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The Star Latest Christchurch news at www. .kiwi<br />
Thursday March 16 2017 9<br />
in a car culture city<br />
• By Tom Doudney<br />
THAT CARS and not public<br />
transport have been the<br />
preferred method of getting<br />
around in Christchurch for<br />
decades can be illustrated with<br />
a single statistic.<br />
To find the peak year for public<br />
transport patronage in the<br />
city, you have to go all the way<br />
back to 1945, when 32 million<br />
passenger trips were recorded.<br />
Currently, patronage is less<br />
than half that, at 14 million<br />
trips per year, in spite of the<br />
population having doubled<br />
since then.<br />
Patronage began to fall away<br />
from the 1950s, as private vehicle<br />
use increased. It reached its<br />
lowest levels in 1992 when less<br />
than seven million trips were<br />
recorded.<br />
However, numbers were<br />
recovering steadily in the early<br />
2000s, as measures were introduced<br />
to modernise the bus<br />
network. This period saw the<br />
introduction of the Metrocard,<br />
Orbiter service, real time travel<br />
information and the opening<br />
of the first central city interchange.<br />
By 2010, patronage was at its<br />
highest levels (17 million trips)<br />
CHALLENGES: Taking a bus is currently slower and less<br />
reliable than going by car.<br />
PHOTO: GEOFF SLOAN<br />
since the early 1970s, but things<br />
would change again the following<br />
year when the February<br />
2011 earthquake struck.<br />
The earthquake altered travel<br />
patterns and affected the operation<br />
of the bus network. Previously,<br />
almost all buses went<br />
through the central city and the<br />
area’s closure post-earthquake<br />
was a big disruption.<br />
Environment Canterbury’s<br />
redesign of the bus network to<br />
the current ‘hub and spokes’<br />
model, which focused on connecting<br />
services in the suburbs<br />
with less routes coming directly<br />
into the city, was implemented<br />
in December 2014.<br />
However, numbers which<br />
had recovered slightly since<br />
2011 have since continued to<br />
fall again, dropping three per<br />
cent in the 2015/2016 financial<br />
year while patronage for the<br />
country as a whole increased<br />
by the same percentage. In the<br />
2016/2017 financial year to date,<br />
numbers have so far fallen a<br />
further 2.5 per cent.<br />
Cars beat buses<br />
in travel time race<br />
• By Tom Doudney<br />
Travel times during<br />
afternoon peak traffic<br />
•CBD to Belfast via<br />
Cranford St: 12 minutes by<br />
car, 32 minutes by bike, 37<br />
minutes by bus<br />
•CBD to Cashmere via<br />
Colombo St: seven minutes<br />
by car, 12 minutes by bike, 13<br />
minutes by bus<br />
•CBD to New Brighton<br />
via Pages Rd: 11 minutes by<br />
car, 21 minutes by bike, 34<br />
minutes by bus<br />
•CBD to Christchurch<br />
Airport via Memorial Ave: 14<br />
minutes by car, 31 minutes by<br />
bike, 30 minutes by bus<br />
CATCHING A bus from the<br />
central city to Belfast could<br />
you take you 25 minutes longer<br />
during afternoon peak hour<br />
traffic than if you had gone by<br />
car.<br />
It’s findings like these, from a<br />
city council analysis in November,<br />
which illustrate one of the<br />
key challenges in getting more<br />
people to get on the bus.<br />
The analysis of four key routes<br />
between the central city and<br />
outer suburbs showed car travel<br />
was much faster than bus travel,<br />
while bike travel was faster than<br />
bus travel on three of the routes.<br />
Environment Canterbury data<br />
suggests that frequency is also<br />
a key driver of patronage, with<br />
the five lines that run every 15<br />
minutes typically attracting more<br />
passengers than routes with<br />
longer intervals.<br />
Bus journey times are also<br />
more variable than other modes<br />
of transport. The strategic business<br />
case found public transport<br />
reliability in Christchurch was<br />
“considerably lower” than Wellington<br />
and Auckland where<br />
“approximately 95 per cent of<br />
services run on time.”<br />
In Christchurch, reliability<br />
varied between 12 and 50 per<br />
cent during late afternoon peak<br />
hour traffic for buses heading out<br />
of the city. Things were better<br />
during the morning peak hour<br />
with buses heading into the city<br />
being between 50 and 90 per cent<br />
reliable.<br />
What happens<br />
to the contents<br />
of your green bin?<br />
Come along to the<br />
Organics Processing Plant<br />
FREE OPEN DAY!<br />
Saturday 18 March<br />
10am–3pm<br />
40 Metro Place, Bromley<br />
(next to EcoDrop)<br />
Parking onsite or<br />
on Metro Place<br />
RESULTS<br />
Some Cantabrians have been able to move on with their lives since<br />
the earthquakes, but we know many have been left behind. For<br />
these people the daily stress of dealing with insurance companies or<br />
EQC is still very real. We are Earthquake Services, claim advocates<br />
specialising in helping people like you resolve your claims<br />
and achieve the results you’re entitled to.<br />
Contact us today. We’re here to help.<br />
Hosted by<br />
RED<br />
GREEN<br />
YELLOW<br />
• Plant tour every 30 minutes<br />
• Tips and tricks to make your<br />
garden grow!<br />
• Prizes and giveaways<br />
• Informative, educational and<br />
fun for the whole family.<br />
For more information, phone 941 8999 or<br />
visit loveyourrubbish.co.nz<br />
CALL<br />
TODAY<br />
377 8855<br />
C’mon Christchurch<br />
let’s get our<br />
rubbish sorted!<br />
Contact us today - call 03 377 8855 or visit earthquakeservices.co.nz.<br />
We’re located at 127 Ferry Road, Christchurch.
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