While browsing through a few North American transport blogs I found myself looking at the “Buzzer blog”, from Vancouver. The interesting thing about Buzzer, is that it is a blog run by Translink – the organisation which operates Vancouver’s public transport system. Effectively, their version of ARTA (except Vancouver was smart enough to not sell off all its buses).

While obviously official blogs need to ‘toe the party line’, and outline an ongoing series of positive stories about what’s going on with transport in Vancouver – Buzzer is actually a surprisingly good read. Just tracking down some recent posts there are a whole range of things, including a detailed analysis of feedback Translink has received on the relatively new Canada Line, a post that lets people know about special public transport services to an event, photos from the opening of the Canada Line to mark the one year anniversary of that date, and a fantastic post that asks people for their suggestions about how route-mapping could be improved to better highlight the frequencies of services.

The great thing is that people can post comments, and there’s a dedicated person there to reply to them. Furthermore, the blog format allows quite a lot more depth – whether that be in the form of more in-depth discussion or just more photos – than would ever be possible in the old-fashioned media release.

Reading something like this got me thinking how it would be really fantastic to have something similar in Auckland. While blogs like this one and Jon C’s Auckland Trains provide “outside the tent” analysis on what transport upgrades are happening, we only know what is already out there and we while we may be important cogs in the wheel of getting people more interested in what’s going on in transport matters within Auckland – having an official blog published (most probably by Auckland Transport post Super City transition) would be a superb way for that organisation to truly interact with the public. They could use it to let people know about service disruptions, important milestones, special events, and so forth – in much the same way that media releases are done now. But perhaps most excitingly they could use it in ways similar to Vancouver’s Buzzer Blog – to put out suggestions for comment, to invite ideas, to let people really know what will be going on within what I imagine will be a pretty closed-off and secretive organisation.

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7 comments

  1. We do need something like that, I think if Auckland Transport can be more open in its approach it will really be beneficial. One thing I would like to see is the daily patronage data made available to the public the next day (less any bus operator details of course), this should be fairly easy once integrated ticketing is in place.

    Also I wonder what they will use for a website, I think that Jon C owns aucklandtransport.co.nz

  2. I wonder if they can use a .govt.nz name? I note that ARTA is .co.nz

    I actually wish Auckland Transport had been called “Transport for Auckland” or something like that. Auckland Transport sounds too general, while AT is a stupid acronym.

  3. @admin, probably not,

    Wellington and Christchurch use .org.nz and the NZ .govt DNS rules
    https://www.dns.govt.nz/moderation-policy.php

    contain the following piece of joy, bolding mine

    The .govt.nz namespace is reserved for statutory entities and Government programmes. It includes the Public Service, Crown Entities, local authorities and a variety of other bodies with statutory responsibilities. This does not include State Owned Enterprises and may not include some Local Authority Trading Enterprises (LATEs). Each decision is arrived at case by case, and no decision should be interpreted as a precedent.

  4. Buzzer blog is fantastic. It really connects the community with transit. Jhenifer is quick to repsond to requests and we get some inside information. Want to know why something has been decided, Jhenifer will look into it and post the findings. All in all, all transit agencies should copy this format. It really is a great way to connect and build that all important relationship between community and the wider transit system.

    BTW – Translink cover a huge area. It provides service to over 20 municipalities with the network covering an area of around 1600 square kilometres. It stretches from the US Border in the south to the North Shore Mountains in the north (sneaking around them as far up Howe Sound as Lions Bay and cross the water to Bowen Island), and from the Pacific Ocean in the west to well up the valley at Aldergrove for buses (with a connection to Central Fraser Valley Transit) and further out to Mission for the West Coast Express Trains (also connecting with Central fraser Velly Transit). Given this area, you need to have a means to coorindate and communicate and I think the Buzzer Blog fills that role nicely.

    1. I agree it’s simply superb to have that level of interaction with those running the transport system. I just hope we get something similar up and running in Auckland.

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