Coventry's transport: more buses, more roads
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• A major study of transport requirements within the city of Coventry in the 1980s has opted for more investment on roads and for improved and extended bus services. The phase two report of the Coventry Transportation Study, published today, estimates that an improved road structure would be able to cater for 90 per cent of traffic demand. To reduce potential demand by 10 per cent, private car users will have to be restrained, says the report, and one in four of the people who would like to commute by car transferred to buses.
The study — which took more than four years to complete — rules out the possibility of any novel form of passenger transport being technically or financially feasible in the next decade. During this time, it says, "the traditional double-decker bus will continue to provide the mainstay of the public transport system and the main part of the service would need to be concentrated on a route pattern similar to that of today". This was decided after dismissing the possibility of introducing major bus-only lanes, peak-hour express bus services and re-opening the Nuneaton-Coventry railway line.
The study reports that "the likelihood of bus services as a whole remaining commercially viable is doubtful". It is for this reason that express services between home and work have been ruled out. Though beneficial to the community these would involve more buses and higher costs which were unlikely to be recouped from fares. The study suggests that some of the deficit of existing services could be met by the revenues from car parks.
The study also looked into the possibility of providing fares-free bus travel but concluded that this would have a limited effect on persuading motorists not to use their cars. Only 8 per cent would voluntarily change, it predicts, and over £3m per annum would be added to the bus fleet's deficit.