Solving NZ’s public transport woes

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Wed, 25 Jul 2007 12:00a.m.

For some reason, New Zealand has got public transport staggeringly wrong.
 
In Auckland and Christchurch, almost two thirds of people drive to work in their own cars.
 
It is terribly inefficient fuel usage, and anyone caught in rush hour traffic in Auckland will also tell you that it is not much fun.
 
In Wellington, by contrast, where public transport is better if not perfect, under half the population drives to work – a significantly lower figure.
 
Now experts from around the world have descended on Christchurch to help solve our transport woes.
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Comments

20 Aug 2007 11:29p.m.

benjamin wrote:

you dont have to go far out of nz to see a decent public transport system. since leaving nz, i'm scared to go back, as i dont want to own another car, but i know living in nz, i will be forced to. even london, with the diabolical tube, & the lazy underground workers, with their lame excuses not to work, still run a better system than i have ever encountered in nz,, prague,, incredible, effective, & cost efficient, germany, regular, on time & clean, canada, not always ontime, but regular & cheap, across the ditch in aussie, even poland have an efficient internal rail & bus system!! have got it mostly correct. its about time nz pulled finger & matched the world standard, anyone thats travelled anywhere can tell you how good most of the developed worlds public transport is!

26 Jul 2007 06:53p.m.

Andy Engles wrote:

Look at the new 'ball's up' in Rolleston town(outside Chch). New traffic lights on a 80kph zone, instead of putting a flyover so as not to upset the flow going south, they put in lights so that you travel along at 100kph on a single lane into a double lane at 80kph and back to 100kph on other side with two sets of lights in the 80kph zone(about 300yrds). Real rocket science planning went into that joke, and yet rolleston farmers are still running the red lights there, part of the reason for putting in the lights. Christchurch's idea of sorting out a traffic problem is to turn a single lane into a double lane in and out of lights so that drivers have to give way(which the do not!!!). The council does not want to address the problem of bad canterbury drivers because it costs money so they depend on the drivers to sort out the problem which just makes driving in christchurch a Walt Disney cartoon.
There is a motorway going into christchurch from the north but none going south, in the mor

26 Jul 2007 09:20a.m.

Kimbo wrote:

We dont need experts in Christchurch we need BALLS in Auckland to sort out what is blatantly ovbious to any poor fool that needs to use our main roads...

26 Jul 2007 06:42a.m.

Dan wrote:

There is no public transport in Auckland..... There also appears to be no transport strategy. No "expert" can fix the doings of dumb and dumber when any change to the status quo has to go thru them to be implemented. Can you say "third world" yet again!

26 Jul 2007 01:54a.m.

Dean wrote:

It´s about time New Zealand needs to catch up to the rest of the world. As a Aucklander living in Madrid Spain I really have seen how BAD our public transportation is. The investment is a big amount but major plans need to be made, you have to start somewhere. Auckland with its size should have at least a reliable bus and train system. Thank god for metro it was the best public transportation system ever invented. Viva españa!

25 Jul 2007 09:59p.m.

Chris, Christchurch wrote:

Once again New Zealands "clean, green" image is exposed to be nothing more than a myth... Take Christchurch: it is ripe for a local rail service, and half of the infrastucture is already in place! Unfortunately, it is too easy for lazy, indifferent politicians to bury their heads in the sand, and claim that Kiwis are too attached to their cars for a rail network to succeed. Furthermore, without the political will to introduce such a system, there is little chance of these people being proved wrong.

25 Jul 2007 08:57p.m.

Andrew wrote:

Unless you happen to be in Auckland is driving to and from work necessarily a woe? Observations about the type of transport favoured by Wellingtonians would suggest that mode of transport is after all a rational decision, if only a range of alternatives were available. This should come as a surprise to no one.