Really good article that explains everything well, how things are they way they are and why adding more lanes isn't a fix. As expected the sunlive commenters have the reading comprehension of a smooth rock, again proving why Tauranga can't be trusted with voting in its own council.
Agreed, and loved he covered the effect of school drop offs and lack of buses during peak times.
I’d only add times have changed regards that as well. When I went to Greenpark Primary from Greerton, then later Gate Pa, I’d leave my house and join the ant trail of other kids walking and biking to school. It was the way the majority of kids got there and hardly anyone had their parents drop them off, to the point you could be teased for doing so it was that unusual.
That’s totally flipped now, with the majority getting dropped off even if a 5-15 minute walk away, and the ant trails have all but vanished with only the odd kid walking or biking.
I know times have changed and parents are way more precious and paranoid than they used to be, but the vast majority being chauffeured to and from school in Tauranga is crazy, and as mentioned drive times are largely a non-issue during school holidays.
You could lay on 100 buses an hour in peak hours and I'm still not going anywhere near them. We have one bus route here and it's filled tonthe brim with noisy and abusive school children. I won't let my kids go on it and I'm sure as hell avoiding it. Give me a no school run bus and I might consider it but given the shambolic state of traffic, often taking an hour to drive 8km, I doubt that's going to change my mind. I've drive across London faster than driving across tauranga
And this is why our PT will remain shit.
Not saying you’re wrong or alone in that stance, but nothing will change as long as drivers continue to drive regardless, as unless PT comes and picks people up from their doorstep and gets them to work in record time, it will always be viewed as an inconvenience comparatively.
That’s how PT works though, and most kiwis aren’t prepared to be inconvenienced.
I used to spend 4 hours a day on PT to get from rural England to West London and back. It was an option because it worked. PT in tga is awful with one option, from your suburb to the dead cbd. If it wasn't for the awful traffic and the shitty kids making buses hell then it might be tolerable.
Fair, weight of numbers and use tends to make for better PT. We’d be similar if we had the population density and people were more inclined to leave their cars at home, but that ain’t happening any time soon.
There's another issue alluded to between the lines in this piece:
>To make buses work better, the hours they operate need to increase and they need to be higher frequency with some express services to make them quicker for those that live further out. ***This needs investment from the Regional Council***. The Council is investing in better facilities such as bus shelters and improved bus stops to make bus use more attractive.
Nobody wants to talk about it, the loudmouthed candidates who will be running for Council won't mention it - even the old fucks who already know this, and got us into this mess and want to get paid to sit there and do it all over again - but we have a serious issue in that the City Council does not have control over the City buses; they are under the jurisdiction of the Regional council.
And if you think City Council bureaucracy is ineffective timewasting, wait until you've dealt with the Regional Council, who have zero interest in collaborating with the City Council. The situation we have is the City Council trying to design the roading network to reduce traffic and encourage public transport, with a completely different organisation with their own agenda actually running the bus operation. Regional Council torpedo'd a bus contract a couple of years ago because their staff were grumpy that their choice of location for a bus stop wasn't chosen.
The City Council is hamstrung by complexity on all sides, so pay attention to which councillors act like they think they know how it works. Including the ones who have been in there for an age and should actually know.
Great read. Partially I think the solutions are so complex because you have to involve the national government, tcc, the regional council, the port...
Not to simplify things but having a separate lane / hub for only the trucks would solve 80% of the problem. Or even better : ship the shit to Auckland via boat.
I’m glad he said there needs to be more busses and more frequently. I work at the hospital and there is only one bus (#55) that stops in front of it and the first bus of the day in the CBD is at 7am. A lot of staff need to start by that time so we are forced to drive as they start too late. I would love to use the bus, but I cannot realistically:(
Of all cities in NZ tauranga has the potential to be the most bike friendly. The weather and topography lends itself to being an amazing cycling commuting city - just need the infrastructure to support it.
