Through a rather unusual series of events this morning (involving dropping my daughter at school and having to be at a meeting at work at an earlier than usual time) I found myself catching an Onewa Road bus for the first time in a number of years. I very frequently drive along Onewa Road (generally doing my best to avoid it at peak hour), but it was interesting to see it from a bus-catcher’s point of view for the first time in a while.
As shown in the maps below, Onewa Road is a pretty key arterial route on the southwest corner of the North Shore. The road itself is shown in green, and what I consider to potentially be its “CBD bound catchment” is shown in red. Due to this significant catchment, and the rather awkward placement of two sets of traffic lights near the bottom of this road, it suffers from pretty horrendous traffic congestion. But at the same time, it operates what must be Auckland’s longest running bus/transit lane (in operation since the 1980s I have heard) – a lane that allows buses, vehicles with three or more passengers and motorcyclists to travel along it.
This T3 transit lane is incredibly effective, and I would imagine that many more people travelling along the Onewa Road corridor use it, generally as a bus-rider, than would drive down the main lane. One of my main reasons for using the bus this morning was that from the top of Onewa to the bottom (left to right in the map above) only takes around 5-6 minutes on a bus, but can take 20 minutes at peak time by car.
However, there is one rather odd thing about Onewa Road, and that is illustrated in the map below – which shows that all the existing (green) and under construction (red) transit lane is for vehicles heading towards the city, and there’s absolutely nothing for those heading out of the city – which can mean some pretty big delays buses during the evening peak:
Now I absolutely understand that traffic congestion is worse in the AM peak than the PM peak along Onewa Road. So therefore if we had to choose between having a bus/transit lane on the northern side of the road or the southern side, I would absolutely pick the northern side. But really why can’t there be a transit lane on the other side of the road? Looking at google streetview, it would certainly seem as though there is enough room to put the lane in, perhaps with just a little shift of the road into the footpath (like is being done at the eastern end of Onewa Road at the moment).
Onewa Road certainly needs a bit of an upgrade for a number of reasons (the lack of a median strip is actually just downright dangerous). I would hope that we can put bus/transit lanes on the other side of this critical arterial route in the very near future.
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A Inspiration
I really find it so depressing the level of conversation I find in NZ. Not saying it’s not me.
On this issue: I think a few ferries from Beach Haven first.
Number two: A train and bike Bridge from Birkenhead to Pt Chev is best for long term use.
Ferries from Beachhaven would certainly be of some assistance to the “Onewa Road issue”. The more people bypassing the road altogether the less pressure on what is a pretty narrow road for what it has to deal with.
The problem with ever putting a railway line anywhere on the North Shore that’s not up the busway is how hilly the North Shore is. The treed areas in the aerial above are huge gullies, Onewa Road is on a ridge, Glenfield Road is on a ridge that sits way above the surrounding area… in short it would be impossibly expensive to put a railway anywhere in that part of the North Shore I reckon.
Admin,
I totally agree with a bus lane up the hill having lived in Birkenhead myself for a short period of time. It can sometimes get very busy going up, at least to the point where you might save 10min on a bus with a bus lane (and longer if the lights at the top start short-phasing, as they seemed keen on doing a couple of years ago when I was there!). Is there an exclusive lane for buses from Fanshawe St to Onewa road now? If so, this would be the only extra thing that would be needed for very reliable and fast 2-way public transport from this part of Auckland (notwithstanding the ferry service – but I suspect the ferry service would be unlikely to be able to increase frequency as easily as the bus service).
Central Birkenhead is in the growth strategy as a second tier node/growth point, so I would have thought a bus lane up the hill would help to develop the strategy.
Re time for a car to go down in the AM peak I would say 20mins would be a good day, unless it has gotten substantially better in the last 2 years. 30-45mins was not uncommon when I was foolishly doing it!
