Bus use is way forward
As the quality and patronage of bus services decline, car use increases.
This trend is causing increased congestion, CO2 emissions, air pollution and isolation of old, young and disabled people who lack the use of a car.
Air pollution due to traffic is becoming an increasing health hazard and, in order to meet the new legal requirement for zero net CO2 emissions by 2050, we urgently need to reverse this trend, and one way of doing this would be by encouraging car users to switch to the bus.
This would require a radical transformation of the bus services, a restoration of government funding, and probably the repeal of the 1985 Transport Act which removed the powers of local authorities to control bus services (except in London).
We cannot wait until 2040 for electric vehicles to take over and electric cars will not be the remedy for congestion or social isolation.
If we don’t act now, we face a bleak future.
Colin Jefferson, Shrewsbury
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