Gridlock: Buses 'critical' to Tauranga's future but too few people know it, or care - public transport head

Traffic in Hewletts Rd is not an uncommon sight. Photo / NZME

Public transport is considered critical to Tauranga's future but fewer people are catching buses in the Bay of Plenty. Reporter Kiri Gillespie shares a bus trip with the man at the head of the Bay's Public Transport Committee to find out why, what he plans to do about it, and whether he catches the bus himself.

It's a fine, crisp autumn morning and the bus stop in Mount Maunganui's Farm St is steady with people coming and going from public transport.

Among them is Bay of Plenty Regional Council public transport committee chairman Andrew von Dadelszen. He joins the handful of people hopping on the City Link bus for a 15-minute journey to Tauranga's CBD.

Seated up a step and towards the back, von Dadleszen admits he doesn't usually catch public transport – despite his title. He lives centrally and mostly relies on his Vespa scooter.

"I spend $12 every two and a half months on petrol, I'm absolutely committed to a lower footprint and so the car is just for long trips."

The bus lurches over speed bumps and whirs away towards Links Ave before approaching Hewletts Rd, where it uses a dedicated bus lane to cruise past other Tauranga-bound traffic.

Von Dadelszen says he has a friend who caught the bus from Mount Maunganui's Bayfair area to Tauranga's CBD during peak traffic and the commute was 20 minutes faster than what it takes her usually if she drives.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council member Andrew von Dadelszen heads the public transport committee and says more people need to get on board buses. Photo / George Novak

Such a time difference is just one of the benefits of taking the bus but too few people realise it or take advantage of them, he says.

A quick headcount of the six others on board is a real-time illustration of the quandary.

In a report to the regional council in March, bus patronage figures showed Bay of Plenty numbers from July to December last year dropped from 1.382 million in the same period the year before to 1.352 million.

"Considering Covid, it's actually pretty good," von Dadelszen says.

This was also despite a "very successful" rollout of free school bus fares in Tauranga that increased the numbers of students catching buses from 67,260 in the 2019-20 year to 126,807 in 2020-21.

But it's not enough.

Von Dadelszen said the biggest challenge to the city's public transport network over the next 10 years was the people.

"We have to get people to transition to public transport. It's a really hard question as to how you get people out of cars, given the geography of Tauranga and the isthmuses.

Traffic in Hewletts Rd is not an uncommon sight. Photo / NZME

"It's not easy like Hamilton or Christchurch where you can have a hub and spoke system here ... it is difficult and people are just, there are so many tradies, a lot of construction guys who have to have a vehicle for their work."

As the bus passes traffic in Hewletts Rd, von Dadelszen looks across to the double lanes and points to the swarm of sole-occupant drivers as he speaks.

"If we look around, at that car, and that car and that car, mostly this city is still single car.

"I see it every day. It hasn't improved."

A single bus offers the chance to have up to 40 fewer cars on the road.

Von Dadelszen said the push to get more people onto buses, or other alternative modes of transport was so challenging it may ultimately result in a government move through things such as congestion charging.

Whatever way it is done, moving people out of their cars is "critical" to the future of Tauranga's economy, production and quality of life, von Dadelszen says.

Bus lanes such as the one at Hairini that runs onto Turret Rd help to ensure bus journeys are quicker than car commutes, transport bosses say. Photo / NZME

Already this year, transport leaders at Tauranga City Council confirmed arterial routes through the city such as 15th Ave-Turret Rd and Hewletts Rd-Totara St are at saturation point. Without more car commuters changing their travelling habits, congestion is expected to get worse with longer queues and greater traffic delays.

Von Dadelszen refers to Auckland as a live example of what Tauranga can avoid.

"We don't want to get like Auckland and we've got to keep ahead of it and I think we were ahead of it but now we are getting behind."

This was not helped by consistent complaints of empty buses regularly featuring on Tauranga roads.

"What people aren't liking is that they are going around empty. But to get people on a bus you have to have a reliable service, it's got to be on time and faster than a car."

Three years ago the regional council spent $5.5 million to increase bus numbers as part of a wider $14.8m-a-year overhaul to the public transport network. This included more seats, more flexible routes, new routes, more frequent services, better technology, and a new contractor.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council Public Transport Committee chairman Andrew von Dadelszen waits to board a bus at Farm St depot. Photo / George Novak

"The problem we have is in 2018, we put out a new contract with NZ Bus and we moved from having 98 buses to 135 buses – that includes five electric buses. So people are seeing more buses on the roads," von Dadelszen says.

We round a corner at Dive Cres and von Dadelszen says he knows it's an uphill battle for such transport to win the hearts and minds of Tauranga motorists.

"It's not easy."

In 2018, Tauranga was dubbed the most car-reliant city in New Zealand, having about 76 per cent of commuters using cars on their own, compared with 68 per cent nationwide.

Von Dadelszen's not put off. There are avenues he's curious to explore such as the possibility of bringing in smaller electric buses on some of the less-frequented routes.

But whatever measures are put in place to help boost bus patronage numbers, they need to go through a more formal process with the public transport committee before they can be discussed, he explains.

By the time he gets off the bus in Willow St, the 7km ride has taken exactly 15 minutes.

While the ride itself may have been swift, without more public buy-in it appears the solution to the city's public transport situation will not be.