Letter: Cities need to be far more bus-friendly

South Yorkshire Freedom Riders are calling for “Free Bus Travel for Everyone”, (front page, June 3). Sheffield Climate Alliance certainly wants to see a greatly improved and expanded bus service.

An essential element of tackling climate change is reducing car travel.

Transport emissions have been pretty much constant for thirty years, (except for those from air travel which are increasing).

The manufacture of electric cars is too energy-intense to allow them to be regarded as a genuinely low-carbon replacement for most private cars.

This means that cities need to be far more bus-friendly.

The majority of residents should feel able to use them for most journeys.

It is encouraging that transport experts, including the two the Star interviewed for your feature, are now taking the state of our bus services much more seriously.

Shifting investment from new road schemes to bus services is one of the most effective ways to help decarbonise our economy. (The same principle applies to cycling, another subject featured in June 3’s Star).

Nevertheless, we should remember that all motorized transport involves some emissions.

Therefore, we suggest that most people should continue to pay to use the bus with that money being used to improve services.

Unfortunately, the cost of running a car does not reflect its full environmental impacts.

The aim should be to make traveling by bus a cheaper option than driving.