Inner city Dunedin is NOT a freaking circus or Disneyland.
Obviously, the bozos at ORC/DCC think differently.
Here is something CHEAP-NASTY-like:
Troughing consultants, transportation planners and those who purport to be ‘urban design’ from both councils appear to be barely out of grade school —my god, it shows (see video).
PRIMARY SCHOOL
Colouring in, by non-learned non-contextualists —who manage do it so very BADLY. This is absolute proof that Landscape Architecture at Dunedin is DEAD, BANKRUPT and bloody SMELLY. My cardboard box of pet maggots could design “the interchange” better. They could: swiftly, cleanly, without the disease that is ‘the carnival-scathed’ at local government.
Junior short-term work experience only, no proven local body management expertise or ‘factory floor’ experience whatsoever, now make for ‘team leader’ placements at Dunedin. That’s how tragic the workpool is. Low shoulder-tapping at the tertiary institution is no substitute for a smart council workforce, not that we have a hope in hell of attracting one.
Business leaders need to Take Dunedin!
By Storm, from the doughbrains at local government.
But Business leaders, Entrepreneurs and Investors now have the Largest, most IMMENSE PROBLEM.
At this un-populous sinking town :
At the productive, growth-generating Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes :
THERE IS NO AFFORDABLY SAFE AND SECURE POWER SUPPLY
None! This is All down to leaders, councillors, directors and executives at DCC, DCHL, Delta and Aurora.
And ORC/DCC think the sorry ratepayers and residents can afford an improved, convenient and efficient bus system. Ho. Ho. Ho.
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Apart from or because of the buses making losses….
Clearly, the proposed changes to the bus system are NOT designed to embrace the Accessible Journey —to enhance the experience of city travel for mobility impaired citizens.
The Regional Public Transport Plan 2014 and the Dunedin City Integrated Transport Strategy 2013 DO NOT anticipate the growth of Uber, new technology or ‘other’ vehicular modes of travel, or indeed anything that is the future of transport at (Our Place) Dunedin.
The proposed changes are NOT subject to ANY ECONOMIC STUDIES to safeguard businesses, vehicle users, and the users of public transport, city-wide. None! So Predictable. So Deficient. So Grossly Negligent.
Coloured road markings, a Fun Distraction when there’s a MASSIVE POWER BLACKOUT at Dunedin.
*Note: DCC does not have a spare ONE BILLION DOLLARS in the bank to right Aurora/Delta’s wrongs.
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The Otago Regional Council says:
Dunedin Bus Interchange (hub)
Dunedin’s public transport is changing. Since the adoption of the Regional Public Transport Plan (RPTP) in 2014, Otago Regional Council (ORC) has been rolling out network wide changes to create an affordable and connected public transport system in Dunedin. While many of these changes focus on implementing direct and stable bus routes with regular frequencies, we are also looking to improve the accessibility of the bus services, information, and infrastructure. As part of these changes we are providing a bus interchange (hub) in the city centre to make your bus journey better.
█ To find out more and how to make submissions, go to http://www.orc.govt.nz/Information-and-Services/Buses/Bushub/
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There are several things the ORC can do immediately to signal its serious intent in improving services to its ratepayers. (ODT)
### ODT Online Wed, 7 Dec 2016
Editorial: Bus hub challenges
OPINION Public transport is essential in any major centre and now Dunedin faces its own challenges with the release of the long-awaited central-city bus hub plans. The Otago Regional Council is seeking community feedback on the hub planned for Great King St, near the central police station. It includes five parking bays on each side of the street. […] The idea of a Great King St hub cannot be taken seriously if people are going to be forced off one bus and on to another in quick time. […] Dunedin’s central area is the Octagon and the regional council needs to recognise the need to keep buses flowing through the Octagon.
Read more
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Bus hub part of $3million transport project, including “super stops”. 38 car parks lost from Great King St between Moray Pl and St Andrew St.
