What the buses are up against

" Cars were used for 78 per cent of all trips of 2-3 miles ”

A new survey out today shows the number of cars has gone up by 30 per cent, from 22.7 million to 29.6 million in the last ten years, while the population only increased by 4 per cent. The survey found that 85 per cent of households in rural areas have adults with a car licence, compared to 65 per cent in urban areas larger than 250,000 people. In all, 46 per cent of cars clocked up less than 5,000 miles a year, with 8 per cent of all trips under half a mile in length using a car. Cars were used for 78 per cent of all trips of 2-3 miles and 80 per cent of journeys longer than five miles. News source: The Scotsman For original photo under creative commons by Jigisha click here * * * * * This is a cross over post from my numberzz blog as it shows just what the bus companies are up against. The fact that cars are used for 78 percent of all trips of 2-3 miles is a lot higher than I thought it would be. Even a ten percent swing back in favour of public transport would make a big difference in the city centres. Of course we have just had a budget which purports to be a green budget so you would expect measures are being put in place to help with this swing back to public transport. A balanced blog posting on the Omnibuses2.0 site would suggest otherwise!