To think that buses are not quicker.

[Letstryagainshallwe]

I have a friend who drives to work, I speak to her most mornings and she's always complaining how long it takes to get to work. She seems to think it's much quicker to get a bus, despite the fact that buses stop frequently to let people on and off and don't always go the quickest way as they have a route to follow. Even when I say this she still says "oh well buses have bus lanes" I can't think of any bus lanes in my area, bus lanes are in more built up places. So if you were going to the same place by bus or car which on do you think would be quicker?

I had to go to the other local hospital recently - we are around five minutes drive from one and 20 minute drive from the other. I got the bus there instead and it look literally 55 minutes because of the stupid route. Having said that, I took a bus to the nearer hospital with the babies - took almost 10 minutes instead of five but quicker once you factor in parking and walking from the car park

Car most of the time. Our bus service is meant to be every 10minues. Most of the time it ends up being three come at once after nothing for 40 minutes and the fourth goes out of service. Add on people getting on and off faffing with change. A 5 minute car ride can end up taking on a good day 20 minutes via bus.

I get the bus to pick up my DC from school it takes me 45 minutes. Dh takes 5 minutes in the car

If it only takes five minutes by car, then it's a short walk.

FrancisCrawford we have a similar route nearby. It's a fast rural road, windy, with poor visibility, no streetlights, hard shoulders or pavements. It would be utter madness to walk there. You would then have to cross a very busy roundabout on a dual carriageway- there are no pedestrian crossings for about a mile either way. It would be a 15-20 minute walk but you would be mowed down by a car within minutes!

Totally depends where you are.

The teens get a bus to school and it takes 40 minutes because of the route whereas it's 10 minutes in car (not walkable because of the country lanes - would be suicide to walk it).

Whereas the opposite way into town there is a bus lane that means you are on the bus for 20 minutes whereas it's a 35/40 minute drive then an age to find a parking space so it's much easier and quicker to bus it.

It takes me 25 minutes to drive to work in the morning and the same on the way home.

To get a bus I would have to walk the 1.5 miles into the village where the bus stop is (I live in the sticks !) and would then have to get two seperate buses, the first of which would be approximately a 45 min journey and the second about 20 min.

So, for me, the car is definitely quicker!

It also depends where you are going - a town centre with very little free parking - do you factor in time looking for a parking space, or do you pay for one? oldies don't get a free car-park pass - so bus wins on that front.

Car parks where we live (large town) are bloomin expensive and only accessible via a long winded crappy one way system - it can take longer to drive to a car park when you are IN town than it takes to get the bus from home with a short walk.

It depends. I take a bus to work in the morning because it's quicker than the equivalent journey by car. (But more importantly, it's far more convenient because it gets me closer to work than I'd be able to park). I think it depends on the route and the number of stops.

Where we are, bicycle is quicker than car or bus - for some routes even out of peak hour it's still quicker!

That's like asking "How long's a piece of string?"

I used to live in a rural area, driving to the nearest big town took an hour from my front door to getting parked up. If I got the bus it was closer to 2 hours by the time I walked to the bus stop and the bus took a longer route to accommodate all the villages on the way.

I now live in town, there's a bus stop more or less at my front door and bus lanes which mean buses dont have to adhere to all the one way systems so the bus to the town centre takes about half the time it takes to drive and park.

There are too many variables for there to be a definitive answer to your question.

A question with so many variables...

I live in a city suburb. The bus stops outside my house and drops off/picks up outside my office. There are bus lanes all the way. The service runs every 5 mins. It takes about 20 mins to get to work vs over an hour in a car with congestion, walk from car park etc. In this case it's much much faster to get a bus (and cheaper too - £12 for weekly pass - so much so that I sold my car).

On the other hand, I grew up in a village where there is a bus every two hours and they stop at 6pm. Limited to weekdays. Very limited service. In this case a car is essential.

Car drivers always do this ALL OF THEM :)
They forget all the bits where they have the advantage and get the rage whenever they think someone is getting one up on them, even for a few yards. . I've been over taken and glared at for not moving forward quick enough in virtually stationary queue for one cars length, and cyclists make some motorists bang around in their car like a mad baboon for getting to the lights six feet in front of them when the car will overtake in seconds once lights change. All car drivers are insane. I bet a bus on one part of her route sails past.

I also worked in a place that was cyclable. One person would get their an hour early to get a space.. Making her effective journey an hour longer, and another would drive around t for half an hour to get a space. She lived a 20 minute cycle away.

I sold a car because I woke up one day and realised that every day I followed the bus on the same route, and the horrendous traffic I was in was 50% people doing the same thing, bringing one bag and themselves to work. If everyone got buses the whole system would be faster, everywhere..

So ner