As part of the Victoria Park Tunnel project there will be a northbound buslane added to the motorway through St Mary’s Bay I think. That means that the Harbour Bridge will effectively be the only part of the journey between Fanshawe and the bottom of Onewa Road that does not have a bus lane (plus the off-ramp and lead-up to it obviously).
At around 8.45am I often manage to get down Onewa Rd in 15 minutes, although I guess the worst of the rush hour has passed by then.
The Victoria Park Tunnel will provide the option for a lane to be used for buses IF needed, so there will be no bus lane as part of this project, which I find ridiculous. We’re up to 5 northbound lanes now and not a single lane for buses. Pathetic. You’d think the huge rises in patronage of the northern busway would demonstrate the need for buslanes now.
From the NZTA site:
“Five traffic lanes for northbound traffic with provision for bus priority when necessary.
Five traffic lanes and a bus shoulder lane for southbound traffic.”
One advantage Auckland has if peak cheap oil is relatively severe is our arterial roads… They are generally wide in “old” Auckland thanks to the trams and wide in “new” Auckland due to road engineers mania… Because they are so car dominated now we actually have a lot of latent potential to reallocate this space to more efficient uses like buses and cycles going forward…
We should get started with this work now to make the changes less sharp and Onewa Rd looks like a good place to start over the shore…
OK.
Did not really think rail there was a great idea, I just wanted to make a comment.
RTC, I would be very curious to know what “when necessary” actually means.
How about all Birkenhead people have to work in their area or, pay double tax?
Ah but it’s not really their fault that there are such few transport options. It’s whoever laid out the North Shore’s street pattern in such a silly way. Having a grid of arterial routes, rather than all streets feeding into one road, would distribute the traffic much better and probably resolve half the problem. Far too late for that now though!
Or if their Jobs are not really important then pay them a stay home allowance.
Or how about, just a massive Computer system which provides everyone a time to leave home, based on their work and location.
I could help run it. We could use variables such as how big their car is and if their Rich.
When necessary is a strange choice of words. Arguably it might be positive for bus lane use, as the only thing I can think it means is: When necessary to prevent general traffic holding up buses. It may mean it will not be a full time thing.
Jeremy
Uphill on Onewa Road is not even ‘officially’ 2 lanes now expect through the intersections, so should be a very good place to start. I think the main issue might be local parking, which is of course ridiculous given the importance of the arterial road
“when necessary” means we don’t want to spend any money on it, and theoretically it could be built, but we’re not going to.
Well one side of the road loses local parking in the morning peak, so I don’t see what the problem would be with the other side of the road losing parking during the evening peak. Sounds pretty fair to me.
More on this computer idea.
A Motorola Massive Computer system which provides everyone a time to leave home, based on their work and location.
It uses road patterns and you get to bid for the best time slot.
I could help run it. We could use variables such as how big their car is and if their Rich.
Anthony, those sorts of systems have been looked at for general road pricing. Something that would work out where you travel, when you travel and how far you travel, calculate the congestion cost you place on the roading system (ie. you get charged more for travelling further during congested times on congested routes) and charge you accordingly.
Apart from “big brother” concerns, it all seems incredibly expensive. While fuel tax is a bit cruder, it effectively achieves much the same outcomes. Maybe some day though it’ll be necessary when we’re all driving electric cars (supposedly).
That idea is similar to the road trains we have been hearing are just around the corner for 70 years… Mainly they are used by road nuts to justify unjustifable road expenditure, i.e. this road may not look like value on paper but when those future technologies come it’ll be worth it but they never do, the most efficient vehicle yet invented are all from the 19th century…
Well Someone likes my idea then.
Well I think a website which shows the times/roads and you put a bid it. And also traffic lights all controlled by software.
I think traffic lights are controlled by software…. some are more complex and responsive than other though. Singapore has a variable congestion charge which they think works quite well for them… although you can achieve much the same outcome by simply dedicating less roadspace to cars and more to public transport.
Can you put some blogs about Electric Cars,
Jarbury.
