what's more important to people - the bus journey or the user experience?


You don't need to be a rocket scientist to work out why some people don't use their local bus service.

Broadly speaking you can split people's reasoning into two areas - 1. thoughts on the bus itself & 2. thoughts on everything else.

So on the bus itself would be - appearance, cleanliness, reliability, punctuality, the attitude of the driver etc.

Everything else would be - ticket range, pricing, ease of website/app use, easy to follow timetable etc.

The holy grail would be to have on the bus and everything else absolutely perfect, however, I'm not sure how many operators would fall into this category. I doubt many customers would say that level had been reached, either.

But if you could achieve perfection in only one of the areas that people cite as their reason for non-use, which would it be? On the bus or everything else?

Do you think more people would use their local bus if it was brand new, emission-free, clean, punctual with a friendly driver yet everything else was really difficult to get their head around? Or, do you think people would put up with a less than perfect experience on the bus in return for everything else being really easy and simple to use/understand?

I think the answer could determine what people really want from their local bus operator.

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