Dunedin’s bus service shows how not to do it

GOOD public transport is an essential feature of any city worth living in.

It’s not difficult. You provide services that are affordable, frequent (at least every 15 minutes), reliable and take people where they want to go. And you spend as much as is required to do this.

Dunedin’s system is a model of how not to do it. The new routes are often inconvenient and the services now less frequent.

Your editorial (12.4.18) rightly highlights the problems faced by children from the peninsula.

But similar problems occur elsewhere. In my own district, buses run along Highgate only once an hour during the day, while many Maori Hill residents must now walk some distance to find a bus.

To make matters worse, buses come early or late and some not at all.

This is an embarrassment to those of us with visitors from properly organised cities.

Advice to the regional council: Don’t worry about a new bus hub and ticketing system. Just get the basics right.

Or face eviction from your comfortable offices at the next election. Greg Dawes

Dunedin

Just a suggestion

A BIG thankyou to Mayor Dave Cull for his action leading to the Dunedin City Council rescinding a proposal in the council’s 10year plan to charge an annual fee of $33 to ratepayers aged 75 years and over, and also charging a similar amount for disabled parking permits.

As the initiator of the original scheme in 2003, it is a profound relief to discover this was only a staff suggestion that was not intended to be advanced publicly via the longterm plan process.

Those permit holders who would have been affected can rest easy — it isn’t going to happen and the permits will continue to be free.

Neil Collins

Vauxhall ...................................

BIBLE READING: Through Him we have received grace and apostleship. — Romans 1:5.