Sir - After the news that an enterprising Headington pub is offering nurses parking spaces because their hospital won't (Oxford Mail, November 20), when is the council going to realise that people don't want to use public transport because it doesn't work?
Buses are like laundrettes; people will use them if they have no alternative, but would far prefer the freedom and flexibility that their own washing machine offers.
In the same way, public transport is expensive, dirty, unreliable, inconvenient and unpleasant.
It's a relic of the 1950s - on a good day. Workers need flexibility and reliability, not the constraints of a boneshaker bus timetable.
We all know the council hates cars (although it is happy to benefit from second-mortgage parking fees), so let's look at the alternatives. What about encouraging powered two-wheelers like motorbikes and mopeds?
What about a 'park-and-cycle' scheme where people can hire a bike and ride in to Oxford?
What about more parking for cycles in the city centre?
That would be a far better use of taxpayers' money than filthy, archaic, polluting buses.
What about a cycle hire facility at Oxford station? What about stopping buses crowding bikes out of cycle lanes?
What about spending a little money on resurfacing roads?
Come on councillors! In the 21st century, 'integrated transport' means more than "the answer's a bus - now what's the question?"
Mark McArthur-Christie
Bourton Cottages
Bampton
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