NZ In Tranzit

I am doing a bit of busspotting research into underground bus stations overseas - not as common as I thought though still very state of the art. The  most zooty found is probably Helsinki's Kamppi Centre, this includes 6 floors of underground shops and  the underground city hub for local bus services and for long distance bus services.  Next door is the countries biggest cinema complex and a metro rail station.  Greater Helsinki is about the population of greater Auckland, but far denser. Also of course, it can get very cold! Underground malls etc are not uncommon at the lattitude, anywhere in the world. I include two photos below per Wikimedia commons In a previous posting I suggested that if cards are played right the extra $21 million dollars to put the Christchurch Bus Exchange underground would seem relatively easy to recover given the marketable asset of a high concentration of foot traffic - tens of thousa...

Popular bus drivers - Christchurch has always had a good reputation for good bus drivers, good service.  I catch 20 - 30 buses on a quiet week, so I'm encountering all firms, many different drivers, a few them old mates, some new friends, most strangers. There's always the odd exception but I think this tradition of good service is still very much alive.  Most people call out thanks to the bus driver when they get off a bus in Christchurch, for good reason. Driving the same route mostly, albeit in rotating shifts, or driving the same route/same trips every day allows bus drivers to get to know regular passengers, and vice versa. Indeed the short empathetic conversations of "how's yer Bert's lumbago?" variety with diverse people, and hugely diverse types of people, is one of the big stimulus factors, can make for a richly fulfilling day. In the old days with greater public transport use and more stable neighbourhoods this...

It is unclear whether recent actions by gangs of bully boys, gangsters and crooked "law" makers so twisted they would make an honest drug dealer blush will effect Metro bus services in Christchurch. Acting under the mantle of being a Government and the false smile of John Keys,  laws so devious , so unjust, spurious and disgusting they overturn the very basis of common justice and centuries of evolving parliamentary law have been introduced to allow farmers and large milk companies the opportunity to ride rough shod of the public good in Canterbury. Under the Nuremburg Laws no Jews are allowed ... Oops, that one might come later!!  Start again, under the Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commisioners and Improved Water Management) Act 2010 the Minister of the Environment is empowered to over-ride the laws and statutes of New Zealand, without even asking Parliament, and decide at his own choosing when and if New Zealand environment law applies in Canterbury!! (a...

A correspondent from West Melton assured me that a new bus service from Darfield was due to start today. Searches of Ecan and Metro failed to reveal anything but it appears it is being done as a private initiative by Redbus - details here

I direct readers attention to two of the latest postings on Jarrett Walker's "Human Transit". What I love about Jarrett's blog is he appreciates public transport is as complex and multi-levelled in its nature as any other form of industry. Doing public transport well is actually fairly difficult and few cities achieve it, too many subtle factors not taken into account. In these two postings Jarrett looks at the strategy and stylistic and image aspects of Ottawa's bus rapid transit - Transitway - system, which is amongst the most successful public transport systems in the carworld, particularly of those within CANZUS, in patronage per capita and percentage of commuters using public transport.. In this first posting he identifies that Ottawa failed to create enough room for the extra buses the success of the busway created; in the second posting he argues against the fad for ultra-modernistic design in buildings (as he has previously in regard to public transi...

Friend and blog correspondent Louise sent me some photos of a bicycle lift in Norway   Hmmmmm...will Christchurch's Metro up for putting  one of these on Hackthorne Road? I suspect not... A comment on the blog that carries these  photos said ...."I was in Trondheim a few years ago, and it seemed only old people or fat tourists used the lift. Most of the locals would cruise up the hill like it was nothing". We only have one set of hills near Christchurch - not being an athlete I find it macabre that so many people want to get up early on a Sunday morning, don garish gear and ride up the very steep Cashmere  area roads onto the Port Hills. However I imagine I am one of the very few people in the modern world to have ridden a draisienne - the very earliest form of bicycle invented by Baron Von Drais (about 1819). You just straddle it and stride along, it is faster than walking on the right terrain, once if you get the ha...

It must be among the world's most dramatic spurts in public transport use. Busways appear to have been a big hit where ever they are built but it would be rare for any system already well established to achieve a 20% growth in ridership in one month!   More Aucklanders are jumping on trains, buses and ferries. There were 918,000 train passengers last month, up by 14.3 per cent, according to figures released by the Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA) today. ARTA will put two more trains into service later this year to deal with the rise in demand. Bus passenger numbers are also up 5 per cent. The rise comes as Northern Busway users climb by 20 per cent in the month of March alone . Ferry users have also increased by 3.5 per cent over the last nine months. The NZ Herald (4 May 2010) The Northern Busway service runs from Auckland's CBD, over the Harbour Bridge and up the side of the motorway spine to Albany.  The busway first pl...

A little more about the cowboy radar spotter. I realised afterwards that the description of the system didn't give a full picture of how it worked. This is how Stagecoach's own website "Greener Travel " section describes it; "Stagecoach is also testing a hi-tech in-cab driver system to improve safety, reduce fuel costs and cut carbon emissions. The initiative is in partnership with GreenRoad Technologies , a leading driver safety [ and high tech fleet management ] company, on the bus network in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. The system monitors up to 120 driving manoeuvres, such as speed, braking, acceleration lane handling and turning. Data is sent in a continuous stream to GreenRoad’s web server and analysed, providing information about a driver’s performance. Instant feedback is given to the driver using red, amber and green lights on the dashboard and optional SMS or email messaging." Though not painted as such this is also a policing mechanism, though how...

