[realjhol]

It doesn't usually stop that often because half the time people aren't pushing the button every stop.

In central areas where demand is high, busses usually come every ~5-minutes. Even further out in the suburbs, the wait times are 8-10 minutes.

Bus rides are £1.75. You can take as many busses in a day, and it automatically caps at £5.25. You don't need coins, you pay using contactless credit card, or oyster card prepaid cards.

Unless there is service disruption I find the bus is at least twice as fast as walking, typically a lot faster.

I walk if the distance is less than ~30-minutes, but if I do take the bus I never feel like I've wasted my time or money.

[eptcyka]

My experience in London is rather limited, but it seems it's very similar to Edinburgh. As a student in Edinburgh, waiting for a bus to ride 4 stops for some money or walking 2km for free was a no-brainer. Waiting 40 minutes to get into the city from the suburbs via the bus when there is no traffic is really insane when the same trip could be done in a car in 15 minutes, or 25 minutes on a bicycle - in these cases I much prefer the drive, cycling or the walk. Even if walking ends up being 5 minutes slower, I'd still choose walking as I normally need to walk more rather than less, and I get to save a quarter of a pints-worth of money.

[cjrp]

> Unless there is service disruption I find the bus is at least twice as fast as walking, typically a lot faster.

Anecdata, but I can say the opposite is true in central London (London Bridge to Liverpool Street, for example) during rush hour. The bus takes about 20 mins on a good day, and I can walk it in the same time.

[MagnumOpus]

Agreed, but that is really only true for some very specific sections at very specific times (5pm rush hour around the City fringe and Westminster) -- even in rush hour I would say that the 2x rule of thumb works in general.

[OJFord]

Especially given if you're not on the bus you don't (probably) have to walk bus stop to bus stop, you go straight to wherever you're going. Lots of little alleys around there too, saving 2x road to the junction and a light change.