Aucklanders missing the bus

By SCOTT MacLEOD transport reporter

An Australian study has found that the slump in public transport use in Auckland during the past 45 years has been worse than that experienced in other big cities.

Two researchers at Melbourne University reported an 89 per cent drop in public transport use per person between 1955 and 2000.

Anti-road lobbyists say the figures show the need to syphon cash from highway building into public transport, but the Auckland Regional Council says money should be spent in both areas.

The report by transport planning lecturer Dr Paul Mees and student Jago Dodson found that the average Aucklander used public transport 290 times a year in the 1950s - and just 33 times in 2000.

That figure was worse than most other poor-performing cities such as Los Angeles, with 55 trips per person, in 1990, and Perth, with 50, in 1996, but slightly better than Houston's 26, also a 1990 figure.

Atlanta, a city of 3.5 million compared with Auckland's 1.1 million, had 121 trips per person in 1998.

Dr Mees said yesterday that Auckland's dismal performance was caused by decades of spending too much money on roads and too little on trains and buses.

The skewed spending encouraged people to drive cars.

The research comes as the region prepares to pump $1.1 billion into a mostly train-based public transport system.

Dr Mees said this plan would fail because motorways were still being built and these would lure potential train users back into their cars.

He said Auckland already had traffic jams and pollution at levels usually found in much bigger cities.

The problem was worst in the central city, where motorways fed cars on to streets that could not handle the numbers.

The findings have been embraced by lobbyists fighting against a new city highway.

Stop The Eastern Motorway spokesman Terence Gould said it was pointless to build the motorway near railway tracks because it would only undermine the fledgling plans for passenger trains.

"If you're building it beside a railway line then why the hell are people going to get out of their cars into public transport?" he said.

But the Auckland Business Forum argued that decades-old plans to build a city motorway network should take priority.

Project coordinator Tony Garnier said buses would continue to be held up in traffic jams until the road network was finished.

The train system mostly fed the central business district, where just 11 per cent of commuters worked.

ARC transport committee chairman Les Paterson said it was important to finish the road network started in 1964 while boosting public transport.

"Passenger transport was neglected and under-invested for 30 years and it has been declining, no doubt about that," he said.

"But there will always be a demand for cars and trucks."

The Eastern Motorway opponents plan to fly Dr Mees to Auckland for a conference next Tuesday.

Dr Mees said he was astonished to find that Auckland's public transport system was even worse than the Australian ones.

"My old Granny used to say there's always someone worse than yourself - and it's Auckland."

Feature: Getting Auckland moving

Herald Online traffic reports

Rideline Auckland public transport information