The standard Bayhopper buses in Greerton could be replaced by smaller versions as part of a potential on-demand service. Photo / Mead Norton
The standard Bayhopper buses in Greerton could be replaced by smaller versions as part of a potential on-demand service. Photo / Mead Norton
An on-demand public transport trial in Tauranga has been recommended as a way of increasing bus patronage numbers and lowering the city's carbon footprint.
The new trial could begin in Tauranga South as the result of recommendations to the Bay of Plenty Regional Public Transport Plan Hearings sub-committee. If successful,the trial would likely involve smaller buses on a couple of existing bus routes.
The sub-committee will meet tomorrow to discuss a draft Regional Public Transport Plan 2022-2032. Hearings for the document, which will underpin all future public transport decisions in the next 10 years, were held earlier this month.
The proposed on-demand trial has been likened to a "sort of" Uber-like service for buses.
It is also considered a key tool to helping encourage more people out of cars and into alternative transport such as buses, known as 'mode shift'.
The recommendations to begin the trial come after 65 submissions to the council about public transport plans.
In Greerton yesterday, bus passenger Mia Leonard said she wasn't convinced of a potential on-demand service, but felt it would be "really handy" for the elderly community.
Bay of Plenty Regional Council member Andrew von Dadelszen says more could be done to get more people onto buses. Photo / George Novak
An on-demand trial has already been held in Timaru and has since been adopted into the city plan, and earlier this year Hawke's Bay Regional Council began a similar trial.
Sub-committee chairman Andrew von Dadelszen said that while he was unable to speak specifically for or against the proposed trial before the hearing, he acknowledged people were "sick of seeing empty buses going around [in] the middle of the day".
Asked if the notion was essentially an Uber-like service for buses, von Dadelszen said "sort of, yeah".
Existing trials involve people using an app to book a small bus - such as a 12-seater - from a specific location, or nearby, to a specific destination, or location nearby.
Another option could be offering smaller buses using existing routes during the off-peak hours from 9am to 3pm, von Dadelszen said.
Such ideas, and any support for them, were expected to be discussed at today's hearing.
Von Dadelsezen said there were still far too few people using public transport, and that "we have to do something to break the cycle" of car reliance - not only to help free up the city's roads, but to also reduce carbon emissions.
In 2020, the Government mandated that from 2025, new buses must have zero emissions, with entire bus fleets in New Zealand having zero emissions by 2035.
Hawke's Bay Regional Council transport manager Katie Nimon said its trial began on June 7 with a pre-trial pilot, closed to a select group, starting on May 23.
The trial will run for a year in Napier and Hastings, but already there has been a staggering increase in bus patronage.
"The trial to date is a success by numbers, averaging 150 daily trips, an increase of over 60 per cent on pre-on-demand numbers."
Hawke's Bay Regional Council transport manager Katie Nimon. Photo / NZME
Last year, Environment Canterbury adopted an on-demand service into its Long Term Plan 2021-2031, following a successful year-long trial in Timaru - despite Covid-19 disruptions.
At the time, Environment Canterbury councillor Peter Scott said that before the trial there were about 190 people a day using the six-route service. That grew to more than 500 users a day and 6000 registered users.
A survey of these passengers found 90 per cent felt the on-demand service made public transport easier.
In a report to the sub-committee, Bay of Plenty Regional Council principal adviser of regional development Bron Healey said achieving mode shift was "the most important challenge facing the region".
But the transformational change needed would not come without cost.
Any future investment would "need to be scaled up significantly", he said.
Local government organisations were facing "a real affordability challenge" to provide the public transport services and infrastructure needed to achieve mode shift. There was a disparity between the Government's desired mode shift outcomes and the ability of local councils to fund this, he said.
Healey said the mode shift issue went hand-in-hand with reducing emissions amid climate change.
The transport sector made up the majority of emissions in Tauranga, the Bay's largest urban area. The success of mode shift would "go a long way to reducing transport emissions and mitigating our impact on the climate", Healey said.
A key objective of the sub-committee was to increase the number of people using public transport by at least 5 per cent by 2030, with zero tailpipe emissions from local buses by 2035. Embracing electric buses was seen as means to achieve this.
In the 2018 Census, public transport accounted for just 1.3 per cent of journeys to work in the Bay of Plenty, increasing only marginally in the last 20 years.
The Regional Public Transport Plan 2022-2032 was expected to tie in with the Urban Form and Transport Initiative's (UFTI) Connected Centres programme. This is essentially a long-term vision for the Western Bay sub-region catering for an expected 200,000 additional people, 95,000 new homes, and two million additional transport movements per day, within 30 to 70 years.
This vision aims for people to be able to access local social and economic opportunities within a 15-minute journey, and sub-regional social and economic opportunities within 30 to 45 minutes.
An implementation plan was expected to be developed to help deliver the recommendations in the plan.
Any decision on the proposed trial at tomorrow's meeting would still need to be considered for approval at a full Regional Council meeting.
What do you think of an on-demand bus service, like Uber? Would you use it?
Fraser Brodie. Photo / Mead Norton
"I use the buses already and they are an excellent service. They go past the street every half-hour or so, just like they should. I never use Uber, I have no need for them."
Fraser Brodie, 69 Ōhauiti
Ivor Wilson. Photo / Mead Norton
"Probably. It sounds good. It would better suit my lifestyle."
"It wouldn't work. I like the reliability of [fixed times] and knowing a bus is arriving then. There's a lot of elderly people here too that would probably want that same reliability."
