It’s best to go by bus on World Car-Free Day
Bus driver Helen Best knows most of the customers on her route through New Plymouth – but on Friday she was seeing passengers she’d never seen before.
To mark World Car-Free Day, which aims to get people out of their vehicles, all services in Taranaki were being run free of charge yesterday and today, and people who hadn’t got on board for years were seeing a different way of travelling.
Best, who has been a bus driver for three years and loves the job, was driving route number one between New Plymouth city centre and the outer suburb of Moturoa, a round trip which takes roughly 25 minutes.
Best greets every passenger and not one person forgets to thank her as they hop off, with most knowing her by name. She’s quite at home on her Citylink Bus, with the radio tuned to MoreFm’s lunchtime programme and a couple of children’s paintings on display in her cab.
Two teenage girls get on and sing along to the music, making the atmosphere aboard relaxed and happy.
Best said it was great to be able to give passengers a lift for free, especially when they are prepared with money and she tells them the good news.
‘‘I love it, they love it,’’ she said. Earlier she had driven a group of youngsters whose school would not normally be able to afford to pay for the journey.
‘‘Schools actually have to put that into their budget,’’ she said over the sound of MoreFm.
‘‘The kids were just beside themselves, they loved it.’’
According to Taranaki Regional Council, which operates the region’s bus services, more of us are getting on board. In August, 70,899 people used buses in Taranaki compared to 63,229 during the previous year, although no study has been carried out why.
‘‘It’s an ideal opportunity to reward our regular passengers and to encourage more people to give the buses a go.’’ Chris Clarke, Taranaki Regional Council
Taranaki’s bus services cost $2.6 million a year to run with fares covering 38 per cent of the costs. The rest of the funding – 52 per cent – comes from the New Zealand Transport Agency.
‘‘The bus service does not run at a profit. There are very few instances of any public transport services that do,’’ Chris Clarke, Transport Services Manager for the Taranaki Regional Council, said.
Clarke described Car-Free Day, which is celebrated in 46 countries, as a way of encouraging more bus users.
‘‘It’s an ideal opportunity to reward our regular passengers and to encourage more people to give the buses a go,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s better for the planet and it’s better for the user in terms of the exercise you get walking to and from the bus stop, the money you save on car running costs and parking, as well as the chance to socialise with others in your neighbourhood.
‘‘And the more people that use the buses, the better we can make the service, as part of taking Taranaki forward.’’
Among the regular bus users is Fraser Clark, who was waiting for his ride at the stop on Ariki St.
He said he caught the bus ‘most days’ and didn’t own a car. He relied solely on buses and walking and thought World Car-Free Day was great for the community.
Although today’s journey was free, Clark said he was usually happy to pay. ‘‘It gets you there, that’s all that matters,’’ he said.