What will it be like in 20 years if we do nothing?

  After 3 weeks in England, it is blindingly obvious that every local and regional (County) Council is asking itself the question: ‘what will our cities and towns be like in 20 years if we just do ‘business as usual’ and don’t seriously address the growing car problem?’

  Not one of the ones I’ve seen has taken the ‘build more roads’ option – the political colour of the local and national administrations seems to make liitle difference, except round the edges. I’ve seen Tory, Labour, Liberal Democrat and even one Green city administration – they are all working hard on public transport and cycling & walking solutions to ensure their communities are liveable in the future.

   One transport innovation that has the Brits justifiably enthusiastic is the newly opened ‘Cambridgeshire Guided Busway’ – the longest such in the world, with a total length of over 32kms. In an area similar in size and population to the central Waikato, the Conservative Party-led equivalent of the regional Council has developed a dedicated bus network, partly on old railway lines, linking 2 outlying commuter towns and 2 new development areas (one not yet built) to the old centre of Cambridge, the well-known University town with a 90,000 population.

  The buses travel up to 90kmh out of the city, but just use the normal bus routes and bus lanes inside Cambridge. In every respect bar the small mechanical guide wheels they are normal new buses similar to the Hamilton Orbiters (except for a couple of double-deckers, but in the first month recorded a 92% increase in passenger numbers over the last month of the routes they replaced.

  Well-used shared cycle/walkways parallel the guided busway out of the towns, linking also to a nationally important wetland area that was previously run down and almost inaccessible to the public.

Who'd live in London?

  Obviously, 9 million people - but after a hectic day with 4 appointments, not me! The train (very expensive) in from Bath was 40 mins late, the tube (underground) was massively overcrowded, dirty and hot - and closed on the line I needed to use (electrical fault), leaving me and thousands of others exiting at the wrong stop. And the train out was standing room only for hundreds of us as for the first 40 minutes.

  But, surprisingly, the taxi was cheap, and the driver friendly & fair, and the 'Cycle Superhighways' and 'Boris Bikes' (named after London's Tory Mayor Boris Johnson) were also cheap and easy to use - although I was very thankful I had a local cyclist 'guiding' me on the 4km ride we needed to make through the traffic. There are about 500 official bike docking stations, and over 6,000 hire bikes in the city, along with tens of thousands of other private bikes chained to bike racks, railings, posts and trees throughout the commercial area - sometimes I thought I was in Copenhagen!

  I also visited the central traffic control room, where about 2,000 traffic cameras, dozens of operators, traffic police, utility and emergency service co-ordinators managed all the city's traffic - actually (and very efficiently) managing to keep it from grinding to a halt - one of the operators I met was a kiwi, so that was probably why!

  All in all, however, competing with literally millions every day for footpath, road, and train space is definitely not your average kiwi's cup of tea. The fact that the London transport authorities have managed to get such a good (and growing) cycle network and infrastructure in place in the last few years is a testament to inspired political leadership, excellent staff management and clearly some community realisation that cars in such a crowded place are simply unworkable.

Buses & Bollards

  Visited two quite different towns - Crawley (pop. 100,000), a new town south of London developed post-War initially to take population overspill, and now the gateway to and service centre for Gatwick Airport; and Bournemouth (pop. 160,000), on the south coast settled as a tourist centre in Victorian times with 20,000 hotel beds.
  Both towns (can't be called cities because neither have 'royal warrants') are well-connected to London and other regional centres by passenger rail, and have bus services that would put any medium NZ city to shame.
  However, what I was looking at was the impressive 'Fastway' Bus Rapid Transit system in Crawley, linking all major areas in that town, the major emplyment focus of Gatwick and the smaller nearby centre of Horley (20,000). 'Guided' buses run on a combination of separated bus tracks, standard bus lanes and ordinary sections of road, coupled with bus-only priority measures at most intersections - meaning buses are pretty much the fastest and most reliable means of transport in the area, and sharply reduce the need for parking provision - especially the congested Gatwick airport precinct.
  In Bournemouth, the innovations I viewed were the 20mph (30kph) speed zones and the associated traffic calming measures in residential streets [see photo of kid-shaped bollard decked out in the local school uniform]. In order top slow traffic down and reduce the attractiveness of some wider streets as 'rat runs' physical choking of the street to one lane only is built in - very effectively.

