June 2022
17
Modern buses, such as Auckland Transport's hydrogen bus manufactured by New Zealand company Global Bus Ventures, are comfortable, smooth and a far cry from what we remember from our school-bus days. Photo: Global Bus Ventures
Buses are boring, but … BY DAVID GREIG
LIGHT RAIL (trams), traditional “heavy” rail, cycling, walking, and cars are the main focus of current New Zealand debates about urban transport. But our main form of public transport is buses. They tend to be taken for granted or even looked down on (“loser cruisers”), but they have more going for them than is commonly thought. They should not be forgotten when considering how to improve the ways people can move around our cities.
Attributes of modern bus systems Modern buses, such as those on Auckland’s Northern Busway and Wellington’s electric buses, are comfortable, smooth and a far cry from what we remember from our school-bus days. They have inherited advantages that, if well exploited, translate into low costs and quick, reliable, flexible services: • Buses are relatively cheap, tending these days to be a small add-on to large production runs in China. • They are easy to install – the road is
already there. Upgrades to create bus lanes, or separate busways with their own rights of way, can be done in stages. • They are flexible to operate – they can peel off from a central corridor onto feeder routes, can readily divert around obstacles such as crashes and can readily adapt to one-off events. • They are also flexible in the longer term. They can adapt to new urban developments or can be installed just in time to help make a new development possible. • They suit New Zealand’s low-density suburbs, yet their frequency can readily be ramped up if the density is increased. • They are resilient – a route can immediately be changed if there is a problem caused by an earthquake, flood, burst pipes etc. • They now have low emissions – older buses are being replaced with electric ones.
Low-cost improvements can be made But we are not making the best of what we have. There are opportunities to improve bus services at relatively low cost: • Greater use of traffic light timing to give buses priority or to delay them when they are running ahead of schedule. This provides a way of reducing “bunching” of buses – the first bus can be allowed through an intersection more quickly and the next one held back, so both end up on schedule. A late bus means a wait (not always well sheltered from the weather) and not arriving at the destination when expected. An early bus is similar to a cancelled bus – the bus is not there when the passengers expect it. Reliability helps attract patronage. Cont. on page 18
