Jamie Thompson wrote:

It may go unsaid as obvious, but crucial to achieving that aim is the
development of coherent integrated public transport schemes. A good
radial dawn to late night local bus network, feeding good transport
interchanges (preferably rail, but I'll be realistic and accept
express bus routes or somesuch are more likely in this day and age).
These express routes then need to run both radially towards regional
population centres (i.e. London, Birmingham, etc.) *as well as
orbitally around them*. As a case in point, it's criminal that it's so
damn difficult to do a 11-odd mile journey near me orbitally (on the
London periphery between the WCML and the ECML), with either several
mode changes required to zig zag up and down radial rail routes
through to the central zones (which you really don't need to be in),
or you just give up on rail and stay with the expensive, infrequent,
and unreliable local buses you were using to get to the station all
the way to your destination, though you will have to endure multiple
services usually, some of which become even less frequent past 6pm.
Even with the extortionate car parking charges it can still be cheaper
to drive than use public transport, which is somewhat disappointing.
By way of comparison, it's about ~20-30 minutes by car, but well over
an hour by public transport (buses).


Providing public transport on this scale would be horrendously
expensive, and it would be very poorly patronised in the late
evenings.

There is no good reason why people who choose to go out late and who
are not served by a skeleton service of late night buses should not be
expected to pay for a taxi, which is public transport after all.