There are many being now made in Norway which are quite cute. However we cannot import them as they are not strong enough for NZ roads.
Also Sports cars such as http:/www.teslamotors.com/ are doing nicely.
The science is fairly simple so, I don’t know why more are not made.
We could make them here actually.
Anthony, I doubt electric cars will be the saviour they’re purported to be.
While the cars themselves is simple, generating electricity to power millions upon millions of them is not.
Mass-producing electric cars has issues – their construction and maintenance will be harmful especially in terms of the mining for, assembly of, and disposal of their energy storage equipment (ie batteries).
Also electric cars still have a high energy use per person. This energy will have to come from mass generation, and for most of the world, cheap mass generation means coal. So we still end up burning stuff to power our cars, and burning coal is more polluting than burning oil.
I’m confident electric and hybrid mass transit will, when total cost of manufacture, operation, storage and disposal is taken into account, be cheaper and more sustainable than electric cars. Add environmental sustainability and mass transit gets even better still.
Electric trains also do not require energy storage, saving on a lot of lithium or lead and its associated manufacture, maintenance and disposal.
One of the advantages of a road pricing system would be that more of the cost of car use is variable, and less is fixed. For example registration/acc and insurance costs could be paid for on a per km type basis. This would help to mitigate the ‘I definitely need a car some of time, and now ive got a car I may as well drive it’ effect.
It would also make collecting an economic rate of return on roading assets a fairer process, for example by charging the peak time users more. This should make that objective more politically acceptable.
Switzerland runs, jointly with the PT operators, a car share scheme. For 25CHF a year (as an add on to a yearly PT pass) you can join and use the cars for however long you want and pay an hourly charge (1-2CHF an hour) and a cost per kilomtres travelled (~5-20cents). Petrol is included in this price. These cars have depots all over the country so you can catch a train to XY and pick up a car there, or when you need to pick up something big you can take a car. Cars can be reserved over the web and so will be there when you turn up. The great thing about this is that, you don’t need to own a car and yet whenever you need to use one, you have one available. It equates to a big saving in the long run. Furthermore, car owners pay increased tax, have to pay for parking spaces, and to use the motorway system have to buy an annual pass. The pass is pretty smart as all people simply driving through e.g. from Germany to Italy, in effect pay a lot of money towards the motorway system.
I currently spend 0.7% of my salary for unlimited PT use in a year, don’t have to deal with car break downs and yet still have one available whenever I need to use one. Jarbury said in a previous post that Auckland spends 16% of its wealth on transport. Quite a difference if you ask me, and you’re locked into one transport means.
Anyway, getting back to Onewa Road… I’m sure that a few years ago I heard of a scheme to restrict parking on the uphill side, which would eventually lead to a transit lane on that side of the road too.
I wonder what happened to that idea?
I have heard that as well. Maybe once the transit lane is completed, and the Lake Rd lane also constructed, there will be even more popular support for such a proposal than there is currently, as more people use the bus. Although it is unfortunate that it could not have been rolled into the current project.
So right now (13/03/13 ) we have a major problem with the bus lead-on lane to the motorway in that it has been closed for over a week now and causing major disruptions. I have no choice but to take my car to work as I work in sales and use my car to get to clients. It took me 28 minutes to get down Onewa road from Kauri Glen road, next to Northcote college, to the BP, Lake road, this is only 1000 meters.There seems to be no explanation of the lane closer and to top it off when I did finally get onto the motorway everyone on the motorway is travelling at 80Km and its much less than 50% capacity so it’s not the motorway that is the bottle neck it’s either the phasing or the closed bus lane. Onewa road seems to be the tester for Auckland transport and I just wonder if they are conducting a road rage experiment right now.
It might have something to do with the Transpower work that is going on. When riding on the double decker last week it looked like their work was going on around that area.
the bus lane on the on-ramp is needlessly closed when it could easily operate and merge with the busway lane close to the motorway as the works are mostly south of the merge