NZ In Tranzit

Back to the future?  The more successful that  the Brougham St and the Southern Motorway extension prove the more likely are queues to access these roads, such as this one every evening at Burlington Street.  Will this sort of queue also become the norm in Selwyn St? With no support mechanism to protect or enhance bus movements where is bus priority in all this planning? The first [ actually third I now realise - Ed ] of the suburban shopping centres make-overs by the city council working with local residents and shop-keepers has hit the streets. This is the final master plan guidelines for the block of shops in Selwyn Street - many of many which were destroyed in and after (as unsafe) the ferocious February earthquake. These shops were originally built around the terminus of the electric tramway to Spreydon built in 1915, that is until the lines extended further down Selwyn Street after World War I. These tram lines were still visible in the original conc...

I love driving heavy vehicles, that king of the road feeling sitting above all the other traffic. I still feel more at home in a big cab than anywhere else on earth, even though it is now only occasionally I drive a heavy vehicle more than one day a week. I drove buses, city buses and a smaller sightseeing for about 14 years in total, up to about 20 years ago. Since then  I have driven a specialised heavy vehicle every Thursday for the last 18 years, around the city suburbs. Some weeks or a several weeks I drive two days, occasionally four days. I love driving this aging high beast (elephant?) through traffic but no one with a lick of sense driving HT vehicles can ever forget the huge minute by minute responsibility of their employment. When I was a full time bus driver every year I'd have one or two nightmares where I had of killed  or injured somebody with my bus. That's just the ones I'd remember. Obviously not entirely relaxed at a deeper level. I also remember ...

Buses bunching on "The Orbiter" circular bus route in Christchurch ensuring a service every ten minutes becomes two buses every 20 minutes or even 3 buses arriving simultaneously after 30 minutes. Despite the fact this system was carrying patronage levels about almost 20% of Wellington commuter rail before the major earthquakes it has never received even a tiny portion of the $600 million plus of taxes invested in Wellington rail. To "busists" - the transport equivalent of racists or sexists - buses aren't worth it! Yet probably a mere $20 million Government grant invested in added bus lanes. queue jumper lanes and other infrastructure, and a sophisticated computer system could probably produce accurate consistent unimpeded running, reliability (including transfers) and add up to another million patrons a year.  Attitudes are slow to change and recognise we now have the conceptual understanding and the multiple technologies to deliver excellent quality ...

If services to the central city are to be cutback NZ in Tranzit believes extending frequent cross town services, The Orbiter . The Metrostar  and The Comet  offers far better value for money than the "I was bored on a wandering star"and "lost in space" systems being put forward by Metro. Better one strong reliable mostly straight running relatively frequent service than  infrequent, fragmented, tedious and scary (insane "bus-rage" inducing if connections missed!) transfer routes. Coupled with potential "split enz" routes (not shown) routes on this map this bring quality access and quality transfer within range of a great many more residents than current  Metro route change proposals. The extended Comet above (red line) offers direct access(no transfers) to multiple employment zones and residential areas; gives one bus access to the airport (for workers or travellers) as far to the east as The Palms; serves three major malls and three ...

A specific function service operating in Sydney - one of 200 routes in that city.  Photo per Wikimedia Commons Metro is making some very big shifts in strategic direction and this blogster's instinct is they are moving too fast and destroying what has been, almost in panic mode; not hallmarks of good planning. Public transport planning has many tricks up its sleeve but Metro are betting the house almost entirely on the call of one hand of cards - and without too many obvious aces in that hand.. Again never a wise policy with complex infrastructure changes. NZ in Tranzit questions how much analysis has been made of structural concepts that underpin Metro planning of the last decade, and continue to effect the new proposals. Simply Does it.  Or does it? I have long admired the relative simplicity of Metro's route structure. In this strategy,  followed for over a decade at least, every route is the same route, doesn't matter whether peak hour Thursday at 5.15pm ...

Those who have put together the Draft Regional Public Transport Plan 2012 no doubt drove to the meeting and drove home. When they go to the supermarket they will drive there, on Saturday night when they go out for a meal, they will drive there. On Sunday they will not wait in the freezing cold rain because they have promised to visit their elderly mother. On Monday morning they will not need to catch three different buses, and be at a bus stop at 6.30 am just to guarantee(almost) being at work by 8.00 am. Because no one, no one, who depended on public transport to get about would ever design such a diabolical recipe for delays, long waits, cumbersome journeys doubling back on routes already travelled, sitting in buses waiting for a connection, tedious twist and turn journeys, anxiety and missed connections, fear of oneself or one's teenage children being stranded for an hour at night in some other bullying teenagers "territory", fear of being late for work yet again and...

Environment Canterbury is making the most savage cuts in bus service history under cover of reforming bus route structure. But have City Council and ECan really done an effective job in managing buses services and their  recovery?  Or are ratepayers and bus passengers paying a very high price (literally and in loss of life quality)  for a service that suffered far more that it might have, had there been more effective civic leadership more committed to public transport. NZ in Tranzit investigates the "other fault lines" that have helped destroy a very good bus system As a result of several severe earthquakes (and multiple aftershocks) multiple city buildings in the city centre were destroyed or made unsafe to occupy. The whole central area of devastated Christchurch was declared a no-entry zone to unauthorised persons. and all businesses and other enterprises had to relocate to temporary or permanent new premises outside this area. Many streets and the un...