The long march
Keith Locke participated in the ‘Get Connected’ campaign launch in Otahuhu last Friday. Check out the video of the campaign launch here.
“Auckland Green MP Keith Locke and Green members joined several local body candidates for an action to demonstrate the need for better connection between rail and bus services in Otahuhu.
The candidates include Labour Councillor Richard Northey, Regional People candidate for the Auckland Regional Council, Maire Leadbeater, and City Vision candidates in Auckland City, Donna Wynd and Graeme Easte.
“The action sought to highlight a key public transport ‘black spot’ and what needs to be done by the incoming councils, and how central Government can help,” Mr Locke, the Greens’ Spokesperson on Auckland Transport issues, says.
“We gathered at the Otahuhu Railway Station at 10.15am to walk the 1.2 kilometre to the bus station to show the difficulty faced by people transferring between buses and trains at this key junction in the Auckland transport network. Previously the Green Party focussed on getting a decision to electrify the Auckland rail network, which was successful. Now we are turning our attention to transport hubs.
The Green Party intends to follow this action with a ‘Get Connected’ campaign focusing attention on major transport junctions and investments with a total cost of approaching $2 billion, currently being planned for Newmarket, Onehunga, Panmure and Manukau City. These major projects are an opportunity to develop integrated bus/train transfer stations, park-and-ride facilities and cycle-and-ride facilities at key junctions on the transport network. Failing to make these connections would be a lost opportunity and a misinvestment of public money.�
“We are also drawing attention to other junctions, such as Otahuhu, Penrose and Avondale, where the rail and bus networks ought to be connected.
“There are good examples where the connections have been made, such as the park-and-ride bus station at Albany, and where they are being planned, such as New Lynn. Integrated transport hubs must also be developed at other strategic points.�
A dozen people took part, ranging in age from those in their late 60s to a 3 year old child in a push chair. It included two dogs and a man carrying luggage! They walked from the station to the Otahuhu Bus Centre - over 15 minutes walk - and some went back to Auckland City on the bus. Clearly there needs to be a whole new plan to improve rail/bus links at Otahuhu. The present station and its container backdrop are distinctly unappealing. The Auckland Growth Strategy projects high density residential developments around rail stations, but these are a long way off for Otahuhu. An interim step could be starting some of the bus services from the train station, connecting with incoming trains, which are now much more frequent.”
September 26th, 2007 at 3:11 am
Frog, what is the source of this public money that might be misinvested? Rates and/or road user charges or are general taxes? And how about an environmental impact assessment. What is the most sustainable way of connecting these transport hubs. Commuter buses, shuttle buses or taxis? On a straight forward fuel consumption per passenger comparison the shuttle bus would have conveyed your 12 passengers the 1.5 km using approx. .03 litre, 3 taxis approx .04 litre, one 7 tonne commuter bus .05 litre.
We should never forget that San Francisco’s BART is exactly what a good transit system should be but, according to detailed research by UCTC, it failed to reduce congestion on the freeways that it runs down the centre of for the same reasons that additional freeway lanes don’t reduce congestion. Removing some traffic simply induced more taffic to fill the available space. It was this discovery of the BART’s induced traffic effect that led to UCTC’s research that proved that increased freeway capacity also induces traffic. This does create a bit of problem when roading revenue is used to pay for investments in public transport since nobody can honestly claim that it will benefit drivers through reduced congestion. At least investment in rail wont actually worsen congestion which is precisely what does happen with bus priority measures. As long as bus priority measures only operate during peak periods they do at least encourage use of the most fuel efficient mode. Unfortunately the number passengers buses need to carry to be more fuel efficient than single occupant cars rarely occurs during off peak periods except on express routes so those are the only situations where off-peak bus priority helps the environment instead of hurting it.
UCTC also discovered that NIMBYs had prevented high density development around many of the BART stations thus perpetuating the main barrier to rail commuting, the long walk to/from the station. Develop the density while you are developing the stations otherwise you will not get increased train ridership.
Petrol prices have pretty much doubled since 1998. Increased PT use in New Zealand’s large towns and cities is much more strongly correlated with increase fuel prices than with increased investment in PT. Cap and trade will only add another 4 cents a litre, not much of an incentive to switch transport modes. You need to fix the sprawl created by the housing policies of the fifties and sisties and you need to do it now rather than waiting for the housing market to respond to the changing demands from aging baby boomers.
http://www.uctc.net/access/access.asp
September 27th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
What about the scum who hang about the Christchurch Bus Exchange shouting racial insults at poor little Asian women?
jh
September 27th, 2007 at 9:00 pm
Violence in schools:
Hand wringing and waffle from PPTA
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/national/ckpt/violence_in_schools
September 27th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
Call for tasers in fatal hammer case.
September 28th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
I think that the Christchurch railway station is nearly as bad.
Trevor.