Why is taking the bus more expensive than driving the car?

ilikedrawing

I HATE public transport, because i live in one county and am right next to another the cost to go 3 miles on a train is ridiculous. Just because i cross into another county. I used to drive my car to Bradford which is 18 miles from where i live, when i had to get the train it would cost me £8 a day.

So the car was always my option, i could set off when i wanted, i didnt get all sweaty walking to and from the station (a mile or so from my house) and i didnt have to come home with all the drunks/drug addicts at night!

vikingaero

With buses you have to factor in directors, shareholders, ticket inspectors, supervisors, drivers, relief drivers, maintenance staff, fitters, cleaners etc. Whereas once you have bought or are given a car then that's the main fixed cost.

custardy

i Edinburgh you can get a day ticket for £2.50
this covers you all day
i can pay more in parking than that
obviously monthly/yearly passes are cheaper

yinhong

Bargin_Betty79 wrote: »

I now have to travel buy bus to work as I no longer have a car and find it a lot cheaper, My ticket costs £13.00 for seven days and has unlimited use on all the buses in the town.
This is roughly £52 a month, where as running a car was costing me:
£65 Insurance a month
£25 MOT/Tax a month
£20 a week petrol

Its a saving of well over £100 a month, its no where near a convenient as having a car but I just smile when I think of the money I'm saving!

Well over £100 savings a month sounds tempting, but the fact is that I will sometimes need the car e.g. when buses don't run, or just for convenience, or for groups where sharing petrol costs is way more cheaper than paying for individual tickets. So even if I did want to switch to public transport full time, I think I'd need to keep my car just in case..... Which means that I would still have to pay my £x insurance and MOT p/month.

Well I think we can conclude that either way, there's no clear winner. Will have to just depend on individual situation.

Tomorrow I'm going to the City. I'm gonna try taking the train

pinkfluffybabe

custardy wrote: »

i Edinburgh you can get a day ticket for £2.50
this covers you all day
i can pay more in parking than that
obviously monthly/yearly passes are cheaper

Public transport is better and much more pleasant in Edinburgh than in Glasgow. The fixed fares alone sell it, rather than fiddling around with change and asking a grumpy driver how much it costs.

Although the current tram mess makes bus journeys a bit more stressful than usual - I go to Edinburgh a fair bit for meetings.

custardy

we havent had a car for about 8 months now,though i think we will get one now the little ones started nursery

Voyager2002

pinkfluffybabe wrote: »

Because public transport generally isn't value for money

Probably if it was made terribly cheap and much much better than driving, the services would be over-subscribed and they wouldn't have the capacity to match it.

It is strange that the government want us out of our cars, but just aren't willing to make it worth our while.

Unfortunately Mrs Thatcher privatised most bus services, so there is no mechanism for the government to reduce bus fares.

What is really strange is that the government have failed to increase the duty on petrol to a realistic level. Driving is too cheap, when you take account of the costs of providing roads, police time to deal with traffic offences, and the various health and environmental costs that motorists impose on us all.

I just wish that Gordon Brown would acquire a set of balls, and bump up duty to such a level that driving would always cost more than a bus ride.

custardy

it does here?
maybe we should get london loading on our wages given we are reputedly the next most expensive UK city to live in?
since your going to penalise accross the board
what would you class as realistic fuel duty as a %?

anewman

Voyager2002 wrote: »

I just wish that Gordon Brown would acquire a set of balls, and bump up duty to such a level that driving would always cost more than a bus ride.

That would impact buses and trains too. They don't run on thin air and have to pay the tax too. Whenever bus fares rise the thing they mention every time is the increase in fuel costs. But surprise surprise, they have come down recently - have the bus fares? Nope.

yinhong

How about the idea of making access to bikes free and ubiquitous over cities, towns and villages? And obviously more cycle lanes. I read somewhere that most of the journeys people take in their cars are less than 3 miles.