Only one in five of Tauranga people are catching Bay Hopper buses to get to work, a survey commissioned by Environment Bay of Plenty shows.
The telephone survey of 805 people on why people used public transport showed most people (34 per cent) used the bus to go shopping, followed by recreation (30 per cent) and work (20 per cent).
Other reasons included education (4 per cent), getting to the doctor or hospital (4 per cent) and visiting friends (3 per cent).
The low ranking of work as the reason for bus travel surprised this week's council transport committee meeting. "Perhaps they rang during the day when other [bus] users were not at home." Cr Jane Nees said.
Council transport policy manager Garry Maloney did not know.
However, customer satisfaction remains high with Tauranga's bus service. The survey was conducted between April 6 and May 4 this year, before the introduction of the new Go Bus service.
Satisfaction levels with the reliability and frequency of services was nearly the same as previous surveys.
The service was very good or excellent said 88 per cent, with 9 per cent saying it was good.
The main reasons why people chose to catch the bus was that they had no other alternative (54 per cent), convenience and less hassle (37 per cent), parking costs and availability (32 per cent), cheaper than a car (32 per cent), I like it (17 per cent) and social responsibility (9 per cent).
Of the bus users, 55 per cent had access to a car all the time, with 30 per cent having no access.
Nearly half of bus users experienced problems with catching the bus. The most common were lateness, negative experience with the driver, bus driven unsafely, bus not turning up, overcrowding and not stopping at the bus stop.
A third of bus users only caught the bus once a week, with another third catching the bus two or three times a week. Only 5 per cent indicated they caught the bus five days a week.
Shopping main reason people take bus
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