A visitor from the Hawkes Bay rides AT’s buses & trains.

This is a guest post from longtime supporter Mr Plod, whose previous contributions include a proposal that Hamilton become New Zealand’s capital city, an examination on cruise control and speed limits, and that we should switch which side of the road we drive on.

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Whenever we travel overseas we make a point of using Public Transport rather than hiring a car so on a recent business trip to Auckland I decided to do the same. So how did it work out? Quite well actually. I liked the generally clean trains and buses and the helpful bus drivers and the people I met on the transit lines were polite and courteous if a little bemused that a stranger would talk to them rather than silently doom scroll.

However, as my gig is process improvement, here are some process improvement suggestions for Auckland Transport and Waka Kotahi.

1. Route maps on the App.

The AT app is pretty good, however I’d love an interactive route map where I type in say “365” and see the full path that route takes. This would be useful where the Journey Planner suggests a number of different route combinations that I could review without having to first selecting one. Or, type in a stop number and see where all the routes that use that stop go to. Not a biggy if you have few options on your regular commute, aimed instead at the new or occasional user.

2. More bus priority please.

I rode the 866 from Ponsonby Road to the Browns Bay shops. It was late afternoon, rush hour on a Friday. The first bus was crowded and only took on one passenger to replace the one that got off. The second bus took on all six waiting. I even got a seat. The first surprise is the bus had to join the general traffic to queue for the on-ramp lights on Curran St. Allocating the left hand lane as a bus priority lane up until say three car spaces from the lights would give the buses and everyone on board a clearer run and hardly impact the LOV*s at all. The second surprise was the cars parked kerbside along the bus route through the East Coast Bays. Before the Harbour Bridge, the East Coast Bays were one of Auckland’s holiday destinations with bachs in all the best spots.

Narrow roads wound their way down the ridge lines and across the swamps behind the beaches. After the bridge opened and during the North Shore subdivision boom of the ‘60s & ‘70s these narrow ridge line roads were curbed, channeled & sealed but seldom made any wider. Today’s vehicles are wider, there are more of them on the roads and many more parked curbside. The buses are bigger also. To their credit AT have painted yellow lines on the tighter and narrower corners to eliminate the overly dangerous parking but still the driver had to slow frequently where there were parked cars to allow the cars and buses using the road to pass each other with safe clearance. This parking needs to be better managed on this bus route.

These two issues are sort of similar to the dwell time issue on the trains. If we are to grow our economy by moving everything faster (cough, cough) the transport agencies must attend to every little delay to the vehicles carrying the most passengers as much as attending to the motorways that carry the fastest traffic.

3. Better bus & train integration.

I travelled to South Auckland by bus and train on a wet Auckland day. I took the Inner Link from Ponsonby to Newmarket to catch the train south. I expected the bus to stop opposite Teed St so I could duck down the (grotty) lane into the station square and the station concourse. Oh no, the bus stopped 200m further down the road opposite the mall. Ok, a 200m walk is not hard even when it involves a road (plus slip road) crossing in heavy Auckland rain. Then neither is it hard to put the bus stop where it makes the most network sense, outside said grotty lane.

Be clear, I’m not advocating that the stop opposite the Westfield Mall be closed. Have both, one serves shoppers the other those going to or from the train. The bus & its stops should primarily serve the passengers’ journeys not the needs of someone wishing to park outside a shop. Once in south Auckland I used the buses and my legs to get around various appointments and spent too much time sheltering under a tree or just standing in the rain because of a lack of bus shelters. A simple corrugated iron structure on a concrete pad with a wooden bench seat would have sufficed. It needn’t be the fully glazed TV screened artistic wonder seen elsewhere in Auckland. Auckland is a wet place and gonna get wetter, bus passengers deserve better.

4. And again.

I started my journey home on the 11W to the City Centre to catch a train to Puhinui. Again I expected the bus to stop right at the bottom Queen St to enable a short road crossing and walk to Britomart station across Te Komititanga Square. Oh no, again we were unloaded 300m up the road opposite Vulcan Lane and the AT app suggested we wind our way through the back streets to enter the station back entrance. WTF? There is even a bus stop at the bottom of Queen St, #1325, which seems only to be used by the City Link buses. Again put the bus stop where it makes the most network sense. Three sets of passengers did the same trip as me, 11W into the city, Eastern line to Puhinui and then onto the Airporter bus. And we all did variations of that pointless walk from Vulcan Lane to Britomart. Again keep both stops; one for those headed to midtown, the other for those going to the train.

5. Street lights for walkers.

I travelled the buses at night and felt quite safe, maybe because I look and behave like a harmless old man. The buses were largely empty as were the city streets, due to the rain probably. However, the street lights blazed. Not that the light they produced was always much use to a walker. Take Halsey Street for example, between Fanshawe St and Victoria St West it has street lights. They must be six-seven meters in the air, directed towards the roadway and buried in the beautiful foliage of the Victoria Park trees. No damn use at all to anyone walking along there at night and no wonder people feel unsafe in the city at night.

Two problems here; the height of the lamp post and where the light is directed. Every time I get a warrant of fitness for my car they dutifully check that my headlights work and are aimed the right way. Although not required many city bikes are now sold with integrated lighting. So then why do we need to line our streets with even more lights to light the roadway for these things that come with lights. Street lights should be placed so that they light the way for the road users who do not come with legally mandated headlights; walkers!

The busway from the airport to Puhinui shows that it is perfectly practicable to put in lower light standards. I’m sure it would be perfectly practicable to build street lights 2.5m high designed to shine down on the footpath 25m in both directions. No where is this idiocy more apparent than on the Hopetown Bridge. There is a footpath but not a single light on that bridge designed to aid walkers at night, whereas nearby there are huge poles through spaghetti junction to light the way for the cars below. I’m sure there are some rules from way back that govern street lights, their placement and aiming. Probably written for Austin Sevens with 6V wiring. The world has moved on for motorcars, not so much for people, change the rules.

6. Statutory Neglect is alive and well.

When AT and the Police allow car transporters to blatantly ignore road rules is it a surprise that all over Auckland the footpath is treated as a parking lot. Either make the practice official by painting and signing the road appropriately or enforce your rules. Turning a blind eye makes you look ineffective.

The above are a few suggestions for AT & WK from a few days on the buses & trains in Auckland. Maybe I’ll try travel by bike next time.

Please use the comments section below to upvote or downvote or maybe add your ideas for opportunities for improvement. You never know who might be reading.

*LOV = low occupancy vehicle

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