditious movement of traffic’. Some are already taking innovative approaches to tackling congestion and curbing the predicted levels of traffic growth. But we need to do much more. There are numerous examples of operators and local authorities working in partnership to deliver improved services to passengers. These partnerships can take many forms and the most appropriate will depend on local circumstances: