Our buses must be safer

2 hours ago
3 min read

Manners maketh man. I like to think this mantra speaks to something inside every British citizen — an instinct towards being polite, and respectful.

Yet we seem to be losing this patriotic calling of English civilisation — and we see it most plainly on public transport.

Crime and anti-social behaviour have been normalised. We shield ourselves from them by disappearing into our phones, turning the volume on our headphones to the max, and attempt to disassociate from the deafening boom box, screaming teenagers, or petty crime we have learnt to live with.

The epitome of this new wild west is surely our crumbling bus networks, particularly in London.

Granted, buses are not the most glamorous form of travel. But they provide many with a convenient, affordable way to get around.

They give independence to every generation, both young and old. People use them to get to work, school, or the city centre to see friends. Buses ease congestion and cut air pollution, creating a more pleasant, healthy environment in towns and cities. And, particularly in London, they provide passengers with an affordable, late night means of getting home.

But as Burnham rolls out his £2 cap, perhaps he should stop and consider whether some passengers even consider them a viable option anymore.

Because buses are becoming lost to endless crime and anti-social behaviour that has made this option, particularly for female passengers, increasingly uncomfortable, unsafe, and even unusable.

This is most stark in recent Conservative Environment Network (CEN) research which revealed the rate of crimes on buses, where criminals were arrested or charged, declined by over 50 per cent in London since COVID to as low as around 6 per cent in a single year.

No wonder many no longer feel safe on buses when the petty crime we witness goes unpunished, and is allowed to simply fester and take over the public realm. I wish everyone would naturally obey the law and respect their fellow citizens, but they don’t. That is why we have rules, and those rules must be enforced.

Given how straightforward and commonsense a measure it is to clampdown on crime on buses, you might expect there to be a decent rollout of CCTV cameras at bus stops. Simultaneously it can record where fleeing criminals are going, clampdown on crime and anti-social behaviour at bus stops, and make passengers feel safer, particularly women travelling at night.

But CEN has revealed a jaw-dropping 99.85 per cent of bus stops currently do not have CCTV. This is completely unacceptable. Sadiq Khan must urgently rectify this.

This is even more damning when you learn Transport for London’s own recent polling reveals 80 per cent of women feel safer with CCTV at bus stops, while 73 per cent said they would be more likely to travel by bus.

I am not saying that every bus stop in the entirety of London should have a CCTV camera. We have to be sensible about the cost and manpower this would take to install them across London basically from scratch, let alone the nation.

But for the most isolated areas, where buses are at their most essential and where serious crime in particular can occur in the shadows, surely we should prioritise CCTV cameras? This is a principle of public safety as much as anything.

All this taken together has led to passengers turning away from buses. In London alone, bus usage is down 22.8 per cent from its peak in 2015.

With the rise of Uber and Bolt, there are now plenty of alternatives people can use, particularly late at night. But during a cost of living crisis, we should not expect people who want an incident-free journey home to fork out £25, simply because Sadiq Khan has allowed buses to become overrun with crime and anti-social behaviour. Additionally, fleets of Uber drivers clogging up our roads is hardly environmentally-friendly.

It should not be too much to ask that people feel safe on public transport. But anti-social behaviour and crime is rampant on all forms of public transport across the nation and the British public feel powerless, with buses frequently facing the most recorded crimes.

We have to take action to stop this crime and anti-social behaviour. Otherwise, we not only risk losing our public transport to some dark, Gotham-style future where only criminals or the foolish brave use it. We will also lose a part of our identity, of treating our fellow citizens with a sense of decency and civility.

We should strike our enemy where they are strongest. Let’s reclaim public transport, reaffirm good British manners, and make buses safe.

First published by The Critic. Max Anderson is Head of Communications for the Conservative Environment Network.