You correctly ask the question ‘what kind of integration do we want?’ (Comment, February). Your analysis as usual is spot on, but integration is so often considered as bus to rail and vice versa, when in reality it is much more than this.
Most people integrate their lives. For example, they call in at the post office when returning from the shops. It is the same when shopping or going to work.
Car drivers park as close as possible to where they are aiming to reach. It is their way of integrating their activities.
So the lesson for the bus industry, and importantly for councils, is to be aware of why people make journeys by bus and enable the shortest link between the bus and where they are aiming for, be it work, shopping, leisure or medical. Instead, we see many cases of badly placed stops, and worse, poorly located bus stations, well away from the likely destinations.
With car parks often more convenient, for which read better integrated with the shops and other destinations, we wonder why people use cars rather than buses.
Car drivers also have a choice of car parks, but bus passengers do not always have a choice. It is the bus station or one central stopping location.
Some people do connect to trains…
