The bus is dead. Long live the bus

The number of miles covered by bus services in England outside London has plummeted by many millions over the last decade. By contrast, bus travel in London is on the up accounting for more than half of all bus journeys in England last year.

However, some buses on certain routes in London now run at 4 mph, which is a brisk walking pace. A recent report by lobby group Greener Journeys attributes a recent decline in services in London – traditionally a source of good news for buses – to the economic recovery, roadworks, disruption caused by the implementation of cycle superhighways and the rise of private hire vehicles such as Uber.

The report highlights the difference in social-economic profile between bus users and rail passengers, drivers and cyclists – with a higher percentage of those on lower income travelling by bus. If this relegation of the bus to the role of safety net is to be addressed, perhaps lessons need to be learned from the competition. Uber and other tech-driven ‘on-demand’ services are revolutionising every area of life they target. In the face of uberHOP, an app-driven shared taxi service with reduced fares, 12-ton, 5 mpg double decker buses that drive the streets whether or not they have passengers on board or not seem old fashioned. It may be that for buses to survive, the transport mode needs to embrace new technology rather than view it as a threat.

There is much talk of driverless technology, but the vehicles it delivers may have more in common with what we currently think of as a bus.

Olli is an autonomous electric vehicle concept that seats twelve passengers and can operate as a chartered shuttle, taxi or network of interconnected ‘pods’. Crucially, Olli has no need to drive the roads endlessly to ply its trade. Strictly speaking, it has no need for bus stops either although these would be a necessary means of summoning a vehicle for those without a smart phone.

It’s an application of existing technology that offers the best of two worlds, blending the logic of public transport with the freedom of private car ownership.

The bus is dead. Long live the bus.