Public transport challenge: Use Bay of Plenty buses while they are free

Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Tauranga City Council elected members Stacey Rose and Heidi Hughes are challenging people to get on buses while they're free. Photo / George Novak

The incredible success of free buses with school students in Tauranga has so far failed to be replicated with older age groups.

Now, two elected members are issuing a challenge in a bid to change people's mindsets about public transport.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council buses have been running fare-free across the region since the Covid-19 lockdown began. The buses will remain free to passengers until July 27, when a new ticketing system takes effect.

However, Tauranga City Council's Heidi Hughes and regional council's Stacey Rose were concerned that despite the free buses, not enough people seemed aware or interested in using them.

Hughes and Rose, who are members of the Bay of Plenty Public Transport Committee, have called on Bay leaders and residents to catch a bus for free at least four times during July.

Prizes were being organised to help entice people into the challenge, but Hughes said there were many other benefits for people including financial, health and environmental.

Hughes said the next four weeks offered the chance to change people's car-first mindset and potentially help improve the bus network by showing the interest is actually there.

"It's the chicken and egg situation, people aren't going to be interested if they see empty buses all the time."

Rose said the next month also allowed the councils to have a benchmark of public transport use to work from when considering future options and investment.

There are plenty of fare-free buses operating in the Bay of Plenty but not enough people using them, some say. Photo / File

"We've got to be able to give something a go. We are in times where things are different, things are changing. We need to give this a try," he said.

Rose said children approaching a new sport often had no hesitation, so he hoped people would adopt the same attitude with travelling on buses.

Tauranga and Western Bay mayors Tenby Powell and Garry Webber were among the first to sign up to the challenge.

Powell said he was a "huge bus user" when living in Auckland and looked forward to the Bay of Plenty challenge.

"Of course, it's different in Tauranga ... it will be a good experience to get to know that."

Powell said the city had a long way to go with public transport but engendering behavioural change was a crucial part of getting there.

Webber said he fully supported Hughes' efforts and gladly accepted the challenge, hopeful the city council would become motivated to better invest in the bus network.

Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick said she would make an effort and encouraged all of the city's elected members to do likewise. With bus services free of charge, now was a great time for people to use public transport, she said.

Last July, the regional council agreed to fund a year's trial of a citywide free school bus fare scheme in Tauranga for students. The decision, adopted into the regional council's 2019-20 annual plan, followed six months of a free school bus trial already in place for Welcome Bay students.

This year, student travel increased by about 75 per cent in February and 100 per cent in the first two weeks of March, compared to the same time periods in 2019.

The regional council was contacted for comment on how much money had been spent on advertising the fare-free buses, how many people have been using them, and what had bus driver feedback been, but did not respond before deadline.

• More information can be found on the Bay of Plenty July bus challenge Facebook page before July 1.