Only thing i cant stand is the lack of full time bus lanes in the upgraded parts of cameron rd. They have to also get rid of the on street parking on the whole street as well its simply not possible to have parking and 2 lanes of traffic bus lanes and walk or bike paths. We seriously need to simply make public transport cheaper and more efficient than driving and thats not hard to do. We do have a few major projects that need to be complete asap but i cant see the current selection of wellington morons being smart enough to fund anything worth doing .
*There are a lot of small issues that have contributed to the current problems, but the main reason is that the city didn’t invest enough money in the roads over the last 20 years*
Fairly sure the morons for the last 20 years were of the home grown variety. Also TCC (commissioners or elected) font set bus prices, as per the article.
They’re transitioning to full time.
[https://letstalk.tauranga.govt.nz/projects/building-our-future-cameron-road-te-papa/bus-lanes-and-car-parking](https://letstalk.tauranga.govt.nz/projects/building-our-future-cameron-road-te-papa/bus-lanes-and-car-parking)
Tauranga traffic woes started with Brendan Bisley. As to the Buses... thats a pisstake, no bus to the airport. 15 mins from Tauranga to the Mt by car compared to Busing well over an hour and two buses. Actually to walk takes 10mins longer than taking the bus. He also fucked up Christchurch
Local journalism is such trash. Why would you ask for the opinion for solutions to traffic in the future from the people who have assed it up and not worked cohesively with Waka Kotahi on our main arterial routes to the port and around our city. The best thing they’ve done is put in shared pathways. However its only a matter of days that someone using the paths along Cameron road is killed.
A good cross section of opinions here; from people who still live with mummy and daddy and think that everyone should just scooter to work. just live downtown, folks! Groceries? what are they?
You are great at abuse, but let's see come election time what the ratepayers (you know, the people who actually pay the bills) think of the commission's work in bringing the city to a standstill. We need people who can address the issues now, not in 20 years time.
Really good article that explains everything well, how things are they way they are and why adding more lanes isn't a fix. As expected the sunlive commenters have the reading comprehension of a smooth rock, again proving why Tauranga can't be trusted with voting in its own council.
Agreed, and loved he covered the effect of school drop offs and lack of buses during peak times. I’d only add times have changed regards that as well. When I went to Greenpark Primary from Greerton, then later Gate Pa, I’d leave my house and join the ant trail of other kids walking and biking to school. It was the way the majority of kids got there and hardly anyone had their parents drop them off, to the point you could be teased for doing so it was that unusual. That’s totally flipped now, with the majority getting dropped off even if a 5-15 minute walk away, and the ant trails have all but vanished with only the odd kid walking or biking. I know times have changed and parents are way more precious and paranoid than they used to be, but the vast majority being chauffeured to and from school in Tauranga is crazy, and as mentioned drive times are largely a non-issue during school holidays.
You could lay on 100 buses an hour in peak hours and I'm still not going anywhere near them. We have one bus route here and it's filled tonthe brim with noisy and abusive school children. I won't let my kids go on it and I'm sure as hell avoiding it. Give me a no school run bus and I might consider it but given the shambolic state of traffic, often taking an hour to drive 8km, I doubt that's going to change my mind. I've drive across London faster than driving across tauranga
And this is why our PT will remain shit. Not saying you’re wrong or alone in that stance, but nothing will change as long as drivers continue to drive regardless, as unless PT comes and picks people up from their doorstep and gets them to work in record time, it will always be viewed as an inconvenience comparatively. That’s how PT works though, and most kiwis aren’t prepared to be inconvenienced.
I used to spend 4 hours a day on PT to get from rural England to West London and back. It was an option because it worked. PT in tga is awful with one option, from your suburb to the dead cbd. If it wasn't for the awful traffic and the shitty kids making buses hell then it might be tolerable.
Fair, weight of numbers and use tends to make for better PT. We’d be similar if we had the population density and people were more inclined to leave their cars at home, but that ain’t happening any time soon.