First impressions - after 3 days 'On the Road'

Visits to Winchester, Brighton and Portsmouth in my 1st three days in the UK have shown a few common threads.... [Pic: on-street cycle parking in central Brighton]

  1/. how much more safety-conscious in the cities people are here - all three have extensive areas of 20mph (=30kph) road speed zones in residential and central city commercial districts - something that is clearly widely bought into by the travelling public, with almost zero enforcement needed. Portsmouth - with 94% of the city covered by these slow speed zones - has recently turned off all their speed cameras, while the police are at the same time saying they don't have the resources to police the lower limits - BUT there is still no obvious speeding problem, and average speeds have dropped;
  2/. how the 1980s and 1990s privatisation of public transport has led to really high fares and an almost complete inability by local councils and communities to have any control over bus, rail and tram services, and their pricing. Already I'm hearing a common thread of complaints by staff and elected members in councils here about how difficult it is to plan for future land use and transport needs;

  3/. how much more cycling, and cycle facility provision, there is here - while the weather and traffic volumes are noticeably worse - I'll have to find out the secret of this!

  4/. How proud staff and Councillors have been about their transport initiatives, and how keen they have been to discuss them, and show them to me.

Hong Kong & Zurich transport report

  Two vastly different cities on the way to the UK, but a day spent in each showed some similarities in the area of modern transport planning..... [Pic: double-decker buses, and trams (!) in Hong Kong]

  Hong Kong (6M population) & Zurich (a bit over 1M, similar to Auckland) both had modern, frequent, quick and reasonably cheap rail links between the airport and their CBDs, and other major centres - both also used effective new light rail links within the airport to shuttle people around between terminals, arrival halls & baggage claims, etc. The effect of these services kept traffic and resulting congestion on the roads in and around the airport within manageable levels - Auckland could learn a lot from them [Heathrow in London had similar services & it appears Auckland may be the odd one out!]
  In terms of large city CBD planning, both also had extensive underground walkways (especially Hong Kong) linking transport services with shopping areas, and in Hong Kong's case enabling these areas to have multiple usage, freeing up a surprising amount of above-ground land for aesthetically pleasing parks, gardens & piazzas. 
  There was a clear effort to ensure major transport systems did not detract too much from the quality of residents' and visitors' city experiences  - again more lessons for Auckland and perhaps the rest of us.
  Zurich also had an excellent 'Zurich Card' - for about NZ$30/day, transfers between the airport & downtown, all local travel on buses, trams, trains, ferries and the tourist cable-car were covered, as well as providing free entry to the city's 35-odd museums, and discounts at various restaurants and retail outlets - something all NZ cities could usefully copy!
  Both cities also had pretty good transport information displays, signage and electronic ticket self-service systems - both at stops, major stations and in other public areas - even a newbie like me was finding his way around without help within an hour or so of arriving in each place.

On the Road - first of a series of columns from Europe

Dave Macpherson is the recipient of a 2011 Winston Churchill Memorial Fellowship – for as study trip to the UK & The Netherlands looking at what New Zealand can learn from practical examples of good public transport systems and cycling and pedestrian facilities in medium and smaller cities and towns.

  Last month Cambridgeshire County in England saw the opening of a ‘guided busway’ network between the central city of Cambridge and the ‘necklace’ of smaller towns surrounding it – an area similar in population and structure to the central Waikato.

  The network is the newest and most advanced example in the UK of a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, where public transport links significant employment centres with suburbs and towns that the staff live in. Bus routes are typically separate from the main roads, or (when part of them) have dedicated bus lanes, and bus priority measures at intersections.

  In a couple of weeks I’ll be experiencing the Cambridge BRT first hand, and seeing what we can learn from both the successes and delays and cost overruns they experienced!

Brighton and Hove, on England’s South Coast, won national awards for its network of ‘home zones’ where residential and suburban streets have 20mph (30kph) speed limits, and ‘shared space’  road corridor designs that encourage pedestrian and cyclist priority use of the streets, and cars – while not ‘second class citizens’ – have to negotiate roads with care and consideration for more vulnerable users.

  In the Netherlands, I’ll be looking at the same type of place, in towns like Haren, Houten and Drachten (where the ‘shared space’ concept was born), and at the amazing network of cycling facilities that country has built up.

