Today I sat on the bus for an hour and a half to get from university in the city to home in Howick- more to the point it took half an hour just to get outside of New market!! I don't know about anyone else but I can think of a lot of things i would rather do with my time!
It is no wonder that Auckland is dominated by private transport and 5 seated cars with only 1 person in them. There is a huge lack of incentives for using public transport- if I had of driven, sure i would have had to pay for parking but I would have got home a lot quicker and saved myself a whole lot of time!
To make matters worse, the quality of the service is average to say the least. It was pouring down with rain outside and you would think being in a bus you would be safe from getting wet but apparently not. The air conditioning filters are great at letting the rain come into the bus- so not only was I wasting my time sitting on a bus for ages, I was also getting dripped on!
Auckland needs to implement a system that makes the option of public transport the more preferable and quicker option rather than continuously spending millions of dollars on a private system to simply encourage a greater use of cars!! Consider London, most people do not even own a car because of the amazing public transport system and they have zones that you have to pay to drive through. This reduces the congestion within the city whilst enabling an efficient public system that people can rely on to get them to where they need to go in a short amount of time!
I know that Auckland is on no way near the same scale as London, but I think it is the idea that counts. The government invests heavily in this system and therefore people use it. Its an amazing example of the disorganised and organised cities in which the disorganised city relies on self-funding roads with road user charges and the organised city relies on self funding public transport that sees the user pays then leading to a much better system than the disorganised city.
I actually saw the traffic as I left today and thought of you on the bus. But get this. I was driving home and it took me 40 minutes!!! i live 10-15 mins MAX from the city (specifically Auckland University).
ReplyDeleteI think it might be because of the Christchurch Memorial Service in Auckland Domain? I saw a lot of free buses going there yesterday.. however I was very disappointed and angry at how under-prepared Auckland is. On Thursday night during St.Patricks Day - North Star Night Rider bus at 1am and 2 am just decided NOT to turn up. Leaving a number of people stranded and waiting hopelessly for HOURS at the bus stop. Also yesterday, bus from Auckland Uni to North Shore not only OVER AN HOUR LATE, it also decided not to turn up - forcing me to take another bus to North Shore. It also took 35 mins to just get out of CBD! If all this traffic only because of the Christchurch Memorial Service, I am terrified to even think what it is going to be like during an international event like the Rugby World Cup. Auckland has such useless public transport!!!
ReplyDeleteI think it probably was because of the memorial service BUT the thing is we should have a system that doesn't get totally congested because theres a big event- like you say whats going to happen with the Rugby world cup? Especially now that Auckland will be having the games that were meant to be in Christchurch? Thinking about what Michael said in our 330 lecture about world class cities- will Auckland ever be up there in the ratings? I really don't see how it could be. Not only are we hugely isolated geographically from the hubs of the world- we can't even manage to get a good, reliable public transport system going!
ReplyDeleteI feel all this congestion is mainly to do with the fact most nzers want their own squat of land, i.e. a house with a backyard... leading to sprawl etc. traffic is just a result of this, i don't think public transport issues can be solved until this dire want for a backyard can be stubbed out. A paradigm shift is needed and I don't think we'll see this in our lifetime/ until all the land is used up.
ReplyDeleteYour right geo, it definately does have to do with this obsession with a quarter acre block of land and two cars to a household. I think thats part of the attraction for people moving here- you can live in the city but have space!! I know for my family that was a definate pull factor when they were moving from london. I guess it depends on what is important to you? I would much rather live in a city with an impressive public transport network and live in a flat with minimal/no garden- theres always parks!!
ReplyDeleteThere can be both if design is innovated. sadly everything is rats at the moment- both public transport and sprawl :(
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