The new BeeCard system makes using a bus more user-friendly for passengers
The new BeeCard system makes using a bus more user-friendly for passengers
Growing numbers of people prefer public transport
In response to Kevin O'Sullivan's letter to the editor concerned about buses and climate change.
It is correct that our buses have lower passenger numbers during off-peak times, but they are often full at peak times (Covid-19 crisis excepted).
The new BeeCard system,with its simple tag on/tag off system, makes it more user-friendly for passengers - and cheaper with reduced rates for BeeCard users.
By tagging on and off the bus, we gather information to help make future improvements to services.
Buses have lower overall emissions than the individual vehicles they replace but it would be great to go further and see diesel buses replaced with electric versions.
Growing numbers of people prefer public transport to reduce their carbon footprint - and some simply need it to get around.
Our neighbours in Palmerston North have an electric bus coming - the low carbon future is on its way.
Finally, buses are still free to use until July 20.
This has been possible thanks to Government funding as part of the Covid-19 response and to help with the rollout of the BeeCard across the rest of the region, so now is a great time to get on the bus.
NICOLA PATRICK Horizons regional councillor
A late-morning Whanganui East bus carries nine passengers. Photo / file
Open the discussion
Well, the Chronicle has opened its front page on Saturday with a large photo of Debbie Ngawera-Packer, the most recognisable activist against all things.
However, the mug shot was attributed to her co-leadership of the Maori Party.
What the hell is that you may ask as the party has been dead for years?
Apart from her vocal opposition to the off-shore mining west of Hawera, her recent claim to fame was establishing iwi-manned road blocks south of Hawera during the Covid-19 pandemic.
She is a professional activist and agitator who has leapt on the current oppression and racism bandwagon sweeping the world. It is to its credit that the Chronicle followed her position with statements from several people who deflated her remarks.
Never thought I would agree with the comments of Kyle Dalton, Adrian Ruawhe and John Maihi who seem to be a calming group in this issue, unlike Hamish McDouall who seems determined to drive the wedge between Maori and non-Maori deeper.
Can we open this discussion to the people of Whanganui via the Opinion section of the Chronicle and dispense with the columnist features that have robbed the Chronicle of reader input for months.
Let the people speak, that is democracy.
D PARTNER Eastown
Weight of history
It has taken events in other countries to bring our own racist colonial history to our attention.
The divisive issue of whom we wish to publicly commemorate with statues would disappear if our colonial history was covered in the National School curricula, with the same compulsion it has for English literature.
When the facade of public service used to honour such as Balance, Bryce, Grey, Picton, Hamilton is looked behind, it exposes an actual measure of their worth. It would put such individuals in an objective, factual perspective, where their worth could be judged against their subjective, sentimental value.
Then there would be no need to topple them, the weight of our history would be enough to put them in their place - for many, it would be a museum.
H NORTON Kaitoke
Lives wasted
It is always interesting to see what "matters" to certain people or groups of people, especially when it comes to human lives.
For example, from the US we are presented with examples of black men being killed by police officers. Cases like George Floyd being murdered by a man in uniform. Horrifying.
In 2019 US police, according to the Washington Post, shot and killed 1003 people, 55 of whom were unarmed - 405 were white, 250 were black, 163 were Hispanic.
And we only ever see attention paid to those who were black.
Does this mean the only wrongful killings were people who were black? Not likely. Studies have shown that police officers are less likely to kill a black suspect than a white suspect.
So, we then see marches, protests, violence, and looting, all under the banner of Black Lives Matter (BLM). This is in response to all those people saying Black lives don't matter, oh, wait, there is no one saying such a thing.
No, the interesting thing about BLM is which lives they deem worthy of mattering. Apparently only "Black" lives matter, not white, Hispanic, Asian, etc.
What about David Dorn or David Patrick Underwood? Do their lives not matter because their names were David, or because Dorn was a police officer and Underwood a Federal Security Officer? Both were black men murdered during the BLM "peaceful protests".
And what about all the others who have lost their lives or been injured during these "peaceful protests"?
Or the hundreds and thousands of people killed regularly in crime in the US? In Chicago alone last year there were 492 homicides and three fatal police shootings.
Seventy something per cent of the homicides were black people, with about 95 per cent of those being "black on black" killings. And BLM say absolutely nothing about all those black lives wasted.
