Letters: Taking the bus is not cheap

A reader suggests the city's public transport is too expensive. Photo/File

Recently I have taken note of how much it costs to use the bus. I travel with my children (aged 5, 4, 2 and 1).

We have a city ride card so our fares are all $1.89 each per trip.

Each week it costs us $26.46 to use the bus for three round trips, or $1375.92 a year.

I guess I'd like to know from the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, what you aim to achieve in providing the bus service? Is it purely to provide an environmental choice? Because looking at these numbers, using the car starts to look good.

Our family, who usually can afford "green" choices, is being priced out of this much more environmentally sound alternative.

Or, possibly more interestingly, is this bus service aiming to provide a mode of transport to those who are unable to own or drive a car?

The last Census shows (Census 2013) that fewer than 10 per cent of people in our country don't have access to a car, so this is good socially minded thinking.

But if you need to use a bus to travel to work and back each day, it would cost $907.20 a year for a single person.

A couple would spend $1814.40.

Add to that a couple of children going to school and it starts to look really expensive and not helpful if your finances are already stretched.

I want my children to grow up knowing pubic transport is a good choice for the planet. But I need to be able to afford to do that. (Abridged)

Jen Bridson
Rotorua

Why bother
Re Why the 'h' do they bother? (Opinion, May 2). Putting the 'h' back into Whanganui is not a name change, it's correcting a spelling mistake.

Gloria Moengaroa
Rotorua