Research of timetables reveals ‘silent war’ on bus users outside London
"The data found urban areas outside the UK capital had an average of 14 buses an hour, whereas in London the hourly average was 120." - by 'urban areas', what size? Would have to look at their paper itself, but I can't find it so far.
Where I'm living, even 10 years ago we had about 8 buses within 5 mins walk from home, and now there are 3. And they aren't spread out evenly timewise, which would probably be impossible to attain along their entire routes. But it results in a poorer service overall.
Mike Childs, head of science, policy and research at Friends of the Earth, said:
“To reduce pollution and cut emissions, we need the government to invest in our crumbling public transport system to make it far easier for people to use their car less and switch to greener ways to travel, like buses, trains and cycling.” Well we know that, but...
And also another relevant thing that wasn't in the main article is the name "Dr Malcom Morgan", of University of Leeds' Institute for Transport Studies. I find it weird that it took a wee bit of digging to find mention of him when it seems he was a big part of the University of Leeds arm of this partnership study; most coverage I've seen quotes Mike Childs instead, who seems to be more on the public facing side than the active research (not checked though). (Source for Dr Morgan's involvement: https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/transport/news/article/5727/new-research-shows-bus-services-outside-london-have-plummeted)
Quite shocking decline, reading through that paper; although the figures are the same it seems it's taken a while to sink into my head.
Yes, Dr Morgan's produced loads of interesting papers. I'm quite tired now :D