" Greater Wellington is only marginally larger in population than greater Christchurch but has received roughly 13 times more Government funding towards public transport infrastructure than Christchurch" Reading the news the other day I see Christchurch East MP Lianne Dalziel (Labour) is campaigning to keep the new Bus Exchange above ground and to use the extra $21 million saved to build suburban exchanges. These have had to be canned because of lack of Government funding. Without a clear and well thought through "mass transit" strategy, one that will secure funding because it knows where it is going (from the next Government if not this one) this sort of ping pong game with relatively small amounts is inevitable. I 'd like to put this amount in context of spending on public transport by the only other city of similar size in New Zealand, Wellington. It is my experience that most people in Christchurch have absolutely no idea how many of their tax dollars...

One of the great disadvantages of catching buses is that passengers put themselves at the mercy of the driver. Every now and again (in my experience very rarely in Christchurch) one strikes a driver who seems determined to drive as roughly as possible - accelerating violently, braking suddenly, taking sharp corners at such speed that passengers are almost toppled to the floor. One idiot cowboy like this does enormous damage - thousands of people who tried buses or tried using them for a short period - have gone back to using cars or other alternatives after enduring a really unpleasant trip. Apart from the straight physical discomfort or the worry the driver might hit some innocent pedestrian or cylists, there is something that really grieves the soul to put oneself totally at the mercy of another person and be abused and humiliated in this manner. This is particularly so for young, insecure or very macho males, who find the whole business of being dependent upon another driver very gr...

One of the ideas I advocated a few postings back was that a bus subway should be built under the new motorway, up into the Birmingham Drive industrial enclave. This in turn would also allow a future tunnel under the railway line to create a direct route from Barrington Mall and all areas of the southwest, built or planned, straight up to Hillmorten Hospital, Birmingham Drive, Blenheim Road, Riccarton Road, the University, Sheffield Tech Park employment zone, the International Airport and existing and future industrial development along theJohns Road area (see here for map) . The area around Birmingham Drive (and Curletts Road, Blenheim Rd) are among the most poorly served by public transport and the most heavily congestedin peak hours..possibly more so once the new motorway dumps more cars off motorway onto Curletts Rd. Today I realised this building busways under a railway line is exactly what is being done in Winnipeg, a medium size city of 690,000 in Canada I have long been aware th...

This area and that behind the fence was the best bit of "wheel estate" in Christchurch. It was pivotal - quite literally pivotal - in the future of public transport in Christchurch. From this point almost a fifth of the city's geographic footprint and towns north of Christchurch are serviced by a pattern of express buses and full-time BRT corridor buses to and from Redwood, Belfast, Styx Mill, Northcote and the Airport-Johns Road industrial areas that developed. It was realised that purchasing this area could enhance the lives of tens of thousands of residents who never actually set foot on it, removing most the traffic stress of congestion as buses whizzed in and out to town by-passing Papanui Road and Cranford Street, served by conventional routes.  It was redeveloped as a beautiful park running between Rutland Street and Grassmere Street, with a fenced off busway embankment around the back. Here is another view of this land, as it looked ...

When I was a young teenager starting to spread my wings - I spent several bits of time in the Hutt Valley and Wellington, usually with two or three other 14 or 15 year old boys. We would travel from our country town to the exciting metropolis, for a day or overnight, granted brief trial independence on the condition we stuck together and didn't talk to suspicious male strangers, and rung home now and then if we were several nights away. We stayed in youth hostels and lived on baked beans and meat pies! Some part of that time was always spent "riding the rails" on those most exotic of all vehicles, the Wellington's electric rail units. It was as if some part of New York had been transferred into NZ, the doors all opening simultaneously, the electric whirr of acceleration, the rush and roar of a train passing in the opposite direction, the sudden change of pitch in the clackety clack as the units crossed and re-crossed the Hutt River, the grumpy guard in his crumpled un...

In a world where infrastructure projects of all sorts so often run over-time and over-cost Johannesburg' giant Rea Vaya ("We are moving") Bus Rapid Transit System (BRT) network is coming into land, all wheels out and ready, as planned for the World Cup in 36 days time.  The bus rapit transit (or busway) system was chosen as most cost effective mass transit system for the modern era and for a country with South Africa's level of wealth (not so huge now apartheid has ended and infrastructure needs to be built to benefit and support all people, not just a minority sector). Commuter rail already exists between Soweto and industrial areas but does not cover large areas of the city or access the CBD. It would have been hugely expensive and socially intrusive to retro-fit commuter rail without achieving a particularly wide spread of services. Light rail would also be hugely expensive and due to the prohibitive cost per kilometre also circumscribed in its reach. ...

"Greater use of higher frequency, short trips by inner city residents is fairly common in most systems; the more interesting and unusual figure is the high bus use by residents living much further out. Presumably it is because the dedicated busways offer such a competitive advantage against car travel and car congestion over the longer distances. OC Transpo Articulated bus in Ottawa - Rob Huntley; Wikimedia Commons An interesting public transport statistic - (there are dozens but this is perhaps one of the most revealing) - is annual passenger trips (or ridership) per capita. Mayor Bob Parker and his team chose to go to Portland. This is a city that has earned a big reputation for its very green, social, community orientated development. I don't want to knock that but it does need to be kept in perspective. Ridership per annum in greater Christchurch (include Rangiora, Lincoln etc) pans out around 43 trips per resident a year, average - Portland with 101 million passenge...