Some of these have been in place for 30-40 years, and have helped the Dutch develop, and accept as part of their everyday life, a whole new culture around safer use of roads, and acceptance of walking and cycling as healthier, cheaper and very often quicker means of transport.

  In Hamilton and the wider Waikato, we’ve been trialling 40kph zones outside schools, and better methods of slowing traffic in suburban streets than the old ‘hump in the middle of the road’. Until two years ago, we also had nation-leading growth in bus usage, but which has stagnated or even gone backwards recently.

  If we want to continue to be leading lights in New Zealand of transport innovation, including safer roads for all users, it is important that we learn from best practice wherever it happens – I hope my study trip will bring back a lot we can learn from.

Hennebry Team's anti-public transport rave against rail

The Hennebry Council Team have shown their true colours with their latest attack on the Hamilton-Auckland passenger rail service.
In an empty-headed rant to the Waikato Times editor, the Tania version of the Fighting Hennebrys has tried to drag central Government politics into the local body election campaign by falsely claiming the Hamilton-Auckland passenger train is a Labour Party gimmick.
Many members of the National Party, including Hamilton West MP Tim MacIndoe, have publicly supported the rail service, questioning only its timing – they say it’s a “not if, but when” situation.
The Labour Party had nothing to do with establishing the campaign for the rail service, but they are welcome to support it, and some of its members do.
So also do many thousands of other Hamiltonians, not the least of whom are members of the business community who are forced to waste hours each day in Auckland Motorway traffic jams, not to mention paying a fortune for Auckland parking.
Contrary to Hennebry’s claims, all reports on the potential service to date show that the service would be easily affordable if it received just the normal subsidy buses do at the moment, or rail services do in Auckland and Wellington.
Perhaps Hennebry hasn’t read them, or perhaps she doesn’t believe Hamilton deserves the same public transport support as other major cities?
The Hennebry Team have never supported Hamilton's fast-growing public transport network, trying at various times to:

• cancel Sunday bus services
• cut middle-of-the-day buses
• prevent new bus routes starting
• cut kerbside facilties for bus passengers
• demand large bus fare increases

The Hennebrys that have been elected have NEVER made a positive comment about Hamilton's public transport, so why would anyone expect them to change their spots over a passenger rail service that might help bring the city into the modern age?
Of course, their attitude is hardly surprising when you consider that the "leader" (there's a misnomer if ever there was one) Roger owns seven cars - he's far too busy deciding which one to drive each day without worrying about a good transport system for anyone else!

Message of support for Tuakau rail service support meeting from Hamilton

Hamilton CC is aware that the Tuakau community have been strong supporters of a passenger rail service between the Waikato and Auckland for some time. Support from your community, and from others along the route between Hamilton and Auckland, has been a key factor we use when we demonstrate the depth of public support for the service.

Modern, efficient public transport connections like the proposed rail service are an essential part of any forward-looking community, and you can rest assured that the Hamilton City Council will continue to strongly press for the early introduction of such a service. Over 80% of Hamiltonians support such a service, and many hundreds have indicated they would use it on a regular basis.

There is no reason why it should not commence within the next 18 months – there is rolling stock available, passengers ready, willing and able, and infrastructure is either in place, or will not take much to put in place.

All it will need is some political courage – not demonstrated in the past by the Waikato District Council (unfortunately) or Environment Waikato – from local authorities in our region. The signs are that EW and WDC Councillors may now be willing to back this proposal more strongly than in the past – we urge you to keep the pressure on them, and to make sure their election campaign promises are really worth the paper they are printed on!

We also urge everyone involved to push the Government and its transport agency NZTA to apply the same funding investment to this service that they do for passenger rail in the Auckland and Wellington regions, or even the same as bus services receive in many regions. With this moderate level of support, the service will not only be viable, it will fly (so to speak!).

We would also like to thank the Campaign for Better Transport for the great efforts they have led to grow the support for the rail service. The 11,500-signature petition they collected in support of the rail service, and the many, many submissions they have lodged with various Councils have been inspiring.

Joyce's bad on trains - needs to talk to us to get his facts straight

The admission by Transport Minister Stephen Joyce that he had got his facts wildly wrong last week in Parliament while slagging off the proposed Hamilton – Auckland passenger rail service has led to an invitation being issued for him to visit Hamilton and discuss “facts, not prejudices”.

