Bus survey

This is the first of two (possibly more!) blog posts about the local bus services (the next post will give our response to it!). It reports the results of the survey we carried out at various locations in the area. Many thanks to the 216 people who responded. Here are the the results.

What you thought!

The normal problems people have with buses are to do with price and reliability.

So maybe the local bus company can take some reassurance that around 80% of responses suggested people were satisfied with the frequency of the service. Equally unsurprising is that a similar number regard the service as being too expensive.











When asked if there were places you would like to get to, Bristol Temple Meads was a clear winner, but other destinations in the City Centre were also suggested. (In fact, we quite like the proposal from one person in Park Road who suggested a service  which went around the city centre, taking in places like the hospital and Cabot Circus.






Other issues raised

A number of issues were raised. Recurring themes are

• re-instate a service within Southville
• poor quality of maps/information provided
• crossing town difficult
• poor evening service
• needs to work better for wheelchair/pushchair/pram users
• unfriendly drivers
• need for Oyster cards
• walking/cycling (and sometimes driving) a better option

Other suggestions included the need to give better training to bus drivers to be more considerate to vulnerable road users, and buses need to be accessible for the disabled

Full list of requested destinations





Full list of actual destinations

Letter to the editor of the Post, re Labour, mayors and PR

Dear Sir


I note with interest that Labour councillor Ron Stone complains that the mayor has too much power (Post Reader's letter: Does the Bristol mayor not like democracy?, 30/12/13). I therefore am obliged to remind Ron that large portions of his party campaigned in favour of a mayor at the referendum. Sorry, Ron, but Labours's chickens have come home to roost.

It has always been obvious to many of us that a system which concentrates power in the hands of one person is necessarily going to be less democratic than a system which shares power between the many. Having a mayor was always bound to hand over control to a single representative of the largest minority or coalition which the successful candidate managed to put together to get elected. It means that politics becomes about how good you look in the media. It means that George can push through policies as he sees fit. And of course being media friendly, and making good policy decisions are quite different things.

I actually have a considerable amount of respect for George, whilst not agreeing with all his policies nor his style. But I profoundly disagree with the system which has elected him.

Of course the previous system - rule by party cabinet - suffers from the same basic flaw - and this is why we in the Green Party have consistently supported moves towards a system of proportional representation. We need a system which includes people, not excludes them - which gives them some hope that their views will be represented, and PR gives you this. We also need to decentralise decision making - get it out of City Hall and down into local communities.

Yours




Charlie Bolton
Green Party candidate
Southville