Increased bus use is being driven by the desire to lead healthier, more environmentally friendly lifestyles, and the industry must adapt, Stagecoach chief executive Brian Souter has said.

Souter told the CPT's annual Scottish conference at Gleneagles last week that more people are leaving the car at home and chose to walk or cycle instead, due to concerns about health and climate change. This, he argued, offered the bus industry a big opportunity.

Souter said the bus industry had always regarded cyclists as a nuisance, but times had changed. "These cyclists are not the enemy," he said. "They are our friend because every place we have got high modal shift we have got lots of cyclists on the road."

Furthermore, Souter said fares are almost completely inelastic in these high modal shift communities. "We can charge almost whatever we want," he said.

Operators should also consider marketing the environmental credentials of their services. Souter said Stagecoach had received interesting results to a survey of its passengers using its fleet of eight 'bio-buses' in Kilmarnock, which were launched last year. The survey found the 7% of Bio-bus users claimed to use the service because it was a more environmentally friendly service. "I know people lie in these surveys," Souter said, Òbut even if half of that was right itÕs still a fantastic achievement.

"People will pay £2.50 for a skinny latte and only £1.50 for a bus fare and complain about it. Maybe this is suggesting that a passenger might come on the bus and ask for a skinny, biofuel, low carbon, super-sized single to Cambridge."