The Wrong Side of my Car

The blog that wants to go obsolete

27 Mar 2019

Highbury: bypass or not?

Bus line 97 (formerly known as 973 and 974) has an awkward dog-leg via Highbury Corner.

This is so slow. Why not go straight? There’s all the speed bumps, and corners, and sometimes you get this:

So to avoid buses running late too often, timetables get padded. I overheard someone asking the bus driver for how long he would wait before getting on the bus at Highbury. Ugh.

I noticed a small workaround is already in place: city bound buses are now allowed to turn right onto Onewa Road from the left lane, so they can bypass cars waiting to turn right in the morning. But still.

Bypass or not?

It is a tempting idea to bypass the town centre, saving the detour via Highbury Corner.

First: do you know what that road looks like in the morning?

But also:

How do I go to Birkenhead?

There still has to be a bus stop somewhere. But where?

Mokoia Road sits on a ridge and the bypass road dips off the side of that ridge, to about 15 metres below the elevation of Birkenhead Square (ask any cyclist). From most of the bypass the slope would not allow an “easy walk” to the bus stop.
On the south side you’re looking at the butt end of a mall, and the bottom of a retaining wall. This is not an inviting place to walk.
And what about the other side? That is a steep drop into a gully, which are so typical for that area. This is never going to be an interesting place to wait for a bus.

I think the only feasible places for the stops are the blue dots below. The rightmost is placed so the bus from Glenfield can stop at the same stop. (That stop is currently a bit further out)

The red line is a walk between those dots via the town centre, and it is about 800 m. That means some shops will be 400 m from the closest bus stop.

A while ago there was a consultation about bus stops in Mount Eden. It was pointed out then that bus stops should be in the middle of a town centre and not on the edge.

What would 800 m apart look like over there?

It would be an especially pointless thing over there, but the same issues apply in Birkenhead: it makes accessing the shops much more awkward, and you don’t usually have a lot of people around at the stops.

It is an inherent difference between public transport and cars: cars would ideally bypass town centres, but public transport can’t do this and still be useful.

On the other hand, most buses from Glenfield (now line 95) don’t go via the town centre. So maybe it is OK after all. It’d be interesting to figure out if this puts off many people from catching a bus to Birkenhead at all, or how many rather wait for the less frequent line 917 which stops on Birkenhead Avenue.

Parking

A little bit before Christmas I noticed spray painted markings on the street. These quickly turned into freshly minted angle parking. Right in time for the Christmas Parade.

And, you know…

It is especially daft to keep all this parking conveniently in the middle of the town (and to great detriment of Birkenhead Square), while moving bus stops out. Incidentally all that parking is still free of charge. That is a significant penalty for public transport compared to driving.

Now what?

Even here in Auckland we’ve seen and solved this problem many times before. The solution is on display literally a few 100 m down the road, and it has been applied successfully in many other town centres.

Maybe we don’t have to kick the bus out of the town centre.

In a related note, AT is consulting on bus lanes on the road to Glenfield. This really is a no-brainer, and while they’re at it they might as well extend it further towards Glenfield. The entire block between Eskdale Road and Coronation Road is often one long queue in the morning.