I must admit that sometimes I can get a little overly focused on expanding Auckland’s rail system, and perhaps I ignore our bus system a bit. Around 80% of public transport trips in Auckland are taken on the bus, so clearly no matter what happens to our rail system, it is very likely that for the foreseeable future buses are still going to make up the majority of public transport in Auckland. So therefore it is critical to look at how we could make the bus system better. It’s actually pretty simply in my opinion:
- Smart-card integrated ticketing.
- More bus lanes.
The first of these two is pretty obvious in terms of ‘how it should happen’. And, fortunately, integrated smart-card ticketing is happening. So let’s look at part two – more bus lanes. In the map below, blue lines indicate the existing stretches of bus lanes throughout Auckland City and part of Manukau City. The red lines indicate routes that I think could or should be ‘bus laned’ in the future – to create a far better bus system.
Bus lanes help create some sense of ‘certainty’ in terms of having regular buses along this part of the network, while also actually making it possible for bus travel to be faster than car travel. Along some of Auckland’s most successful stretches of bus lanes around half the people travelling along that corridor use public transport.
To start with, I think Pakuranga Road, as much of the Link bus route as possible, Queen Street, the parts of Mt Eden Road & Sandringham Road where the existing bus lanes end, and Manukau Road are obvious candidates.
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Good suggestions. I think there would be a good case for them in the Ellerslie-Pamnure-Pakuranga-Tamaki and Howick corridor.
Definitely agree that the network should be expanded. Whenever I’m in Auckland I use the Onehunga to city route and it’s obvious that bus lanes would speed things up dramatically. Hopefully they’d make the service more popular too.
Has anyone surveyed city councillors to determine what proportion of them actually use public transport? I wonder if part of Auckland’s problem is that some decision-makers see public transport as “someone else’s problem” and/or have no real experience of it in their own lives on which to base policy decisions.
Ha good question about the councillors. i know that Christine Rose on the ARC catches the train every day from waimauku. That probably explains why she is so PT friendly.
I agree, integrated ticketing (with proper zone/distance fares, not just a stored value card that can be used on all operators) and network of proper bus lanes would make a world of difference.
I think it is easy as building a busway or fulltime, fullsize bus lanes for any RTN route, and building ‘regular’ buslanes for any QTN route. A no-brainer really, even a no-brain politician should be able to see that! 🙂
It would also be pretty cheap compared to the big rail projects. I hope that we see the future transport agency really get stuck into providing bus lanes.
What would help make the system better too is enabling buses to influence traffic lights so they don’t always hit the “red wave” (bus stops always make them lose the “green wave” programmed for car drivers). Imagine K Road to Britomart in less than 10 minutes. Now it takes frequently 20 minutes.
Well apparently the Link Bus can do that. I agree it would make a difference though for Queen St I think the lights are timed for pedestrians which I think is good.
I don’t think you need bus lanes on New North Road, people who use these buses should be encouraged to take the train instead
Well New North Road is a very popular bus route – I think largely with university students who aren’t well served by the rail system. Perhaps if we built a Parnell/University train station then that might take some pressure off New North Road, but at the moment it is a very very popular route.
I’ve always thought loading time for buses is a big problem. Do we know (timings) to what extent a smart-card addresses this problem. I suspect some smart-cards allow faster boarding than others. Many European cities have the system where you buy a ticket before getting on and then stick it in a machine to validate it once on the bus. Why is this not a good system for Auckland?
I would guess that smart-cards might halve loading times. I have on occasion tried to get some idea about the average loading time per passenger at the moment, it seems around 10 seconds. That could be reduced to maybe 3-4 seconds with a non-contact smart-card machine.
Just as a comparison, London’s Oyster card takes about half a second to touch on. its only when someones oyster doesn’t work that it can take more than that, and if someone has to dig around their bag for their oyster, the driver usually just lets them on and drives off while they’re finding it. In Auckland I reckon it must be an average of 8-10 seconds per passenger.
I just got back from Welly and the Snapper card did not speed up loading all that noticably…
I think the goal is clear; integrated ticketing, through-routing, a 15min in 500m gaurantee (or similar) and then bus lanes on all arterial in greater Auckland that have a route on them…
I was wondering where you’d been Jezza. One good thing about the Snapper Card is that if one person is pissing around trying to dig up the correct change from the depths of their bag they don’t actually hold up everyone else – who can just sneak by them. That would make quite a bit of a difference.
Yeah I noticed a few people doing that… I think the four steps I outlined are the best plan for massively increasing Auckland’s PT use… It could be done for a few hundred million and I think think could add 50% to bus ridership, another 20 million rides a year..!
Yeah I agree – although I’d be a little careful about the 15 min within 500m rule – you might need a “hub and spoke” system with feeder buses into railway station to make that possible.
Looking at the map in my original post, I must say I thought we had a more extensive bus lane system. Just goes to show that actually putting something on a map can lead to surprises at times.
I remember when I first saw it on the ACC website I was very disapointed…
I’m yet to find a bus lane in Manukau City that’s longer than 20m, so in comparison Auckland City Council does pretty well.
Think about that before voting for Len Brown…
Ha! I don’t think many of Auckland City’s PT improvements can be attributed to Banks. I have been putting pressure on Len Brown about that issue via Facebook though.
Don’t vote for Banks either, make Mike Lee run..!
I don’t know how much you can blame Len Brown for Manukau’s roads-centrism, although I do think he can be faulted for MCC not providing the extra cash to bring the Manukau rail link further east.
Would you advocate HGVs (3.5 tonnes plus) using bus lanes if the bus lane had significantly spare capacity?
If not, why not? They have no reasonable alternative (only a fool would argue rail can replace trucks on the local road network), have a far bigger environmental impact as a result of congestion affecting fuel consumption, and pay the most for the roads anyway.
Otherwise a lot of road capacity lies grossly underutilised for no good reason. It is operating in London on a southern stretch of the A23 with some success (10 minute intervals between buses leaves a lot of road space).
It depends on the bus frequency. For some places with high frequencies (say a bus every 5 min or more) then I would hesitate to open up the bus lane. For lower frequency routes I would have transit lanes. Then perhaps off peak trucks could use them (trucks seem to try to avoid peak times anyway). I think making one motorway lane T2 at peak and trucks
only off peak makes good sense too.
Most trucks would advoid peak times so making offpeak times for trucks to use bus lanes would be alright, however would they really need to use bus lanes if the motorway is not congested?
Most bus lanes only operate at peak hour and form on-street parking at other times. I think it would be an interesting debate having the truckies go up against local retailers for that roadspace.
I’m not against HGVs in bus lanes, particularly outside peak time…