Tauranga teens present public transport ideas to council - get adopted into panel group

Tauranga Boys' College students Harry Perry and Lucas Daum, both 13, have big plans for the city's public transport network. Photo / George Novak

Bay of Plenty public transport leaders have been told by young contributors to a formal council meeting that the current bus system is not working — but they have the solution.

Tauranga Boys' College students Harry Perry and Lucas Daum have been adopted into a public transport panel where their young voices will be heard by key decision-makers.

Harry and Lucas, both Year 9 students, presented to the region's Public Transport Committee in Thursday's meeting and revealed a pitch for an app they believed could address existing issues such as late buses.

They told councillors the Tauranga and Western Bay public transport system was outdated and not operating as best it could.

Harry said: "We are unhappy with the service provided ... today we are going to show you why the current setup is not satisfactory.

"Service is unreliable ... some buses don't even appear as scheduled. Some are meandering around town. Not only that, some places are over- or under-serviced or not serviced at all. Just imagine, on a daily route over 100 buses are going to CBD to transport what?"

Harry told the meeting there were just 2200 people on a daily basis "while the population in Tauranga and the outskirts is almost 200,000".

"This adds up to transporting just 1.3 per cent of our population. This comes far below international standards. Even in Vienna, they transport 75 per cent of the population."

Lucas said the city's hub was located in the CBD where "barely anyone goes to anymore", yet it was where the region's public transport network operated out of; while it might have made sense 30 years ago, when the population and urban sprawl was smaller, it no longer suited the needs of locals, he said.

Instead of a network operating like a spider's web with the CBD in the middle, it needed to function more as an orbiter system that better focused on the region's suburbs and urban centres, Lucas said.

The pair proposed an app called Hop It, which would work similarly to the Transit app already used in the region "but with many improvements", Harry said.

The boys also proposed simplifying fares and schedules and also reassessing the location and numbers of bus shelters and stops.

Several councillors thanked the boys for their presentation before councillor Lyall Thurston made a motion for Harry and Lucas to be adopted into the Western Bay of Plenty Public Transport Community Panel.

Chairman Andrew von Dadelszen initially protested, saying there were too many people already, but the motion was carried — meaning both boys will add their voices to the discussion on public transport issues.