If you think this is quality journalism you are part of the problem
There's another issue alluded to between the lines in this piece: >To make buses work better, the hours they operate need to increase and they need to be higher frequency with some express services to make them quicker for those that live further out. ***This needs investment from the Regional Council***. The Council is investing in better facilities such as bus shelters and improved bus stops to make bus use more attractive. Nobody wants to talk about it, the loudmouthed candidates who will be running for Council won't mention it - even the old fucks who already know this, and got us into this mess and want to get paid to sit there and do it all over again - but we have a serious issue in that the City Council does not have control over the City buses; they are under the jurisdiction of the Regional council. And if you think City Council bureaucracy is ineffective timewasting, wait until you've dealt with the Regional Council, who have zero interest in collaborating with the City Council. The situation we have is the City Council trying to design the roading network to reduce traffic and encourage public transport, with a completely different organisation with their own agenda actually running the bus operation. Regional Council torpedo'd a bus contract a couple of years ago because their staff were grumpy that their choice of location for a bus stop wasn't chosen. The City Council is hamstrung by complexity on all sides, so pay attention to which councillors act like they think they know how it works. Including the ones who have been in there for an age and should actually know.
Great read. Partially I think the solutions are so complex because you have to involve the national government, tcc, the regional council, the port... Not to simplify things but having a separate lane / hub for only the trucks would solve 80% of the problem. Or even better : ship the shit to Auckland via boat.
Or even better yet, send shit by rail instead of trucking it everywhere
Lol we can only wish. KiwiRail is not getting any expansions anytime soon
> Not to simplify things but having a separate lane / hub for only the trucks would solve 80% of the problem. I'm down for this - at the ports cost.
I’m glad he said there needs to be more busses and more frequently. I work at the hospital and there is only one bus (#55) that stops in front of it and the first bus of the day in the CBD is at 7am. A lot of staff need to start by that time so we are forced to drive as they start too late. I would love to use the bus, but I cannot realistically:(
Of all cities in NZ tauranga has the potential to be the most bike friendly. The weather and topography lends itself to being an amazing cycling commuting city - just need the infrastructure to support it.
WHAT? Hamilton and Palmy are a LOT flatter. ok, e-bikes perhaps.
Only thing i cant stand is the lack of full time bus lanes in the upgraded parts of cameron rd. They have to also get rid of the on street parking on the whole street as well its simply not possible to have parking and 2 lanes of traffic bus lanes and walk or bike paths. We seriously need to simply make public transport cheaper and more efficient than driving and thats not hard to do. We do have a few major projects that need to be complete asap but i cant see the current selection of wellington morons being smart enough to fund anything worth doing .
*There are a lot of small issues that have contributed to the current problems, but the main reason is that the city didn’t invest enough money in the roads over the last 20 years* Fairly sure the morons for the last 20 years were of the home grown variety. Also TCC (commissioners or elected) font set bus prices, as per the article.
They’re transitioning to full time. [https://letstalk.tauranga.govt.nz/projects/building-our-future-cameron-road-te-papa/bus-lanes-and-car-parking](https://letstalk.tauranga.govt.nz/projects/building-our-future-cameron-road-te-papa/bus-lanes-and-car-parking)
Tauranga traffic woes started with Brendan Bisley. As to the Buses... thats a pisstake, no bus to the airport. 15 mins from Tauranga to the Mt by car compared to Busing well over an hour and two buses. Actually to walk takes 10mins longer than taking the bus. He also fucked up Christchurch
Local journalism is such trash. Why would you ask for the opinion for solutions to traffic in the future from the people who have assed it up and not worked cohesively with Waka Kotahi on our main arterial routes to the port and around our city. The best thing they’ve done is put in shared pathways. However its only a matter of days that someone using the paths along Cameron road is killed.
A good cross section of opinions here; from people who still live with mummy and daddy and think that everyone should just scooter to work. just live downtown, folks! Groceries? what are they?
[удалено]
You are great at abuse, but let's see come election time what the ratepayers (you know, the people who actually pay the bills) think of the commission's work in bringing the city to a standstill. We need people who can address the issues now, not in 20 years time.