### ODT Online Mon, 5 Dec 2016
Dunedin bus hub details released
By John Gibb
The Otago Regional Council has unveiled its long-awaited central Dunedin bus hub plans and is seeking community feedback. The bus hub, also termed the “bus interchange”, is, as previously signalled, in Great King St, near the central police station. It includes five parking bays on each side of the street. […] The size and style of bus shelters are partly dependent on public feedback, and also on any negotiations required with owners of nearby land, to be undertaken early next year. It is also proposed to use paints or other coloured materials, including on part of the street, to give the hub area a more lively appearance.
Read more
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
This post is offered in the public interest.
What if? Dunedin... 
Still feeling ‘green’ and queasy.
At one point in time someone was hunting down Mr Harland. What changed. Guess.
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Thu, 8 Dec 2016
ODT: Transport group linking projects
The Otago Regional Council is continuing to take part in a “Connecting Dunedin” group that promotes an “integrated approach” to Dunedin city transport-related projects. ORC chief executive Peter Bodeker told an ORC meeting yesterday he was involved in the group, headed by Dunedin City Council chief executive officer Sue Bidrose, and including NZ Transport Agency Jim Harland, which aimed to show how “transport-related projects” fitted together in a “consolidated picture”. Cont/
There is someone on the ratepayers’ payroll who thinks it’s a worthwhile use of increasing debt to paint tarseal in swirls of cutprice polyester clothing colours. Please, that person, go home and repaint the kiddies’ bedrooms, in your own time with your own paint. Get it out of your system before coming back to work.
I’d see the point of colour if it were to assist people with reading & English language difficulties, and those with limited sight. Consistent “orange circle on bus and on bus stop means Route A, blue means route B” could be functional assistance. Magnetic colour labels on buses wouldn’t be hard to swap according to where that vehicle was heading.
Naffing up the city for no reason other than job creation for the already overpaid relative to their talents – NO!
Fri, 9 Dec 2016
ODT: Positive feedback at bus hub sessions
More than 150 people have attended the Otago Regional Council’s bus hub “drop-in” sessions in the Civic Centre lobby since they started on Tuesday. Cont/
█ [belated briefing] More “drop-in” sessions will continue at the lobby each day from 10am to 2pm until Monday.
Ironically, DCC staff have just been told to model themselves on Disneyland “cast members”.
We refuse to pay for the costumes!
DCC Official Information 2016
Parking Meters LGOIMA 275597 (PDF, 66.6 KB)
Request from Hamish McNeilly Fairfax Media 02/11/2016
Do they speak for us all… (this feels like SPOKES and the cycleway consultations) – only a small number of submissions received by ORC (est. 200, full count not completed). Most people you speak to, of all ages and backgrounds, who are dependent on buses and feel unhappy with the current bus system just want frequent trips and to regular destinations in the suburbs as well as into the heart of the central city ie George St, Octagon and Princes St – and digital readout of the next bus coming! The deadline for public submissions (24 Dec) was a FARCE.
Oh hai, Mr Gerard Collings.
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Fri, 30 Dec 2016
ODT: Bus group wants hub halved
A Dunedin bus users’ support group is backing a proposed central bus hub but urges a “radical reduction” in its size and better protection against wet weather. […] The ORC has suggested a bus hub design involving five bus stops on either side of a Great King St block near the central police station. In its submission, Bus Go suggests a “half hub” of about three stops on either side would be “half the price”, “twice as good for users”, and therefore “four times the value for ratepayers”. Cont/
At Facebook:
This most recent decline is likely to be due to the recent routes changes which have inconvenienced a great many bus users.
The proposed new Bus Hub in Great King Street is also controversial due to the the likely disruption at Central City intersections, caused by buses making the many turns required to reach the Hub.
Agree. The whole idea and location of the hub is not essential. Most people would benefit from improved routes and greater frequency of rides on a number of the routes. Digital readouts at stops also handy given the simplicity of the technology to achieve this. Providing smaller buses/shuttles appears to be in the too hard basket.
Why should the provision of smaller buses be in the too hard basket? I would have thought that it would have been obvious, the more so now with the declining numbers using them. Once again it proves that bureaucrats move in wondrous circles to fill in their days. The bus use trends have been in place for many decades, one would think someone would waken to the fact by now. I even had a quick ‘shiver’ when the DCC spoke of taking the services back under their wing a year or two back. That would be the final nail in my opinion. Let the ORC have them as they have an amount of money that can be wasted. Port Otago is the one that gives the ORC wings. Just look at the fact that they poured into the Stadium $37million without so much as a tremble.
