I have no quantitative data but from dealing with various bulk public events
and observing the random behaviour and abilities of the plebian mass it must
surely be far simpler to get the bus to the people, rather than the people to
the bus, if the distance involved exceeds 5-10 metres, especially with the
frequency of urban bus services, the only exception perhaps being as noted -
in a large bus station.

Things that would make bus boarding more efficient would I suggest be

1) real time bus information (see www.NextBus.com) that would be available in
cafe's, and waiting places not at the kerbside of the bus stance, which would

a) allow bus users to leave their home or 'office/task' with just sufficient
time to arrive at the stop concurrent with their desired service - thus
dramaticaly reducing overall T to T* journey time and the number of people
waiting and obstructing passengers alighting from/boarding earlier services

b) call bus passengers from a holding area to board the next incoming
service, in sequence.  This could work for sawtooth/end-on stances where
alternating between 2-3 stances would make more efficient use of the spaces,
as on bus would be arriving and unloading, another leaving, and a third
engaged in the time consuming boarding process

*T to T - Threshold to Threshold - a concept developing from my involvement
in Safe Routes to Station Project, for which I'm attempting to bring in the
wider range of bus, coach & LRT travel, with both walking & cycling.  For a
considerable number of journeys the amount of time spent on vehicle is 50% or
less of the overall T to T journey, and reducing the shoulder element times
may well be less costly than speeding up the vehicles, as a means to make the
PT journey as attractive as travelling in a private car.  Sadly with the NTS
data only dealing with 1 day in 7 of the travel diary in which this is
recorded we do have rather thinly available information on which to base any
case for paying greater attention to the detail of getting to the stop.

At a guess up to 80% of bus passengers acces/egress on foot, unless P&R is
skewing the National picture, there will be a higher level of 'arrive by
car/other for rural routes, and as with some rail data I've seen, perhaps 15%
-20% coming & going from onward/arriving train/LRT/coach/bus.  The rail
figures seen to date seem interesting in that because they deal with
access/egress from a service, only 50% of the transfers are from walking, and
around 20% are from other trains, so this is not necessarily the picture of
travel to station modal breakdown.

Clearly with over 25,000 passengers departing from a major station like
Brighton but less than 1000 likely to have come as driver or passenger of a
cr in the car park, the proportionate spending per passenger for pedestrian
vs motorist will be an 'interesting' value comparison, especially when
looking at 'persons per pound' delivered in access to trains for any
expansion of services/growth of custom.

Any contacts for operators who or papers which can identify access/egress
modes for their services and catchment profiling, would be useful to refer
to.

Dave Holladay