DURING the Edinburgh Festival, I was waiting in Princes Street for the bus to Glasgow. The queue was long and restless, and I got talking to a Malaysian surgeon and his son, who were visiting on holiday. After a few minutes the doctor asked why I was not taking the train. The journey to his hotel was only a few stops, but he was clearly perplexed that I was heading westwards in this manner.

Just a few days ago, on Sunday evening, I again awaited a bus in Princes Street, this time with growing irritation as almost an hour passed and nothing appeared. Like countless weary Edinburghers, eager to get home after an afternoon’s Christmas shopping, those of us who were Glasgow-bound were stranded because of road closures, which had caused calamitous hold-ups. A middle-aged, well-dressed woman next to me said she had been persuaded by her mother to try the bus for the first time – it was door to door after all. Eventually she gave up and made for Waverley Station, but not before inquiring if I often took the bus. I felt like an eccentric Edwardian explorer, in pith hat and mosquito veil, prepared to risk tropical diseases and a road as perilous as the Karakoram Highway, simply for the thrill.

Travelling on the No 26 or the 900 is one thing, being quizzed about it, as if under oath, is another. Yet as both these instances show, in this country and in others, it carries a stigma based entirely on accent and appearance. Some of this is an echo of the USA, where it’s the vehicle of choice for the poorest. This, despite it being one of the most efficient, cost-effective and effortless means of transport. When traffic is moving, that is. How ironic and galling, then, that the answer to clogged roads is the bus (or tram). Not the car or taxi, which create the problem in the first place.

Despite this, recent figures show that the number of bus passengers is falling. Although it is still the most popular form of public transport, its star is waning. In part, this is because shopping habits are changing, and more is purchased online, thereby causing a drop of 15 million journeys (but with the commensurate rise in delivery vans). Congestion is cited as a factor in four million further lost bus trips, since slow-moving traffic adds about 10 per cent to travelling times. Yet that does not square with the rising ownership and use of cars. Cars are even slower in cities than buses, and when the lights keep changing without an inch being gained, you can’t just leap out and walk. Plainly people prefer to sit in a jam in their own private space, rather than breathing the same air as strangers.

Trains, however, can be just as slow. Lately, services in the central belt have so often been caught up in congestion I’ve wondered if cars have been taking to the rails to escape the streets. And whereas on trains you frequently have to stand, squashed against whoever is beside you, this never happens on long-distance buses.

What could be better than an hour and a half or more on a bus, with time to read and daydream? A comfy seat, no intrusive and irritating announcements, a good view, and access to the very heart of the town. It’s also cheaper or, if you’re over 60, free. This last is the reason a lot of slightly shame-faced fellow travellers quickly mention, thrift getting the better of their prejudices.

You can blame Margaret Thatcher, who said anyone caught on a bus after the age of 30 is a failure. Yet since many of us ignored or flouted almost everything she said, our distaste is innate, not learned. In a city with as excellent a service as Edinburgh, to choose to drive is nuts. There is the cost of fuel and parking, the risk of fines for straying into bus lanes, the hyper-vigilance of traffic wardens and cops. Above all, as awareness of toxic levels of pollution causing serious environmental and respiratory harm grows, surely even diehard petrol-heads can get the message?

For those who live in rural areas, of course, the above is all but irrelevant. I could be reporting from another planet. Long-lamented branch railways are slowly being brought back to life, as their value is once again recognised. Is it not time, then, that bus companies are encouraged and, indeed, offered financial incentives, to improve the reach and frequency of their country routes? There are certain districts where you’ve as much chance of seeing a dodo as a bus. As a result, cars are as essential to survival as bread and water, meaning only the fit and able can comfortably live beyond reach of public transport. In these parts, it’s not class consciousness that stops people getting aboard, it’s opportunity. Meanwhile, in areas where buses abound, one of their additional benefits is that those in the seats around you are probably – almost definitely – not snobs.