The hub seems to be one of those leave a legacy / bullet point for CV initiatives, or perhaps something that works in cities with enough population to support high use of buses. Like roundabouts, it’s not something to be lightly inserted into existing city layouts, no matter how trendy.
The bus is, I suspect, old technology. Near empty buses don’t fit “greenness” any better than one-person private transport – and at least that is driven from start to destination by the most direct route.
Uber – transport when and where you want it – looks more like the future. Small “people movers” too, whether privately or company or public owned, picking up and dropping off their passengers in the most route-efficient way, like the pickups too and from the airport.
It will be a while before everyone has a device with which to contact the service and receive updates on time of arrival or delays if any, but it’s getting closer fast. Route changes have encouraged many of the least IT-ready customers to change their behaviour since they can’t get where they want to go without first going where they don’t want to go. By eliminating their use of “public” transport the field is clear for the connected generations (which, by the way, includes a good many elderly to ancient people) to access new flexible replacements of the old coach and horses.
Christchurch City has a new “interchange” (hub), one with a very large design flaw for practical bus driving…. google.
The ‘design flaw’ I was hinting at is that the buses have to back out of terminal bays…. there were initial issues (hopefully past tense) with the automated dispatch system causing a series of bus crashes not long after the interchange opened.
Described here:
Last updated 16:58, June 17 2015
13 crashes at new Christchurch bus interchange
Bus drivers are blaming a “complete flop” of an automation system for 13 bus crashes at Christchurch’s new bus interchange.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/69457515/13-crashes-at-new-Christchurch-bus-interchange
Last updated 15:41, July 7 2015
Accidents ease at Christchurch Bus Interchange
Safety concerns about the operation of Christchurch’s new bus interchange have been parked after a spate of accidents. Shortly after the $53 million exchange opened on May 25, 13 accidents were recorded, prompting the Amalgamated Workers’ Union (Awunz) to criticise the facility’s design. Bus drivers blamed an automation system for minor collisions that caused about $5000 worth of damage to vehicles. Two of the crashes were bus-to-bus collisions, while six crashes involved a reversing bus hitting a temporary fence. Four involved buses hitting a bollard, a bus also struck the right side of the bay when reversing. Environment Canterbury (ECan), the organisation that runs the city’s bus network, cited driver error for accidents that dented rear panels, broke windows and rear-vision mirrors. Awunz assistant secretary Lindsay Chappell likened the interchange to a “dodgem track” because exiting buses competed for space when released by the computerised dispatch system.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/70031190/accidents-ease-at-christchurch-bus-interchange
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November 30, 2015
[Human Transit blog post] Christchurch: A New Transit Hub
….Most North American transit operations people would say that you should never have to back up a bus in normal service; it’s just too cumbersome and dangerous. To be fair, here they’re backing into a bus-only roadway, where only trained drivers should be present. Each driver also has a screen in front of them showing what’s behind them. At first, though, it looked like they could have close calls, such as here between the two blue buses, one backing up as the other passed it….. It will be interesting to see whether other agencies look to these pull-in-back-out bays — and the dynamic bay assignment — as a way to make transit hubs more compact, so that they fit better into the centre of things, where transit needs to be.
http://humantransit.org/2015/11/christchurch-a-new-transit-hub.html
See this comment to the blog (and photos) where the design of the hub is explained by one of the design team:
Smithcorptweet December 1, 2015 at 4:42 am #
http://humantransit.org/2015/11/christchurch-a-new-transit-hub.html#comment-66133
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A recent review at Architecture Now from my email lists, with more photos:
23 Feb 2016
http://architecturenow.co.nz/articles/christchurch-bus-interchange/
I am not sure what a big bus hub station is likely, or meant, to achieve. Does anyone know? I presume they figure it will increase bus patronage. How, exactly?
