Wed, 14 Apr 2010 3:02p.m.
By Travis Mills
It's the holidays and Mum and Dad are both at work, leaving me to look after my little brother, Ollie. The rain outside is pounding against the window, a sight not often seen in the sunshine capital, Nelson. We have spent the last few hours playing table tennis in the garage and now, to put it bluntly, we're mind-numbingly bored and hungry.
Luckily Dad has left some money on the table for this very situation. So I ask Ollie what he wants to do, already knowing the response. I'm not surprised when he says:
"I want to go see How to Tame a Dragon!"
"Oh boy," I say silently in my head as I grab my coat and brace myself for the storm that is about to hit me as I open the door to begin the journey to the closest bus stop.
Many out of town visitors believe that on arriving in Nelson, it's going to be easy finding your way around our amazing city and the surrounding attractions.
Sadly, like many New Zealand townships and small cities, Nelson is hugely spread out. Some of our key attractions are not within walking distance of the CBD. This leaves people with only three real viable options to get around: bus, bike or drive.
Getting on a bus can be an obstacle in itself. Take Nelson for example, we have three bus loops. One is an inner city loop, the other is another loop around one of the older suburbs and finally the main trunkline between Nelson and Richmond, the two big centres. The main trunkline follows the old main road between the two centres but while that has carried on for years and years without change, all around the road the population has expanded leaving some with a 10 minute or more walk just to get to the bus stop. Meanwhile, what were once a few houses on a street out in the country has blossomed out to become thriving village centres with residents who need to go to work or play in the city. Most local bus services have not been adapted to meet these growing needs. And Nelson is lucky. Many towns don’t have any bus service at all.
Biking around our cities is becoming a lot easier, but with some attractions based right next to a busy highway, biking quickly becomes a possibly deadly choice.
This leaves people with one real option, to drive. Without even mentioning the CO2 released (more CO2 is released when the car is warming up), even this choice may soon be unavailable to some with the government proposing changes to the driving age at the end of this year.
I believe it is time for both local and national governments to have a good look at our public transport system, because it just isn't working. In a survey the UNICEF Climate Kiwis did with local youth, we found that 96% thought that our transport system right now is not working and needs to be improved. I believe both small changes like improving bus routes and bigger changes like a full-scale revamp of our rail network will help.
Public transport has for the past 10 years been a popular way to get around the world’s biggest cities, so why is New Zealand lagging behind? It provides a safe, social way of getting around in a more environmentally-friendly way.
One way Kiwis can demonstrate that we really need to look at the public transport issue is to show that there is a demand for buses and trains! So how about taking public transport when you can? And yes, there’s always a cost to implement things like this but how much would you pay to save your children’s future?