The first objective is to provide a comprehensive network, serving residential and
employment centers and giving access to local amenities. The key guideline to achieve this is
bringing all households within a 5 minute walk of the bus network, which is about 400 meters
at the average walking speed. The 400 meter guideline is used alongside other indicators of
accessibility. Currently, over 90 percent of households in Greater London meet this criterion
(Transport for London 2003). The guideline to achieve the second key objective of a frequent
service is that the majority of passengers should be able to use buses on a "turn-up-and-go"
basis, which is defined as running service every 12 minutes or better. Services are also planned
so that the average load per bus, in the peak and at the busiest point, is between 75 percent to
80 percent of the total capacity of buses on the route, and where this is not possible to ensure
that passengers should not have to wait more than 10 minutes for a bus that has room for them
to board. The "simple network" guideline is a reaction to the diverse demand for bus travel and
resulting complexity of the overall network in London. The idea is to keep individual services
as simple and consistent as possible, for example having the last bus leave at the same time
every day when there is no alternative night service. The reliability of the network needs to be
built in at the service design stage by, for example, allowing additional recovery time for
longer routes and basing schedules on current traffic conditions and passenger demand