Hamilton City Council Transport Committee Chair Dave Macpherson, one of many locals supporting the commencement of the rail service, said “it’s always disappointing when a senior Government Minister is so hell-bent on attacking something that he lets his mouth run away on him without checking the facts.”

Stephen Joyce had claimed in answer to a Parliamentary question last week that it would cost $15,000 per trip to subsidise each rail passenger – an answer that he has now admitted was wrong by a factor of several hundred!

“While we are pleased that Minister Joyce has corrected himself – he did after all gets his claims of $15,000 per passenger subsidy dramatically wrong – we are disturbed that he didn’t check first with his own departmental officials, let alone Waikato people supporting the service, before shooting his mouth off.”

“Supporters of the rail service, which even Minister Joyce has agreed will happen at some stage, have had to put up with a lot of deliberate misinformation about the cost of the service, some of it from local Government MP David Bennett.”

“All we ask for is the same level of support rail services in Auckland and Wellington get, or bus services around the country, for the rail service – if we get that, the service will be more than viable.”

“To help Minister Joyce get his facts straight, I’d like to invite him up to Hamilton to get a personal briefing on the actual cost, as proposed by his own KiwiRail company, as well as to get a flavour of the high degree of local support.”

“Minister Joyce is doing a good job on transport safety and building big roads, but for a pragmatic person he seems to have a blind spot about a few other things!”

Govt's 'unbalanced' transport spending criticised

Sue Moroney is absolutely correct to ask the Waikato Regional Transport Committee to support its own policy and ‘fight’ for a balanced approach to transport funding.

The massively increased Government expenditure on state highways, coupled with reduced spending on public transport, cycling and walking and even kid’s road safety education, provides an unbalanced transport solution, will inevitably lead to big increases in costs for Hamilton ratepayers in future years, as more roads and less alternatives breed more calls for more roads, etc.

Yes, it’s been good to see the Expressway completion in sight, but it becomes less good when every other transport jam jar is being raided simply to give Waikato residents a 10-minute quicker trip to meet Auckland’s gridlock.

Those telling forward-thinking people to shut up about buses, trains & cycles “otherwise the Expressway might be in jeopardy” had better brush up arguments to use against those caught in traffic jams in Hamilton East, made worse by the fact there is no subsidy available to fund extra Orbiter buses, meaning kids left behind by overfull buses and parents choosing to add their cars to the traffic chaos because there is no other way to get little Johnny to school.

The Chair of the Regional Transport Committee, Norm Barker, needs to realise that the Waikato is definitely NOT UNITED in support of the Govt's cutbacks in all transport spending other than the Expressway - his job is to advocate for the interests of ALL Waikato residents and communities - so far, Hamilton's transport needs in most areas have not received the support they deserve!

Minister's public transport cherry-picking proposal puts services at risk

Transport Minister Steven Joyce has kick-started a Ministry of Transport review of Public Transport by calling for increased commercialisation of bus, train & ferry services.

His idea, supported by the bus owner-dominated Public Transport Leadership Forum, is to free up private PT operators to 'cherry-pick' profitable peak-hour/high volume services, leaving local authorities and ratepayers to fund the rest of the PT timetable.

This will inevitably lead to cutbacks in timetables and routes, as networks like Hamilton's lose the ability to cross-subsidise across different services. It is also likely to mean local authorities will lose control over the setting of fares.

Local authorities responsible for PT are increasingly turning to the 'gross contract' system, where private operators are contracted to run a route (covering all trips during the day), or a group of routes, and all the revenue from ticket sales goes to the local authority.

Waikato has run this system for many years, which has strongly contributed to the largest % growth in PT in the country.

Particularly in Auckland, private PT operators have had a history of jumping in to run profitable services and withdrawing from less profitable ones, leaving passengers in the lurch, causing major planning problems, and meaning ratepayers have to try and pick up the pieces.

The Minister's bright idea will be like Groundhog Day for all those who have worked to develop PT in New Zealand into a more planned, sustainable and fair system.

Govt bus funding shortcomings

Hamilton City Council has sent a letter to Transport Minister Stephen Joyce, expressing our concern at the effect the Government’s freeze on public transport funding will have in the near future on the development of Hamilton’s bus services, noting that we already receive a lower per capita rate of PT funding than Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. The Government transport funding programme will jeopardise the implementation of our transport strategies - which they have previously agreed to!