Bruce Whitehead: What’s wrong with making life easier, cleaner and safer on the buses?

With ever-increasing temperatures and drought disrupting agriculture and pushing up food prices, vehicle emissions form a huge part of the greenhouse gases which are warming our climate.

Measures to curb those gases include sustainably powered public transport systems such as electric trams and trolleybus, along with better active travel options such as safer cycle and walking routes, and crucially, better bus services. These are what Lothian Buses is trying to deliver with its all-day lanes to smooth travel for bus users.

Overall these measures reduce petrol and diesel emissions of carbon dioxide and other noxious gases, reducing climate changes and atmospheric pollution which directly damages respiratory health. In order to encourage bus travel the council has introduced the 7-7-7 bus lanes.

Buses are not perfect. Many still spew out far too much CO2, and even the hybrid diesel ones with electric batteries are often heard roaring away when they should be on battery only - for example outside schools and hospitals.

Nor does it help when conventional diesel buses have their engine idling cut-off disabled because drivers find the slight hesitation on moving off annoying!

But any large passenger vehicle, tram or train offers vastly improved fuel efficiency in terms of passengers carried. And when EV vehicles are introduced the savings on carbon emissions per passenger mile are huge.

To encourage a change in travel habits always requires a carrot-and-stick approach, penalising offenders who selfishly occupy bus lanes in single-occupant cars, while offering improved public service transport alternatives.

With Edinburgh's population a fifth bigger than when bus lanes were first laid down in 1997 and with congestion from private cars, something has to happen to make travel more smooth.

As so often, private car use is fiercely defended by drivers hoping they can just pop down the road for their messages or to meet for lunch, or get to work. But they well know how miserable traffic jams can be, so why can't they see the sense in freeing up the road for a faster, more efficient bus service?