The Star: May 03, 2018

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Free Wi-Fi
trial for two
bus routes
• By Bridget Rutherford
BUS PASSENGERS are now
able to read the news and
scroll through social media as
Environment Canterbury trials
free Wi-Fi on two bus routes.
The three-month trial started
on Tuesday, on the 29 airport-city
and the 85 Rolleston-city.
Environment Canterbury public
transport senior manager Stewart
Gibbon said they chose the two
routes to target people heading on
a longer trip to and from work,
and the airport.
“We’ve had a large number of requests
asking us to introduce free
Wi-Fi on buses so we thought we’d
trial it for three months to see if
people use it, how much they use it
and also figure out the value would
be to roll it out across the network
if it proved successful.”
Passengers will be able to fill out
surveys about the Wi-Fi to give
feedback, he said.
The information gathered
would be shared with the Public
Transport Joint Committee, and
used by ECan to help plan future
on board bus services.
ECan chairman Steve Lowndes
said the trial was part of trying to
give people a bus system people
wanted to use.
Women hit back at Keown
• By Julia Evans
CITY COUNCILLOR Aaron
Keown has got himself into
another stoush – this time over
a comment he made about
Merivale wives.
“I look at Banks Peninsula as
more like a Merivale wife – they
look really good but very expensive,”
is the analogy Cr Keown
used to describe the area during
city council
Long Term
Plan funding
discussions
on Monday.
But yesterday
women
in Merivale
struck back,
saying it was
Aaron Keown
“sexist” and
“tall poppy”.
Merivale
resident, business owner,
property developer and mother
Michelle Crouch said the
comment contributed to a
widespread negative stereotype
about women in the suburb.
“People say that kind of thing
all the time, they think it’s a joke
. . . It’s just a perception people
have and it sounds like tall
poppy syndrome,” she said.
However, Cr Keown told The
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
Star that his comments were not
meant to be taken as sexist, only
as a “comedic quip to lighten the
mood” during LTP discussions.
“Normally good looking wives
are expensive. It’s expensive for
hairdressers and make-up and
clothes . . . they don’t shop at
The Warehouse.”
A Merivale wife that did not
want to be named called Cr
Keown’s comment “incredibly
Thursday May 3 2018
Fire rages, homes at risk
LABEL: Merivale’s Michelle
Crouch says Cr Keown’s
comment is a false
perception that a lot of
people have. PHOTO:
MARTIN HUNTER
sexist.” Mayor Lianne Dalziel
was not impressed either.
During the meeting, she ruled it
out of order.
“I know what you’re trying
to say, it just really was a very
bad way to try and say it,” she
said.
But Cr Keown disagreed. He
said, if anything, it should be
taken as a compliment and he
never said the women hadn’t
earned the money themselves.
“It’s a compliment to Akaroa,
which is not cheap, according
to our budget. I was comparing
Merivale women to one of
the best looking places in the
world.”
“Maybe they’re good looking
and cheap then, I don’t know
. . . it can’t be a coincidence
that all the Botox clinics are in
Merivale.”
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