Scottish Government

6 Views on local bus service

• In 2006/2007 there was a high level of satisfaction with respondents' local bus service
• Respondents who had frequently travelled by bus in the evening were more likely to feel safe from crime than respondents who had not.
• The perception of safety when travelling in the evening decreased with age
• Respondents who could use public transport to work cited 'takes too long' as their most popular reasons for not choosing public transport.
• Respondents who could not use public transport to work cited 'no direct route' as the most popular reason.
• Remote rural areas cited 'lack of service' as the most popular reason for not travelling to work by public transport.

General views on local buses

6.1 In general, there was a high level of satisfaction with respondents' local bus service in 2006/2007. [ Table 41].

6.2 In 2007, 53 per cent of respondents felt very/fairly safe when travelling by bus in the evening. Although this represents a significant drop on 2001 figures, there is a large degree of year-on-year variations in the results. There is also a large variation across local authorities (Figure 11). [ Table 27, Table 53].

6.3 Respondents who had frequently travelled by bus in the evening (at least once a week) were more likely to feel safe from crime than respondents who had not. This suggests that perception of safety needs to be addressed than any real safety issues. [ Table 43].

Figure 10: [ SHS: Safety] Safety from crime when travelling in the evening, 2007

Age and Gender

6.4 Respondents aged 60+ were, in general, more likely to agree or strongly agree with various statements about their local bus service (e.g. on time, frequent, runs when they need it, stable etc.) than younger respondents. [ Table 42].

6.5 The perception of safety when travelling in the evening decreased with age, with respondents aged 16 - 19 most likely to feel safe (Figure 10). [ Table 43].

6.6 Women were less likely to feel very or fairly safe when travelling by bus in the evening than their male counterparts (46 per cent and 62 per cent, respectively).

Figure 11: [ SHS: Safety by LA] Perceptions of safety from crime, 2005/06

Non-users views

6.7 In 2007, a new question was added to the SHS to determine views of non-users of local bus services (i.e. not used service in previous month). Around one third of respondents did not know anything about their local service, which is not surprising as they are non-users. [ Table 46].

6.8 Interestingly, 29 per cent of non-users think that fares are good value and 43 per cent don't know. Just over one third of non-users (34 per cent) agree that changing to other forms of transport is easy. These suggest that these issues need to be addressed if non-users are to become users.

Reasons for not using more frequently

6.9 Respondents who had infrequently⁴/never used the bus in the previous month were asked their reasons for not using the bus more frequently. The most common responses given were 'use my own car' and 'no need' (27 per cent and 21 per cent, respectively). [ Table 45].

6.10 In comparison just 5 per cent cited 'cost of public transport' as a reason for not using buses more often. However, it should be noted that this survey was completed before the major fuel price volatility of 2008.

6.11 Respondents who walked to work cited 'no need' as the most popular reason for not using buses more often. Unsurprisingly, car/van drivers cited 'use own car' as their most popular reason.

6.12 Health reasons were more common as the age of the respondent increased, i.e. just 2 per cent of respondents aged 16 - 19 cited this reason compared to 15 - 49 per cent of respondents aged over 60.

Car/van commuters - reasons for not using public transport to work

6.13 Respondents who had stated that their main mode of travel to work was as a car/van user were asked a series of follow up questions on their reasons for not using public transport more often. [ Table 44].

6.14 Respondents who could use public transport cited 'takes too long' as their most popular reasons for not choosing public transport (57 per cent). Respondents who could not use public transport cited 'no direct route' as the most popular reason.

6.15 Women were more likely to say 'takes too long' compared to men (38 per cent and 33 per cent, respectively) but men were more likely to say 'need car for/at work' than women (24 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively).

6.16 Remote rural areas cited 'lack of service' as the most popular reason for not travelling to work by public transport. This suggests that to tackle the proportion of respondents travelling to work by car/van in rural areas the provisions of public transport need to be improved.