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I suspect many of us (myself included - I live on the border of Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire and work in central London) commute much further distances that our forbears, and together with the large increase in population in the UK (especially in the South East of England, who often work in London/other large towns/cities and live elsewhere due to the high cost of housing), more of us than ever commute.
What I wonder is how often do the bus routes (especially in large conurbations like London) actually get reviewed for usefulness - presumably be getting users, local residents and workers along routes (or generally) to fill in questionaires, or (at least in London's case) reviewing journey data from Oyster card use. I doubt if the 10 year censuses are of much use, given that people change jobs and home more often than in the past (and can be reliably captured on census data).
I find that bus routes tend to be more aligned to the 'traditional' journeys (often out-of-date) for workplaces and high street shopping, much of which has completely changed over the years. These also don't cover journeys made whilst on 'work time', and I find especially that its often just as quick to walk (even up to 30 mins) than to use buses, train or tube, particularly in the rush hour, unless you are going to a destination a long way away or next to a bus stop/train or tube station and the roads/trains aren't pack full and slow.
Some roads, like London's Oxford Street, Euston Road etc (I'm sure there are many elsewhere - quite a few are like this in Cambridge near to where I live as well) are often jam packed full of buses crawling along, getting in the way of each other (plus taxis and other vehicles doing the same). Most of the time you may as well walk unless its out of the rush 'hour' (not very much is nowadays, mostly after 8pm) and put up with the inevitable pollution at road level (this also saves me £1000+ pa on zone 1 travel to/from work).
No intergrated transport policy as far as I can see - too disjointed with political fingers in pies at work hindering something useful being put together. Some much also for modern technology (working from home, video conferencing etc) helping to reduce the number of journeys.
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