Shoppers’ Bus Deserved More Support

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30633, 26 December 1964, Page 12

Shoppers’ Bus Deserved More Support

Although the decision to abandon the shoppers’ bus service was probably unavoidable because of the lack of public support, the failure of the venture is regrettable. If public transport is to make any useful contribution to easing traffic congestion it must be ready to experiment with such ideas. The Christchurch Transport Board should not be discouraged if shoppers, for whom the special bus could have been a great convenience, perversely declined to ride on it, preferring to walk or to hop from parking meter to parking meter. Perhaps the service was ahead of its time and may be welcomed in another five years. Perhaps the route was wrongly planned. Or it may be that a different service for shoppers could be provided by better utilisation of the many buses that now run up and down Colombo street from Moorhouse avenue to Armagh street. What would encourage people to ride two or three blocks on them? Anyone who can answer that question would deserve the gratitude of the Transport Board and the City Council.

Just as important a question is when, or how, public transport can expect to attract greater patronage from commuters. Probably it will not be answered until Christchurch is a very much bigger city than it is today; but if the Transport Board has an idea as promising as the shoppers’ bus it should not hesitate to give it a trial. It should not overlook any opportunity of meeting a public need for longdistance metropolitan travel, and it should be alive to the need for obtaining and holding traffic rights. Auckland has already reached the stage of planning exclusive lanes for public buses.