Katy Rice devotes a whole column to her own decision to acquire a car and give up the bus, and I can understand her own issues and frustrations.

But has she investigated the reason for buses running late or not at all? She does not tell us which route she uses or where she travels from and a side-swipe at the whole system is unfair. But I have suffered similar problems recently.

However, I gave up driving some years ago, am now retired and do not have the hectic family/work schedule of Katy. A delay of a few minutes is not a disaster.

But on my last three trips home from Brighton to Lewes, the 28/29 bus has taken over an hour to travel from St Peter’s Church to Sainsbury’s, where there are roadworks and appallingly-managed temporary traffic lights. Add recent works in Lewes and a major diversion in Uckfield and what chance does the bus have to keep to the timetable?

But Brighton and Hove buses will respond to complaints and explain problems. Adding another car to the city’s busy roads will solve a short-term problem but not deal with long-term congestion.

And one would hope the present Green council would be doing more to manage its roadworks to minimise problems for buses – the bus lanes on the Lewes Road dual-carriageway are excellent but when it takes an hour from the city centre to reach, the appreciation is somewhat diminished.

Despite all this, the drivers do a splendid job – I agree with S Zapello in the same issue – they earn every penny.

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