I wanted to use public transit to go to work from my home in Beach Haven to my new job in Albany.
Depending on how I strike the traffic lights at intersections, it takes roughly 14 minutes to make the trip in the morning in my 1.3L car. In the evening, the long queue to turn right (southbound on Glenfield) at the lights where Wairau Rd touches Glenfield Rd, adds about 5 minutes to the return trip.
Taking the bus would involve two buses, $5.90 each way, 1.6km of walking and 1 hour and 11 minutes - each way. Included is a tiki tour around the highlights of the North Shore: Birkenhead, Northcote Centre, AUT in Takapuna, the hospital, Smales farm, Akoranga.....and so on. Buying a Northern 7 day Pass would be $38.50 each week. My car is currently lasting 2 weeks on a $65 tank of petrol, including all trips, not just those to work.
I just don't have the time to take the bus. That extra 2 hours each day is my time.
Daily review 22/07/2025
7 hours ago
I would love to use public transport as well. Currently, I get in my 1.3 litre car at around 7.35am and after a fifteen minute commute over the Harbour bridge and a five minute walk, I am in my North Shore office by around 7:55-8am. Even with petrol at $2.19 a litre, my weekly fuel bill is around $25-30 for all travel and I reckon I spend about four hours a week in commuting.
ReplyDeleteI live in Eden Terrace, quite near the intersection of Dominion/Symonds/New North Road. There is also the Bright Street overbridge over the Northwestern Motorway which gives me pedestrian access to Great North Road. In the mornings, there is NO through service from any of those key arterial routes to the North Shore. All journeys require me to change bus in the central hubs, either by trekking to Britomart or to the crap hole stop of Albert Street. The average journey time quoted on the Maxx website is around 55 minutes, the walking about 1.4km, and costs $6.00. So to use public transport would cost me $30 (maybe a bit less with the shitty concessions offered) for communting alone, take up 10 hours a week of my time and require me to walk 14km a week rain, hail or shine. I already walk and run a lot for recreation, so its not like the exercise would be good for me.
This option simply is no option, I could swim to work quicker.
Auckland has a poorly thought out hub and spoke transport service designed as though the city was shaped like a soccer ball. It has to do better.
sanctuary: Agreed. It could be much better and a good way to start would be to cancel the $2.1 billion tunnel and use the money instead to build transit hubs to allow buses to interconnect in a more rational way and reduce rider walks. All buses and trains shold be under one authority and one cost line and have the power via a unified Council to make infrastructural changes for the whole region. Central government should see every dollar spent on public transport as two or more saved on roading.
ReplyDeleteI live in Greenhithe. You try catch a bus from Greenhithe to anywhere! Especially as a uni student, because buses only leave at peak times, but I have lectures in the middle of the day, and sometimes finish quite late. So I use the park and ride. Or try to use the park and ride. The same problems persist, as there are no parks in the middle of the day. Apart from cheaper fairs, public transport is not student friendly. I'm living at home to save costs, but with transport costs, it could perhaps be cheaper to flat in town!
ReplyDeleteugn: Public transit needs to be seen as universal infrastructure, not a profit centre. Auckland's public transit isn't as good as it needs to be because the funder / provider split isn't efficient. It's hugely wasteful.
ReplyDeleteI work evening shift so I avoid the worst congestion. It takes me 25 minutes to travel the 15km from Northcote to Woolston on the expressway and 20 minutes to get home. In my 3 litre car it is more fuel efficient to go around the city on the expressway than to stop-start 12km through the suburbs. There aren't any late night buses servicing Woolston. If there were I would still have to change buses, either from the Orbiter to a local service at Eastgate Mall or between local routes at the Exchange (in the central city. Either way would be more expensive in both time and money. Christchurch buses may provide an excellent service for vistor's staying in the city centre but it's not that good for those who aren't travelling to or from the city centre. It also helps that the roads are so appallingly inefficient. The average speed on my journey home at midnight is less than 50kmh even though the average speed limit is 70kmh.
ReplyDeleteWorst of all, when I buy petrol half my Auckland and/or Wellington receive as much of my petrol taxes as Canterbury does. The rest of the South Island gets half as much as Canterbury but at least there's a good chance I'll actually travel on those roads and those roads are directly connected to the Canterbury economy so I could be getting a good return on that investment.