Yesterday I decided I would complete what I call the Ultimate Alternative Mode Commute. In essence I managed to combine walking, cycling, a bus, a train and a ferry trip into my commute between Henderson and Takapuna.
I started by riding along Northwest cycleway in to town including down the newly opened Grafton Gully cycleway. It definitely made things quick for getting from upper Queen St to Quay St although I did manage to get held up for a long time at every single set of lights between Grafton Rd and Quay St. I’m not sure if that was just me being unlucky or if perhaps AT had the cycling phases permanently on during the weekend in anticipation of lots of people using it. I’ll probably ride my bike home tomorrow however I normally do that via Upper Harbour.
I managed to time my run to the Ferry perfectly and turned up just as it was unloading. I used the route that Peter outlined in this post. Of course while ferries do have some limitations, the views they offer on a nice day aren’t one of them. One big frustration I have though is the absurd situation that monthly passes doesn’t cover the use of ferries.
For my trip home it was a walk to the Akoranga to catch the Northern Express (NEX) back to town. I could have also just caught the bus from Takapuna which would have been faster but I’m trying to add a bit more walking into my daily routine so have been doing this walk more often recently. Catching the in both directions has also really highlighted to me that while it’s an awesome service, it does need some improvements to it’s counter peak frequency. Buses are only every 10 minutes on the runs back to the city in the afternoon. For most Auckland bus routes that would be fantastic however for the NEX it’s clearly not enough as the bus was at bursting point which is a fairly regular occurrence in the afternoons. It is probably time for AT to make use of some of the buses which provide extra peak capacity to bump up the counter peak frequency.
A short stroll from the corner of Customs St and Queen St provides a connection to the train which would take me my local station.
Lastly from my local station it’s only about an 800m walk along quiet back streets to my house and which completed my alternative mode commute.
I’m guessing I’m fairly unique in that I’m actually able to combine all of these modes in a semi logical way – albeit one that’s definitely not going to break any speed records. At the very least it’s a n idea I can cross off a bucket list hidden somewhere. It’s also a commute I’m not likely to do again as if I’m riding it’s quicker and cheaper (because it’s free) to us the Upper Harbour route.
The question for readers is what’s the most number of modes you have used as part of your commuting and if you had to, how many could
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Yesterday I had been asked to work as a labourer to help a mate pour some concrete and I hate (detest) sitting in rush hour traffic, so I drove from Orewa to Albany bus interchange, NEX to Britomart, Southern train to Ellerslie, walk to Greenpark Rd. Return trip was walk to Ellerslie Station to discover trains delayed due to a breakdown so walked to Ellerslie town centre, jumped on the 550 bus, got off at Britomart, on to the NEX to Albany and then drive back home.
Key points:
1) Communication from AT as to what was happening with the train services was appalling. The AT PT help desk was great on the other hand. Let me know what the next bus was and where to go to catch it.
2) HOP card made the transition painless (train to Howick-Eastern bus). The best thing to happen to PT in Auckland
3) Low off peak frequencies on the southern line
4) If I could store a bike at Britomart it would take care of the ‘last leg’ of such trips. I would pay for such a service.
Did your bike make the rest of your trip with you?
Bike is at work and I will ride home today or tomorrow
Question Matt, you say the Upper Harbour Route is free so you’d not need a Bus Pass and no Ferry either.
But if you had SkyPath there, how much different route, cost and time-wise would your ride be compared to the Upper Harbour Route, allowing for the $2 or so Skypath Toll you’d need each way (assuming you use your HOP card to pay for it)? which makes it not free, but I’d bet cheaper than any monthly pass AT or Fullers would offer for the Ferries.
As for me, I can do like you did, using a similar mix of modes, but my commute distance is much shorter so the mode options are less (no Ferry needed for one).
I can and do use Walk-Bus-Walk, I could use Walk-Bus-Train (Eastern Line to BM)-Train (BM to NM)-Walk, but the time taken would easily be double if doing that over using the more direct route using Walk-Bus-Walk pattern. And the easiest I can do is Cycle all the way (or alternatively: Drive-Wait-Drive-Wait-Drive-Wait etc). And of course the train mode requires a hang around at Britomart for the next outbound to NM one.
