A bus around the city

Press, 27 July 1976, Page 16

A bus around the city

For as long as Christchurch has had a public transport system, the system has been designed to carry people between the suburbs and the centre of the city. As the city has grown outwards a number of new and distinct communities have been added to the old suburban—or borough—communities. New patterns of transport have been one result. The tourneys of a large number of people from their homes to their jobs, shops, schools, and even entertainment are no longer from suburb into central Christchurch, but from one suburb to another.

The Christchurch Transport Board’s experimental shopping centres’ bus service is the first major departure from having all public transport routes directed through Cathedral Square, and it is probably timely recognition that, as Christchurch has grown in size, its structure has become more complicated. Simple public transport

routes, radiating like wheel spokes, cannot meet everybody’s needs. The new service will, presumably, be used most frequently by people living along or near to the route to get to a nearby shopping centre. But it may enable people who have hitherto relied on private transport to begin using public transport for other purposes, such as travelling to work, or visiting friends. The present bus routes are not attractive to many people who want to move regularly between one suburb and another. Travelling along the wheel spokes is tiresomely timeconsuming. The new sendee is a risky venture, but it is likely to attract more patronage if the board allows people to use it in conjunction with one of the established routes which lead into the Square. A transfer ticket system might make the difference between the new service’s being a financial success or failure.