Thursday 17 November 2022
A strong community response to survey questions about the future of Dunedin buses has delighted Otago Regional Council – with more than 1000 responses received in the first week.
“We’re delighted with the response. It shows how much the community values public transport in the city,” says Interim Transport Manager, Doug Rodgers.
The council has set a goal of more than doubling the percentage of commuters who use public transport from 3.4% (2018 figures) toward 8% by 2030.
To help achieve this goal, ORC wants to hear from the city’s bus users and non-bus users about the changes they want. The online survey is open until 24 November.
The work is being carried out as part of the Connecting Dunedin partnership which formed to make the most of the transport planning opportunities offered by construction of the New Dunedin Hospital.
“We’re targeting commuters and those making trips to education for this particular consultation. We want to hear from them the sort of changes which would encourage them to use the bus into the future,’ says Mr Rodgers.
“We’re asking specifically about fares and frequency of services as these are the places we can make the most meaningful gains,” he says.
The feedback and other information collected as part of a business case process will be used to develop a proposed plan to increase bus usage for commuters to work, school, polytechnic and university. The aim is to reduce carbon emissions from single occupant vehicles with a realistic and fundable plan.
The YourSay survey takes about 5 minutes to complete.
“We’re wanting to find the changes that need to be made to the current timetabled services to better accommodate work and school start and finish times, remove gaps and standardise frequencies.”
“We’re also looking at which routes would grow their peak patronage the most from making them more frequent, and how those changes could be staged. We will also be looking at which fare structure would attract more passengers, more often,” says Mr Rodgers.
“The survey is open for one more week and we encourage people to participate so they can help build the future of public transport in the city,” says Mr Rodgers.
The work is being carried out as part of the Connecting Dunedin partnership (Dunedin City Council, Waka Kotahi NZTA, ORC and Te Whatu Ora Southern), which formed to make the most of the transport planning opportunities offered by construction of the New Dunedin Hospital.