Transport and economic development - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 14

800

700

600

500

English other areas

400

English metropolitan areas

300

London

Scotland
Wales

200

100

0

Figure 1.4 Bus mileage operated by area 1985/86-2006/07

to deregulation whilst in the English shire counties, Scotland and Wales it remains
some 25% higher. As will be explained later (13.5), events in London have followed a
completely different path and, remarkably, bus mileage here is some 70% greater than
it was 20 years ago.
Figures from the National Travel Survey provide insight into changes in bus
service levels in different types of area (see Table 1.2 previously). Between 1975/76
and 1996/98 the proportion of households living within 7 minutes (500 metres) of
a bus stop with a daytime service at least once an hour increased by four percentage
points (to 87%) . Since then the situation in most urban areas is unchanged but a
grant regime established by the Government has contributed to a stabilisation (and
some improvement) of conditions in smaller towns and rural areas. Only in villages
(settlements less than 3,000 population) do a significant minority of households not
have access to an hourly bus service - 2 in 7 households live more than 500 metres
from such a service and 1 in 7 more than 1 kilometre.

1.4 Transport costs
The cost of transport is a product of three main factors - the time and distance
involved in making a journey and the unit cost of transport itself (per passenger
or tonne kilometre). The time and distance elements are influenced by the innate
standards of the transport systems available (link speeds and network connectivity)
but also by their relationship to the pattern of demand generated by the distribution
of land use.
For commercial transport purposes travel time converts into a component of
monetary cost because of the need to pay a driver (and possibly a marginal additional
requirement in fleet size) whilst for business travel it typically represents a cost in terms
of lost working time.
For private travel the amount of non-working time taken up in travel will
have a deterrent effect similar to monetary cost although in our everyday lives
we do not calculate what this is. However we recognise that there are situations
where, even if we can afford to make a journey the time involved makes it not