Bus stop features

Hampshire Perspectives is the County Council's residents' forum

This report summarises key findings from the 22nd Hampshire Perspectives survey, which focused on understanding peoples’ priorities for bus stops.

The survey was completed by 540 forum members between 18 and 31 January 2023.

The learning will steer recommendations from our Public Transport team around both minimum and aspirational standards of bus stop facilities according to category (rural, village, suburban, town centre). Findings will also be used inform conversations with bus operators and developers about priorities and responsibilities for bus stops and their immediate surroundings.

Key findings were as follows:

Current bus travel behaviour

Three quarters of respondents said they use the bus at least occasionally, with heaviest use amongst older Hampshire residents and bus pass users.

Almost all bus users take some steps to check bus times / journey details (only 1% of bus users claim not to). Bus company / travel web sites are most commonly used, but people also supplement this with an app (especially younger respondents) or information at bus stops.

Walking is the key means of getting to a bus stop in all types of area, with proximity of bus stop a key need, followed by safety, time to get there, lighting and paving (in villages in particular). Safety and lighting were more important for women, in suburban and town / city centre settings.

Bus stop features

Shelter, and general condition of bus stops are key priorities for people across all areas. Basics such as bus stop signage and timetables are also regarded as essentials.

Seating, live information screens and lighting are the next three priorities, with some nuance in relative order in different types of area (seating is slightly more important in village areas, and lighting slightly more so in more built up areas).

Around two thirds of respondents claimed to be at least partially satisfied with current bus stop features, driven largely by presence of the key desired features.

The wider context

Improvements to bus stops are important to both regular and less-regular users, but are less important overall than service frequency and reliability.

A number of issues were also raised in the survey about specific bus stops, routes and services. These are being considered individually to assess what steps may be possible to address them.