Bus Lanes Start to Take Shape

If you've been down Papanui Rd lately you will have noticed a lot of work going on in preparation for the commencement of bus lanes. Eventually, the City Council plan to have a number of routes with bus lanes but Papanui Rd and Main North Rd are the first to receive them.

Essentially, bus lanes are good and I have no problem with the introduction of them. They allow buses to bypass congested traffic, improving transit times and making public transport a more attractive option for everyday commuters. Christchurch desperately needs increased public transport use (we have, by far, the lowest use out of the three biggest NZ cities) as the existing roads can't handle the ever growing traffic. In addition, planned new roads will do little to alleviate this emerging chaos and will be of little benefit unless money is used to develop public transport schemes alongside.

Christchurch, unlike Auckland and Wellington, has little public transport infrastructure and virtually no mass transit.. We have no rail services, no busways nothing. Our bus system is great in some ways (metrocard, modern buses, bus exchange, real time info) but is stuck using existing roads, meaning buses are caught in the same congestion as cars. Transit times are slow, incredibly slow in fact, and there is no other way for people to commute.

Bus lanes are the first serious piece of public transport infrastructure to be developed in Christchurch in recent memory. They will, hopefully, help to revolutionise the way people look at public transport in Christchurch. However, there are some issues I have had since construction of the bus lanes began. The lanes themselves are incredibly wide, you could easily fit a bus plus car alongside each other in the lane. These are much wider than those I have seen in London for example. It also means that the bus lanes do not run on both sides of the road at once. This is also related to the bus lanes not being continuous, they are broken up along the route which means that buses will have to merge back into traffic at various points along the route. I'm not suggesting the lanes could be continuous but what I am saying is that if they were narrower they might be able to be on both sides of the road at the same time, allowing for a more continuous run. In addition, all of the lanes appear to be part time only, which is a shame. Nevertheless, I will save my criticism for now. As the bus lanes begin to impact on attitudes and patronage, extensions and other modifications may become less controversial and more justified.

On a more positive note, I am very pleased to see that the Christchurch City Council are getting right behind the bus lanes and are promoting them well. As well as illuminated signs along the route saying "bus lanes coming soon" there are advertisements in the papers, on the Internet (stuff) and on the buses themselves. This is excellent, people need to be aware that this is a big thing. Now all we need is some articulated (bendy) buses!