I think it is to facilitate the same as Green Islanders now face when they want to go to South Dunedin. Travel into Dunedin, then take another bus out to South Dunedin, instead of the old way where the Green Island bus went through South Dunedin.
A Hub means all the buses from every part of town come into the middle of town by more direct routes than at present, then people catch another bus to go where they want to go. It’s like the hub of a bike wheel, logical up to a point except if you want to go a hand’s breadth around the tread of the tyre you’re up for a longer journey and more hassle, and unless the bus back to the tyre is leaving a couple of minutes after you arrive at the hub you get to hang around at the special Hub Hanging Around Centre. Which, after a few months of being a meeting place for uncouth non-travellers, will be “improved” to resemble bus shelters of recent design by removing seating and providing no shelter from bitter wind and driving rain.
As I understand it, transportation systems are ideally radial…..as in outward/inward spokes….as well as across town routes.
There will always be pockets where folks miss out and I’m not sure how you rectify this.
In our part of town the Roslyn /Maori Hill bus passed through City Rise on a more roundabout route. Now it goes straight up Rattray St from downtown and misses out Serpentine Ave, Canongate, Russell St and Arthur St.
This doesn’t particularly worry me….just a couple of extra blocks to walk….but maybe older people will find this difficult. (I walk to town most times anyhow). I know of one rather fit 90 year old who now has to catch a taxi home.
Wed, 18 Jan 2017
ODT: Proposed bus changes upset Mosgiel residents
Mosgiel resident Lynne Hill is concerned a planned bus stop change, linked to Dunedin’s proposed central bus hub, will make it harder for Mosgiel residents visiting Dunedin Hospital for medical appointments. […] Mrs Hill said this meant Mosgiel passengers would face “a downgrade in service”. Cont/
Finally, good news for bus users!
[forget the proposed bus hub at Dunedin – it’s a dead loss]
Sat, 15 Apr 2017
ODT: Bus tickets go high-tech
By John Gibb
A new ticketing system for buses will be introduced in Dunedin and Queenstown next year and will mean a “quantum leap” in technology, and benefits for bus users. Otago Regional Council support services manager Gerard Collings made that point about the new, more flexible and more fully computerised public transport ticketing system. He was commenting after a consortium, comprising the Otago Regional Council and eight other councils, recently announced the planned new ticketing system would go ahead between January and June next year. Cont/
● ORC, Invercargill and Nelson city councils and the Northland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Horizons, Hawkes Bay, and Taranaki regional councils are the other members of the consortium.
● After competitive tendering, the ticketing contract had just been awarded to INIT, an international transport technology provider with extensive experience in “ticketing and transport solutions worldwide”.
● The new tag-on, tag-off card system will be rolled out by June next year, on the public transport networks administered by the councils. Passengers will be able to check their balances and top up the credit on their cards online.
At Facebook:
Beware the high tech ‘feature’. It’s very easy to market these to public authorities who can then brag about being up to date, even ‘leading-edge’.. But they may not be the best use of available funds. Despite a lot of people thinking this kind of stuff is fun and cool, there are huge pitfalls, like bugs, breakdowns and high cost; http://www.cnbc.com/2016/10/25/spending-on-smart-cities-around-the-world-could-reach-41-trillion.html
In Dunedin, any high tech clip-on to existing the public transport system runs completely past the obvious fact that mostly empty big buses are being run most of the time on most routes. Maybe fix that first, even though it involves changing the present (stupid) law about public transport provision.
“Beware the high tech ‘feature’.” O dear. Diane, how did you get to be so skeptical?
Perhaps you’ve been in a shop and they couldn’t serve anyone who wasn’t paying cash because their eftpos was down……..
Ahem. Old (safe) news.
Real time digital bus information proves a hit with Londoners
01 December 2011
New up-to-the-minute bus arrival information has already been accessed by millions of Londoners since being made available via the internet, on smartphones or text messages last month.
“Our early figures are enormously encouraging and show passengers are genuinely benefiting from being able to predict exactly when their bus will arrive. This simple idea is making bus users journeys even more reliable.”
https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2011/december/real-time-digital-bus-information-proves-a-hit-with-londoners