So far so good!

So far it seems that the bus lanes along Papanui Rd are doing well. Being school holidays overall traffic will have been reduced this week so it will be interesting to see how they go next week when it's 'all go'. Interesting to see that the Press reported that some bus drivers weren't using the lanes (in the process taking a cheeky swipe at the legitimacy of the $30 million project). This can probably be attributed to the school holidays as I explained.

Leading up to the implementation of the first stage of bus lanes there was some attention given to those opposed to their worth. This came from shop owners in particular who were worried about losing a few car parks. In the end it is really about what is the greater good, and with car parking down side streets, and potential increases in foot traffic due to greater public transport use I'll go with the bus lanes.Unfortunately local journalism stops short of the big picture!

Another point being made was that Christchurch residents loved their cars too much, making the money being spent on bus lanes a waste. To this, I once again point out that out of the 'big three' NZ cities Christchurch has seen the least amount of public transport development and that this correlates with our low rate of use as an overall proportion of trips made. Where investment has been made people have flocked to public transport. Auckland rail patronage has more than doubled in just a few years while the development of the Northern Busway has revolutionised transport on the North Shore. Closer to home, look what happened when we built the 'Bus Exchange' and introduced integrated smart card ticketing (metrocard), patronage increased. However, we still have a long way to go and bus lanes are simply the next step (although well overdue). I look forward to seeing what is next, hopefully I will be able to tick a few more things off my wish list (see previous posts).

I have yet to check the bus lanes out for myself but will be doing so next week when they will be operating with schools back in session. I will post on here my thoughts and hope to start posting on here more regularly again. Until then...