These slides were shared with me by Alan Hoffman of Mission Group, USA, at a conference on public transport held in Sydney in 2002. I was there to talk about the design of the Northern Busway, as Chair of North Shore City Council's Works and Environment Ctte. Alan's presentation is as relevant to Auckland's situation today as it was then. He begins with the age old questions which have been asked repeatedly in Auckland....
He notes the classic "is it about fare prices or is it about time saving" question. We have the same question in Auckland. We have the same outcome as US - especially when it comes to bus transit that's not on the busway. It's generally regarded as a poor service for people on low incomes. 
He makes simple points about market research which echo much of what has been found in Auckland. We are easily able to capture the patronage of the proportion of Aucklanders who "prefer to use public transport". The trick is the next tranche. What needs to happen for them to take public transport? 
The big thing is time saving. He makes the huge point that "you have to want to save their trip times". That means the service provider has to be committed to saving travel times by building public transport services that are faster, and more reliable, than travelling by car. And the "how" is by increasing the number of direct, express services. We have some of these in the Northern Busway. We need more in other parts of the bus network.
This slide is a development of the same point. It is about making public transport indispensable. But that's not necessarily for absolutely everybody in Auckland. It is built up by targeting areas and targeting geographies.
This slide emphasises the need for connectivity. That was a key factor in my approach to straightening Auckland bus routes. 
These next two slides reflect Auckland's current land use and public transport planning strategy....
.... and emphasise the goal of making a network that is useful...
I was lucky to go with the Parliamentary Commissioner for Environment's study trip to Curitiba almost 10 years ago. It is an extraordinary exemplar, and one which is cited by Alan in this slide. You can read here what Curitiba's goal was - an unattainable goal a bit like Auckland's sometimes appears to be. So Curitiba responded by doing what it could. Step by step. Auckland needs to do the same. Existing radial bus services need to be reorganised into a high frequency network which connects Auckland's towns, and cross-town orbital or direct connections can follow.
1 comment:
Best wishes for 2012 Joel to you and yours.
Re buses mine is a personal gripe.
Birkenhead Transport operate an efficient safe and regular service but they are not connected to the rest of the Auckland network.
If Ann & I want to go to a concert at the Aotea or Town Hall we need to use the car. walking down from and back up to the BT stop in Victoria St. is not on at our age and certainly not after the concert.
The so called 'bus stop' is always overcrowded and competes with considerable pedestrian traffic on the footpath apart from being on a steep slope.
Choosing to wait till the bus reaches the bottom of Albert St. calls for a walk across to the main bus station and then catch a bus to the Town Hall area.
I have never understood why BT were able to opt out of being part of Auckland transport network Bus, Train & Ferry.
During off peak hours BT still run buses to the City and Takapuna from Beachhaven for instance whereas they could call at the Smales bus station and passenger for the city transfer (on the same ticket)
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