The results of various travel surveys are described in relation to the travel 'needs' and 'desires' of individuals and it appears that people's travel habits are conditioned by constraints on the total amount of time spent travelling, the numbers of trips per day and the cost and effort involved in making them. The benefits of transport improvements can be seen not in terms of time or cost savings, but as an increase in choice of destination. Current work on the evaluation of the main factors affecting public transport patronage is described and the latest information on elasticities with respect to fares, service levels is summarised. Use is made of these and other results to indicate the likely effects of certain changes in operating policy and to discuss possible means of affecting rider ship. A TRRL model is used to see how bus partonage is likely to be affected over the next ten years if a break-even policy is applied and alternatively, how the subsidy level will grow if attemps are made to hold on to the present levels of bus patronage