If I really wanted to I could Walk-Bus-Bus-Ferry-Train (BM to NM)-Walk but that would be going the wrong way for part of the journey – just to make use of the Ferry so I’ll ignore that option.
And I could always Walk the whole way, I figure that would take me quite some time – so I’ll reserve that option for now for the next non-volcanic Civil Defence Emergency 🙂
Somewhat relevant case in point:
When the Christchurch Feb 2011 quake happened a co-worker had to walk home from the office in Christchurch CBD – as his car was ok but was trapped behind the building by fallen debris so his driving home was off the menu. He lugged his HP laptop with him all the way home (he went back into the building after the shaking stopped to get it). More than once getting stuck and having to backtrack due to streets full of liquifaction/flooding,
I think it took him several hours to get home for what should have been about a 40 minute walk in normal times. However, from what he said it seems that walking was in fact a lot quicker than driving would have been due to flooding and closed roads and huge traffic jams on what was still open. His kid didn’t get home from the school swimming lessons at QE2 Pool, down the road from his house for many more hours due to the same traffic problems.
Time wise I’d expect going via Skypath to be about the same. I happen to be about an equal distance from work via either route.
A tourist stops at a village and asks a local “Excuse me but how do I get to Dublin?” The local replies “If it’s Dublin you want I wouldn’t start from here!”
Is that upper harbour road really bicyclable heading over to the upper harbour bridge? I might give it a go this weekend but it doesn’t seem to have much infrastructure for what looks like a high speed road.
There is a shared path on the Northern side, quite pleasant and Upper Harbour Drive through Greenhithe isn’t too bad either.
It is speedy, but usually has good width shoulders and relatively low traffic volumes. If you are reasonably confident on-road, you won’t consider it too hairy, I think.
Upper Harbour Dr and Hobsonville Rd are not too bad due to being wide as they are ex state highways. There are also very few cars parked on the road so for most of the time you basically have a cycle lane to ride in. The notable exception of this is the intersection of Upper Harbour Dr with Albany Highway which for people turning right (south) is probably one of the worst for cyclists in Auckland (and even isn’t possible for pedestrians).
Hi Lyndiman there is a cycle/walkway on the northern side of the Upper Harbour Bridge nice and safe if you a coming from the west …Hobsonville rd then left into Squadron Dr over the motorway then right onto the Cycle/walkway beside the motorway ,also AT have cycle maps for all of Auckland you can down load them from the AT web site heres a link to the Western one https://at.govt.nz/media/imported/5149/cycle-map-west-auckland.pdf
If your on the Shore….Upper Harbour Drive to the end around the round about over the motorway and left onto the Cycle/Walkway ,here’s the Northern map https://at.govt.nz/media/399608/northern-cycle-map.pdf….enjoy your ride
Which was quickest, the journey to work or the one home
Journey home was quicker however if I ride via Upper harbour that wins which highlights the sad state of affairs for our PT network.
It possibly just shows that bikes are a damn good way of getting around. I’ve found bikes faster than PT over a range of distances in London, New York and Paris, all of which have pretty good systems. And it beats any system on price…
Multimodal fun!
My Monday commute this week was Kingsland to Takapuna in the morning via two busses (conveniently the changeover is at the same Wellesley St bus stop with only a 6 minute layover). A regularly scheduled work shuttle that my employer runs from it’s two main sites in Takapuna and Lincoln Rd at midday and then walked to Sturges Rd station for the train home to Kingsland in the late afternoon. It was an orbiting the Waitemata Harbour sort of day.
Must give that cycle route a go sometime!
I completely agree with your comment regarding NEX counter peak frequencies. I travel from Constellation to Britomart every day after work and the buses are frequently over full by the time they reach the bridge.
Yeah, definitely! I come home (city bound) on the afternoon counter peak NEX sometimes and there’s been a couple of times the bus has had to turn people away at Smales Farm and Akoranga because the bus is jam packed full. Far from ideal from Auckland Transport. Some of the busses that run in the other direction at peak look like they return to the city as “not in service”. The demand seems enough for 5 minute frequencies each way rather than the 10minute freq off peak like now.