Public Transportation in Reading

Public transportation represents a much more efficient use of both road space and fossil fuel. The main objective of Public Transport like Reading Buses is, to get the society to use more of the public transportation provided, as this will result in, less congestion, convenience way of travelling, improve our health and most importantly it helps the environment. At first bus service was introduced just for commuting, buses didn’t have as much quality check as they do now, also things like comfort security and so on were not a priority. Now there are lots of quality checks and reasons why people should increase the use public transportation and it seems like public transportation is one of the biggest weapons we have to combat climate change. This is why the government is encouraging the society to use public transportation more and more. Also there are legislations and partnerships to make sure that bus companies are improving their service. Partnerships like Quality Partnerships are partnerships between the bus operator and the local authority. A change in the Transport Act 1985 states that “Bus operators invest in higher quality services, including new vehicles (often environmentally friendly ones) and staff training. Local authorities invest in traffic management schemes which give buses priority or in better bus stations, shelters and other facilities for passengers.” (Poole, 1999, p. 27).

In the past Reading has successfully implemented a five-year plan. The plans were, Enhancing the Environment, Conserving Resources, Improving Quality, Supporting Quality and Improving Accessibility. The plan was implemented from 2001 to 2006. At the end of the 5 year plan, there was a 5.4% decrease in cars travelling to Reading town centre and increase of 1.2% in buses, up to 42% increase in cycle trips and 23% increase in walk trips to centre. Other methods of transportation also improved significantly.

Reading still faces some barriers which prevents further improvement. The following are some of the barriers that I found from my research.

1. Buses don’t come on time
2. The buses are dirty
3. Not enough buses
4. Buses are not comfortable
5. No buses in some areas
6. Don’t feel safe
7. Reading Buses is not subsidised

The above lists are barriers not only Reading Buses faces, a lot of bus conductors face the same problem. Reading has the following incentives in place to overcome those barriers.

1. Display screens on almost all bus stops which uses satellite technology
2. Satellite technology
3. Colour coded buses
4. Increased number of buses
5. New routes
6. Free travel to some parts of Reading
7. Improved security
8. All profit is put back to the service.

To improve the bus service it cost lots of money. Therefore of course bus fares will keep increasing. Even though bus fares are increasing, catching bus still works out much cheaper than owning a car, weekly bus about for adults costs £14, for under 16s it’s £8 and for University students it’s £10, so if I take adults weekly fare as an example £14 x 4 = £56 which is about what the average car owner in UK pays for insurance in average. What’s more with all weekly bus passes you can catch any bus within Reading. Reading could not be subsidised by the Council by law so Reading reinvests all the profit back into the service, so all the money is used to improve the service even further.
In 2006 Reading replaced most of its buses. In Green City Forum, Counsellor Tony Jones stated that “The newer buses were emitting 65% less carbon than the ones they were replacing” (Green City Forum, 2007) other than the new buses new buses running on bio-diesel were also introduced. It was reported that Reading had a good take-up of the combined bus and rail tickets, with only Birmingham using more of these types of tickets. Bus usage was increasing overall in Reading, which was against the national trend (Green City Forum, 2007).

Future initiatives include the use of ethanol-powered buses, use of bio-waste and Hydrogen fuel cells could also be considered. As Reading Buses is not subsidised its main income is the public that are using the service. Therefore, Reading Buses need to get more of the public to use the bus service more. Their main targets are young people. One of Reading Buses plan is to get the young to get used to the bus service provided, as the young are the future and the ones that will be using the service in the future, increasing use within them is very important. To increase the use of buses amongst the young it is anticipated that the concessionary fares scheme would be extended to include free travel for under 16s (19 if in full time education) also reducing fare for the age of 21 could be considered.

An alternative to public transportation can be environmental friendly cars that are power by renewable power source. But that is not an answer for all types of pollution e.g. environmental friendly cars can not be an answer for congestion or noise pollution. The average car carries five people including the driver. The new single deck busses are capable of carrying 43 seated and 30 standing customers, the double deck buses are capable of carrying 90 seated and up to 3 standing customers, which is equivalent to 18 fully occupied family cars. There I think other means of transportation should improve their sustainability but I don’t think that they should be alternative to public transportations, as public transportations are very effective.

Reading is taking the right foot step. Reading’s strategy is very effective as it helps reduce pollution caused by road users. The increase of bus service, improvement to the service and the council participation in Reading area has reduced road users and limited access to town centre. But trying to increase the use of buses is not the only aim; Reading is also working on introducing environmental friendly buses which work on bio-fuels, hydrogen cell e.c.t. I think other Bus Conductors and Councils need to adopt Reading’s method. If the difference of carbon emission between new and old buses is 65% then the use of bio-fuel and hydrogen fuel cell will make significant difference specially if implemented worldwide.

If everyone starts using public transportation as means of transport, what is going to happen to the cars that are crowding our roads? Are we going to just keep them and avoid using them as much as we are now? Get rid of them? And how are we going to get rid of them? Are we going to do the right thing and recycle, or sell the cars to poor countries and make more money? That’s just what I saw when I went back to my country (Ethiopia) over the summer holiday. Western countries like Britain are selling used cars which are not fit to be on their road to poor countries. So do they really care about the climate change that is occurring or do they just want to portray a picture by passing their problems to others. Even though public transportation is good for the environment, is the government really doing enough and is the cut down of personal transportation a benefit to the government? After all the government nets more than £20million a year just of Speed Cameras! I don’t think that the government benefits from the cut down of cars which is why it’s coming up with systems like congestion charge, which I think is money making scheme for the government.

Bibliography

Green City Forum. (n.d.). Retrieved from Reading Borough Council.
Green City Forum. (2007, April 2). Retrieved December 29, 2007, from Reading Borough Council: http://www.reading.gov.uk/documents/committee_services/environment_scrutiny_panel/-2007-2008/070704/greencitymins.pdf

Poole, F. (1999). Buses. House Of Commons , 27.

http://www.reading-buses.co.uk/